I had an amazing night’s sleep last night. I didn’t wake up once and the power was on the entire night until 5am.
Today our agenda said we would leave at 8am. I knew that wouldn’t happen and so didn’t even go to look for the driver until 8:15…pretty good for me who is chronically early. (Looking for the driver literally means looking over the veranda onto the parking area below.) As I suspected he wasn’t there yet. The power was on and the internet connection was actually quite fast so I was able to catch up on work emails. We eventually left the hospital around 9:30am.
It was a short drive to the village of Bossan. Today was their monthly vaccination post. Every village in the district should have monthly vaccination posts held by a Health Agent (Agent de Sante). The Health Agent gives vaccinations (polio, DTP, BCG, and rubella) and vitamin A, while the monitrices monitor nutrition status (based on a standardized weight for age chart). Currently only a few of the 100 something Health Agents are being paid and so most vaccination posts have nobody there to give vaccinations. Bossan’s Health Agent is a cheerful man and was very excited that we came to visit him. He explained all the procedures to me and I got to weigh some kids! All in all I was pretty impressed, but it scared me that he was recapping needles.
(Picture: Agent de Sante filling out a child’s health card. This child was referred to the hospital for aneamia.)
(Picture: Felicia weighing a child)
The rest of the day wasn’t so productive. There was a hospital meeting (which apparently did not go so well and resulted in doctors fighting with the hospital director and people walking out) and nobody was around. Eva was out sick again which incapacitates me because she’s the only one of the 4 CNP girls who knows how to do any of the things I’m supposed to be doing. We were supposed to do the salary checks today (due on the 20th which is a Sunday, so essentially due tomorrow because Friday is a holiday!), but I couldn’t find the checks and I’m not too clear on the procedure for submitting them. Plus, I’m not going to be here tomorrow because I have to go to Port-au-Prince. Oof.
So to occupy myself I did some reading, visited the hospital kids, learned how to make some amazing fried plantains from Marialene (the Cuban nurse), practiced Kreyol with the guest house cook, studied some French and Kreyol, and made soup.
The soup looks disgusting, but it actually tastes pretty good once you get over the fact that it’s black (despite the fact it has no black beans in it). I was excited to find mushroom bouillon that ended up looking like charcoal. I used it anyway even though it seemed pretty nasty and voila! Black soup. It turned all the vegetables a brownish-grey color too. Yummy.
