Our Final Day: Camp Bel-Air

Our first treatment venue, Camp Bob, was one of our favorites and we hoped to end our trip with similar energy. After contacting the woman who runs Camp Bob, we were asked if we would provide acupuncture to another of her four tent camps.

On Wednesday morning we met with an assistant to the mayor, who escorted us to Camp Bel-Air. Like many areas of Haiti, access to this tent city required 4-wheel drive.

Under a large tarp, the camp set up chairs for treatments and the people started to pour in. When the chairs were full, people sat on the cement wall bordering the encampment. We treated patients, non-stop for close to four hours.

When we were packing up our supplies, a group of male leaders (including the mayor's representative), surrounded us and offered us many thanks for coming to Haiti and sharing our medicine.

Mountain Retreat

In addition to the Port au Prince home were we have been staying, our host has a small home in the mountains. A charming 71 year old man, he lived through the evolution of Haiti this past century. While growing up in PAP, the population was only 150,000. In the 1970's his home in PAP had electricity, running water, postal service and weekly garbage pick-up.

Now, bursting at the seams, PAP counts over 3 million residents. None of the above services are in place. People have cisterns for collecting rain and they must purchase potable water. Electricity exists within the city proper, but is intermittent. Garbage fills the streets, the streams and the rivers.

Over 40 years ago our host built a second home in the mountains which served as a summer retreat for he & his family. During the Embargo (and subsequent Coup), it wad a place to avoid the military violence.

Today, his children are grown and his wife is in the USA receiving medical care. The quaint stone cabin is not often occupied, yet it remains full of history.

Our troupe took the day off from Relief Work and ascended the mountain above Pétonville to Fort Jacques. This military structure remains fairly intact (canons et al), though a couple of its walls did crumble during the earthquake and its aftershocks.

Our host's home is walking distance from the Fort. We spent a long, relaxing day learning of the local flora & fauna, listening to personal stories, picnicking and discussing Haiti's past & hopeful future.

It was wonderful to take in the fresh mountain air, meditate in the quiet countryside and get a respite from the overbearing tropical heat.

Today is our last in Port au Prince. We head out to another tent city to treat and offer our final donations.

A Day in Lèogane

Yesterday our small group of acupuncturists traveled to Lèogane, a small city outside of Port au Prince which was at the epicenter of the January earthquake. It is estimated that 80% of the buildings there were destroyed.

Our first stop was a place called Mon Petit Village (my little village), originally created as a kindergarten for local children. After the earthquake it became one of the sites where neighbors camped after losing their homes. It now has a larger mission: education, housing, agriculture, water & community housing.

In the main house hangs a few paintings by a local artist, one of which depicted the story of Anacoana, Lèogane Queen.

As we all learned grade school, Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain In 1492 on a mission to establish an ocean trade route to India. Grossly underestimating the size of the earth, he instead came upon the Caribbean Islands. We remember he proclaimed the inhabitants if the Americas, Indians, a term still used today for the natives of this island. Once he realized he was not in India, Columbus named the Island and claimed it for Spain. As you can imagine, the locals weren't so hot on colonization, and a number of battles were fought.

And this is where I get to the story of Anacoana. After the death of her brother, Anacoana becomes chief. She is widely revered by her peopled. She decides to try to smooth out relations with the Spanish, by inviting them to feast in her honor. The Spanish suspected her husband of organizing revolts, so they took the invitation as an opportunity to stage a surprise attack. During the celebration, all present were massacred, save for their Queen, who was publicly hanged as a example. The Taino's (as the native called themselves) soon surrendered to the Spanish.

This same "royal city" once again looks like a war zone and the people of Lèogane--literally-- were hit the hardest.

Mon Petit Village has the advantage of lying on aeratable land. In addition to treating the adult & child residents with acupuncture for four hours, we as individuals made a few donations: rice, medical supplies and vegetable seeds to support the agricultural program. Thanks go to my patients for the generous donations.

Later in the afternoon, AWB visited another relief organization, Hands on Disaster Response (HODR). HODR volunteers provide a number of services including physical removal of concrete debris. This is a slow, arduous project in Haiti as it is almost exclusively done by hand. Their website can be found here: http://hodr.org

Wheel barrows are commonly seen being dumped into the street. The piles of broken concrete are everywhere, often blocking the road and preventing cars/motorcycles/ pedestrians from passing. Eventually, government vehicles are supposed to come haul the rubble away, but only once have we seen this during our stay.

At the HODR site in Lèogane, we treated relief workers exclusively. Young adults from all over the world, including some Haitian volunteers, were very receptive to the acupuncture. There were a number of emotional releases: these folks have seen a lot since beginning their work in February. All thanked us for coming.

I also wanted to share with you all this woman's blog: http://originalcreations.blogspot.com

General Hospital

It's no soap opera here. Nothing like ER or Gray's Anatomy either.

The Port au Prince general hospital is a public facility and, as such, reflects the serious lack of funding seen in road repairs, absence of running water and intermittent electricity.

On entering the hospital, one is struck by the odor of urine. The admitting area was full (8-10 people in beds), another half dozen in chairs. The rest of the facility is composed of 4 large cement
chambers with 24-30 beds.

The beds are a mix of old metal frame structures and newer relief cots. A single sheet covers the bed and the patient lies or sits prostrate, often with 2-3 family members attending. The family will feed, bathe, change linens, empty urine buckets and hold their loved one who attempts to walk, vomit or catch a breath. Most were barely clothed, as it was easily over 90 degrees inside. There was no air conditioning and the electricity was unpredictable, making the place quite dark at times.

At the hospital, we saw severe wasting: men & women bone-thin and frail. Some were near death. The nurses (usually one for the 25+ ill) would change IVs, catheters, insert ports and administer medication. A few physicians we saw making rounds.

There were no TVs, no morphine drips, no heart rate monitors. I saw a single ECG device and two computers. The hospital is in desperate need of supplies and a special request was made of us: to bring back stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs for the nurses and doctors.

Below is an image of the ambulance, with no medical supplies:

So to all my friends in the medical world, I ask that you dig through your old supplies and see if you have a spare stethoscopes. Others, perhaps you or a family member have an automatic arm or wrist cuff you no longer use? Deliver these items to my office in the next two weeks. If you are not local, write me and I'll get you an address for mailing. AWB's last team comes in August to complete training of Haitian medical staff on the use of ear acupuncture. Those cuffs & scopes can come on that trip.

Our wonder team treated under 100 patients, family & staff today, but it was as energetically demanding as in the camp due to the environment. The people were warm, mirthful, curious and kind.

In the last hour a sweet 8 year old boy reached up and grabbed the hand of one our team. His name, Kelly, a son of one of the Hospital staff. We gave him a pen & paper and he drew pictures for us as gifts to take home. He followed us around the hospital, clearly a regular fixture there, and raised our spirits after an emotionally tough day. Life and death, intertwined.

Camp Bob

On our second day in Haiti, we drove out to one of the tent encampments to treat patients. The camp was composed of around 2,000 people, living in tents. About half of them had tarps as shade & shelter from the rain.

Camp Bob, as it is called is nicer than some, in that USAID has provided them with tarps, drinking water cisterns and portapotties. The camp leaders said they were getting plenty of hydration, but not enough food.

In a small community shelter that served as a church, we offered acupuncture all day (about 5 hours). Women, men & children crowded into the little shack made of tree posts, corrogated steel & tarps until you could barely walk between them. Crowds waited outside in the hot sun.

In order to reach as many people as we can, the treatments are performed with patients sitting, "community style". We use a specified ear protocol, which serves many functions, limiting the need for history taking and maximizing our ability to treat many people. In total, we gave over 260 treatments yesterday: a record for AWB.

The Haitians displaced by the January earthquake were very receptive to acupuncture and expressed much gratitude at our coming. I was impressed by the laughter & smiles flowing from these who had lost so much. Though exhausted at the end of the day, we already felt as if our efforts were making a small difference.

First Impressions

First impression: Haiti as a country of warm, welcoming & friendly people.

As we disembarked from the plane, I heard live music coming from the building which serves as the airport. Passengers walked in neat, polite rows along a stairwell outside the building. Cracks could be seen running through the plaster, a quick reminder of why we were here. The small welcome band performers all wore Western Union shirts and their instruments were made from Western Union paperboard or stickered as such. In hindsight, a perfect advertisement, but to my naive mind: quaint.

Around the corner from the band, the illusion of order vanished as we entered customs.

Second Impression: Haiti as a chaotic place, where each person pushed foreword to get his/her needs met because there isn't enough for everyone.

Because we did know, nor were we comfortable with the pushing people (and we barely speak the language), my small group of doctors found ourselves at the end of the "line" for check-in by customs. The process was very, very slow. Add to this crowded room, 100% humidity and a summer downpour in process just outside. The sweating began.

Next, baggage check. Imagine 300 people each with their two 50# bags, two bag claim tracks (side by side) overflowing with luggage, no signs to differentiate the tracks, and 100 luggage carts in the crowd. In order to see if your bag is on the cart, you must push by people & carts & luggage & crying babies & people trying to come out. Now people start climbing on the moving tracks to fetch their bags. One or
two airport officials blows whistles, stops track. Pushing continues. Lots more sweating.

Our bags are located, but they are incredibly heavy-- having been filled with food, medical supplies, donations. We literally drag them outside, fighting off "red caps" (very insistent porters) until we are rescued by our host.

Third impression: Haiti a country of abject poverty and incredible resilience.

Departure

Six months ago, the world witnessed one of the greatest natural disasters to affect human civilization: the Haitian earthquake. As the death toll rose to 300,000 and those displace from their homes were counted in millions, There was a tremendous out poring of support. You couldn't buy a latte, without being encouraged to give something to the effort.

Volunteers poured into the small island nation to deliver emergency medical services and erect tent cities for the numerous without homes.

I was very moved by this event. Why this over others? Tsunamis, mudslides, fires- all painfully tragic in their own right. Still, something about this disaster reached inside and beckoned.

I began to research organizations with whom I could travel. I rallied friends, family and patients to join me in supporting a relief trip to Haiti. In spite of a growing recession, people were generous. $900 in cash was donated, bags of medication, hygiene products, orthopedic braces, and much more.

Large organizations such ad Doctiors Without Borders, Red Cross & Mercy Corps struggled with where to place a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist. After a number of months I finally found an organization with whom I could serve: Acupuncturists Without Borders. AWB sends its 8th team to Haiti today, I am part of that small group. I currently sit in the Miami International Airport trying to retrieve the very rusty French I learned in college. Departure for Port au Prince is just hours away.

Six months ago a earthquake of hit Haiti and devastated an already impoverished nation. In recent months you'd have to search hard to find word of the slow repair that country is seeing. Today, you'll find it in the headlines again, as President Clinton pays a visit and everyone asks the same question: where'd all the money go?

My journey will be smaller and less televised, but I suspect richer. Follow me as my AWB team visits hospitals, homeless camps and other relief sites. We'll be treating hundreds of patients daily with acupuncture. Our itinerary includes The General Hospital (same as seen on CNN this morning), Matthew 25 (a Catholic charity that now hosts one of Port au Prince's tent cities, the University, as well as other homeless encampments.

Please join me in this adventure.

Rebecca Provorse ND, LAc
glowhealthcare integrative medicine