I’m sleep deprived! For the past 2 nights the power has gone off at 1:30am. Yesterday it didn’t come back on until 9:30am. Today, it’s now 7am and still no sign of any electricity. It has been too hot and loud to sleep. Two nights ago there were about 30 dogs barking non-stop outside from 1:30am - 5:00am. They were also barking last night, but not for a constant 3 hours. Without a fan it’s too hot to be comfortable and the windows are not designed to let air in. I’m not sure what is going on with the electricity! I will try to investigate today. I’ll be sleeping on the veranda tonight if this happens again!
I did not have electricity at all yesterday until the evening and no water until 8pm when the pump generator got turned on. At 8pm I immediately washed all my dishes and jumped in the shower to wash off the sticky mixture of bug spray and sunscreen. I expected another cold, unpleasant shower. To my surprise the water was kind of warm, and then it was HOT!!!! It must be warm enough during the day now for the water in the tank to heat up. I can’t even tell you how happy I was. It was almost too hot! This was my first hot shower since I’ve been here. I felt so clean!!! There’s really nothing like hot water. It made my day.
Anyway, today started off bright and early. Beverlie, a monitrice who was actually working at the Ti Foye from yesterday (see pics from yesterday), came by my house at 7am. I knew she was coming so it wasn’t a surprise. I’m quite the morning person lately anyway, much against my will. Beverlie is 7 months pregnant with her first child. When my boss was here two weeks ago Beverlie had asked if there was anything that the CNP could do to help her financially with the baby. She estimates she will need about $600 (US) to cover the final pre-natal tests, having the baby in a hospital, and buying the essentials for the baby. This seems like a pretty accurate estimate to me based on what I know patients pay at this hospital. Ashley sent an email out to the CNP Board of Directors to see if anyone would be willing to support Beverlie. She’s a great monitrice and one of the sweetest people I’ve met here so far, so I’m happy that Ashley is trying to help her out. We’re still waiting to hear back from the board members. In the meantime Beverlie told me that the most urgent matter is that she needs an ultrasound which will cost 1250 gourdes or about $35 (US). (She even showed me the order for the ultrasound from her doctor. I would have believed her anyway though.) I wanted to give her the money, but I know that if I start doing that it’ll turn into a messy situation for me. So, I talked with Ashley and she agreed to give her the $35 for the ultrasound. (I’m to say it is from a board member). We’re also going to give her a breast pump so that she can breast feed exclusively and still work. Beverlie was so happy. We had some mango and chatted for a bit. I learned from her that some people think cats and dogs can be possessed with zombies and ghosts and so generally don’t let them in their houses. I think Pasha is free from zombies. The women who run the guest house let her in, so she must be safe. =)
I spent the rest of the day at the hospital and it has been hectic. I’m completely exhausted. In the morning there was a bad motorcycle accident. The patient arrived in a pick-up truck along with about 40 other people. He ended up being too critical to take care of here that he was sent in one of the hospital trucks to Port-au-Prince. We also had a little boy die last night. He was severely burned and malnourished on top of that. He seemed to be doing better so I’m not exactly sure what happened. It’s so sad.
The other kids are doing ok and I hope it stays that way. I learned how to make the enriched milk yesterday, where all the ingredients are stored, and how to distribute it. The two women who do this during the week are not there on weekends and the nurses can’t be bothered to lift a finger. So, I will start making the milk on the weekends until I arrange a schedule for the nursing students to come in and help out. I’m going to meet with them next week to give an overview of nutrition and what we do at the hospital (both of which I’m still learning!).
