Who delivered your baby? Was it me ?

August 1

We had a meeting with the Matrons today who came together for their monthly reunion at the beginning of each month. They came together—both men and women— for this meeting. Matrons is the essential Haitian-Creole term for “Midwife.” These women and men were packed into this meeting room. At the beginning of each month, they are given additional supplied and 50 Gourdes (Haitian currency) for the needs. The 50 Gourdes and the additional supplies are also given by HAS. These Matrons or Matwons stay until the end of the meeting for the supplies. Some of which have been Matwons for decades. They seem to have part-time jobs on the side to supplement. As I gazed across the room, I saw young matwons who beamed with youth and old matwons who seemed so tired. The young matwons—as I later found out—delivered 9 children in the community. For her business was booming. Some delivered so many babies that they forgot their names of their clients and their children. As for the others, not so much. Maybe the busy matwons decided that it was a waste of their time. Regardless of this, I saw a new trend of fashion amongst the matwons: the church hat aesthetic. The women in the room had their church hats titled to the side, setting the trend for all of Haiti. They were a quite interesting group of individuals. I was most impressed by how passionate and humble they were when they received their items. Their meeting began with a prayer and a song of praise. These matwons meant business because they sat so seriously and listened intently! When asked to over their steps of how they deliver a baby: they stood up and went through step by step. When their peers heard something “out of the ordinary,” they stopped and said “Ki sa?” meaning “What?” Their peers were quality control. When the meeting coordinator pulled me talked to me to the side to ask them if their was anything that she need to mention in the meeting (that I felt should be mentioned) I told her my concerns. As my research comes to a close, I have been seeing a lot of neonatal cases with children who have infected umbilical cords, conjunctivitis, fever, and jaundice. All of which are preventable— some by the matwons and some not. Their area of concern should be the infected umbilical cords. There is a large percent of these deliveries that are being done at the homes of these mothers. There should be no reason or excuse as to why these umbilical cords are being infected. I could feel the room tense up when I told them that I have access to information about who are delivering these children. Part of my research is going to the root of the problem and addressing it. We need to be quality control for each other. We need to check the information of each other.

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All we need to do is walk

Now today was the first day of my work with Dr. Close. Doctor Close is no joke. See the other day, I was sitting down catching up on my blog and she needed help with her internet stick. She didn’t come to see me though. She came to visit a medical student whom she knew from way back in the day. She called me over to help saying “You are young, you know these kinds of things.” I spoke creole with the Pierre, a medical student, who comes to help on the weekends about the internet stick. Dr. Close’s eyes lit up ! She asked me if I speak Creole, I hesitantly said yes. And before you know it, I was engaged to provide my translation services for her. What did I do? I know what I did. I was going to be doing some translation services for Dr. Close. Dr. Close created the Diabetes Clinic for Hospital Albert Schweitzer and has been coming here ever since. She is no stranger to HAS ! She see over 60 patients a day, 80 even. Translation is such beautiful thing because I became the voice of medicine and the voice of the patient. I could feel my voice as a translator growing after time passed. What ever a patient felt, I had to vocalize it. Whatever the doctor suggested, I had to amplify it. I had to ask the tough questions and get difficult answers.

For instance, we had a patient who had a stroke in America, came back home to Haiti with a stomach that was rock hard. She could barely talk and was in great pain. Her children could not figure out what happened to her. My job was to figure out what happened to her and find out more information regarding when and where the stroke took place and determine what happened to her between the time she left America and returned back to Haiti. Her family was so concerned about her well-being was dedicated to guarding her health.

Some patients came to hospital for malnutrition, looking for something to eat. There is no food for them at the hospital either. These patients are hungry and often come back in weeks looking for more food. Access to medication is not easy for patients with HIV, finding that even if they have medication, sometimes only the first forty patients will be seen to be given access to refills for this medication. These HIV patients have little to no access to ARVs, the medication needed to help the size of the red blood cells. Specifically, this patient has HIV and suffers from Anemia. Double whammy. Anemia is manageable sickness in the US, but in Haiti, it is not. Not only does this patient have to chase after medicine for HIV, they need to find medicine for their anemia.

Another patient was bed stricken with typhoid fever and the only thing that could alleviate the pain was the him walking and allowing himself to move throughout the hospital. There was nothing else that he could do. I told him to do as the doctor advised. Sure enough, on my out of the hospital, I saw him walking around the hospital with his mother. Trying.

All we have to do is try. All we have to do it walk. No matter how hard or how difficult. We have to make a way through.

Another walkthrough of Deschapelles but with a Native

Because our housekeeper heard about our interests in exploring Deschapelles, she decided to take us to this new plaza that opened up near-by called “The Fantasy.” She said it’s a plaza that has a movie theater, beauty salon, barbershop, and a restaurant. When I translated for the housekeeper, everyone seemed interested but quite skeptical. They kept asking “Where is she taking us again,” hoping that the description of the place I kept saying would change. I believed that this place could exist. The members of this community need a place like this. Ms. Rosaline, our housekeeper smiled and waved at everyone in the community as we strolled through the community. When we arrived to the place, it felt like a palace. Although, it was still being built, it was complete. At this point, this entire place needed was the finishing touches! We ate popcorn and toured the place! Check out some photos below.

Deschapelles Walkthrough

On a Sunday we walked around Deschapelles to see everything! Here are a couple of photos.