Today was a LONG day. We got up early to prepare for the monthly monitrice (village health worker) meeting where everyone gets to touch base on what has been happening in terms of the village program over the past month and the monotrices get their monthly salaries. The meeting is held at a training center in the village of Darbonne about a ½ hour drive from Leogane. It took a while to get there today. We had to stop along the way to get the snacks for the meeting – crackers and Tampico (pure sugar drink). Everyone piled into the CNP truck; Ashley and me in the front seat, 4 people in the back seat, and the rest in the back of the truck. I was in the middle and every time Jean-Claude wanted to get into reverse or 4th gear I had to almost sit on Ashley’s lap.
We were pretty late by the time we finally go to Darbonne, but as I’m told, this is Haiti so we’re on Haitian time. Everyone who knows me knows that I hate being late…but I’ll have to get used to this again. When we got to Darbone all 36 monitrices were there so we were able to start right away. I talked first and then Ashley said a few things. I actually conducted the meeting, with the help of our interpreter Evans. Everyone understands French, but my French is definitely not at any level where I can actually conduct a meeting!
(Picture: entrance to Darbonne training center)
When we got back to the hospital and after eating lunch we did the rounds and attempted to get all the little things done that Ashley needed to do before leaving for the states tomorrow! We also went to check out the broken scales in the hospital. The nutrition kids should be weighed every day, but the girls told us that both scales were broken. Luckily, they weren’t actually broken. The problem was that they just weren’t using them properly. They didn’t know how to read the weight from the manual one and they weren’t putting the electronic scale on a solid surface. I guess the next step is to get them to weigh the kids now.
In the late afternoon Ashley wanted to introduce me to the doctors at the hospital, but everyone had left for the day. (All the docs, with the exception of 2, live in Port-au-Prince and leave the hospital around 1pm.) We did run into one of the surgeons. He gave us a tour of the radiology department (a broken x-ray machine) and the emergency department (a room with 4 beds in it). There was a women who had just popped out a little baby in there. She came into the hospital basically just as the baby came out. The baby was so cute!!! They had the mom just sitting on the bed in the same dress that she came in with. The doctor was telling us how they are in major need of supplies. Currently patients have to buy all their own supplies, including gloves for the doctors to use!
I can’t believe that Ashley leaves in the morning already!! I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the stuff I’m responsible for here. I think it is going to be absolutely amazing and frustrating at the same time. I’m hoping the adjustment phase goes smoothly!
