Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, April 25 at 10:04pm
Salut!!
Kiman ou ye? How are you? I hope that this finds everyone well!! I can believe that I am finishing my 8th week in Haiti already!! Two months is along time, and while sometimes it is hard to remember life before Haiti, the time here really does go by quickly as well and this week was no exception!
First of all, thank you so much for all of the Birthday and the get well wishes. After I slept all day on Monday, I really did feel much better. My housemates surprised me Monday night with a cake and small party, and I even managed to eat a piece with no problem – there was no way I was going to miss out on my birthday cake, stomach bug or not!!! It really was a good Birthday!

This week I really enjoyed being back in the antennas, even though I did miss my hospital patients. We had a really great week and I ended up staying there pretty much all week. I went into the community almost every day in the afternoon, which I really enjoy. It is really challenging to hike through some of the camps and see where and how people are living, but the people are so happy to see you and so welcoming. We found one man this week who had been a paraplegic for almost twenty years whose legs were in terrible shape, in fact I have never seen anything like it!! He had sores all over them and they were completely flat like they had melted into the bed. His knees are stuck completely straight and so he cannot even get up into a wheelchair, so he became my project for the week. Finally, on Friday I was able to get in touch with an American NGO that was willing to provide “transport” for the patient and they even called the University of Miami Field hospital and got them to agree to take him!! It was awesome. I was surprised when they arrived, to discover that the “transport” would be in the back of a pickup truck, but we are in Haiti and we ended up getting him there safe and sound, so . . . I will try to attach a picture of his family and the volunteers carrying him down out of the camp on a mattress – somehow he was living at the very top of the camp on the crest of the hill! Please keep him in your prayers now that he is at Miami Field Hospital, that the doctors and nurses will be able to help him.
This patient is living in a camp called Terrain ACRA, which used to be an industrial complex with several factories owned by a company called ACRA, hence the name. It is a HUGE camp with five different sections and thousands of people. We were there almost every day this week working with this patient and it was so neat to go back to the same place on a regular basis. I got to make contact with leaders of 3 of the sections and we arranged a big meeting with all the leaders of the five sections on Monday morning. They are going to gather all of the people with disabilities and injuries in the camp and we’re going to talk about what Handicap does and register them – it’s really exciting. I am a little sad that I won’t be there – I am going back to the hospital team next week. But, being in the camp regularly was such a great experience and I’m so glad that I had it. I was able to begin to navigate around the ca,p and recognize different people, families and the little kids – who all recognized me and even they were making fun of my accent!
Another highlight of the week was being able to give out wheelchairs. We finally received a shipping container with WHEELCHAIRS!!!! We had eight to give away to start with at my antenna, and it SO neat to be able to take them and be part of giving them to the patients. It was fun!!
This week was also exciting because our schedule is changing and we are transitioning out of the emergency phase of the mission, so starting this week we will only work half days on Saturdays and they will be devoted to training of the local staff: This week’s training was on our new assessment forms and the development of our database which will allow us to track all of our patients and their needs. It’s quite an amazing system but it will take quite a bit of work and diligence from everyone to make it happen. I got to give one of the trainings and even though it might not have been the most riveting topics, I think it was received quite well and I really enjoyed giving it too!! Let’s put it this way, no one fell asleep, which I think is pretty good for a Saturday morning. This coming Saturday is May 1st and is a national holiday in Haiti, so it will be a day off for us, but in two weeks there will be a training on doing a thorough patient assessment – so I volunteered to teach a group for that too, we will see =)
This afternoon, after church, I went with a bunch of my housemates and a couple of our local staff to do some souvenir shopping. The local staff was so great and helped us do a lot of bargaining. I ended up getting two paintings and some nice wood carvings. It was really fun, we ended up going all over town, but it was nice to see how much better I have gotten at recognizing different parts of the city and I was able to follow where we were going pretty much most of the time.
This coming week I am actually going back to the hospital team. I’ll spend three days (Mon, Wed, and Fri) helping out another expat at one of the big hospitals called Diquini, then on Tues and Thurs I’ll get to go and do some scouting at two new hospitals, which should be neat. This week I’m also trying to plan my little break. After two months we get to take four days off – woohoo!! If you would have asked me at the start, I would have told you that I probably wouldn’t need it – it’s only three months, but at this point I am really looking forward to a little break to recharge me for my last month. Anyway, if you could send up a little prayer that all my plans will come together I would really appreciate it. Apparently I was supposed to organize this two weeks ago, but I didn’t know, so now it’s all a little bit last minute =) Which probably won’t surprise most of you who know me, but it really wasn’t my fault this time!!
Well, that’s all for now!! I think I’m going to wrap this up and then head to bed early tonight – I’ve been terrible about staying up late and visiting with my housemates this week. It’s so fun, because I’m living with the neatest people from all over the world, but staying up late talking definitely wears me out by the end of the week! I hope all is well at home. Please know you are all in my thoughts and prayers!!!!!
Great big hugs!!! Bonne Nuit (Good Night)!!!