Friday, June 10, 2011

Haiti 2011

 The following is a chronicle of the time that I recently spent in the country of Haiti... My time there will never be forgotten... It was an experience that if given the chance, all should participate in... It was a collabo between The Family Health Ministries and the Duke Alumni assoc... I was invited by a good friend of mine who I grew up with and he is a Duke grad school alum...


I have purposely left most of the names of our team out because I am not sure how they would feel about me blogging about them... Not that I have said anything bad, but I'm not sure how I would feel about being in someone's blog...


I have now posted some of the pics from my trip.... 


They can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/audioguru67/sets/









First of all, if you go to the state department website, you will never go to Haiti… They talk about it as though the living dead are walking through the streets eating people’s brains… Get your shots and take your pills and you will be fine… Oh and, bring mosquito repellent…



Day 1    
We all met for the first time in the MIA airport… Good to see an old friend (with an emphasis on OLD!) and to make new ones… Smooth flight… Not that it wasn’t expected, but Haiti is hot than a MOFO!  Kathy, our fearless leader, immediately shows off here driving skills by boldly darting into traffic as though she was driving a Mack Truck instead of a 15 passenger mini-van… The initial reaction of the passengers was *gasp* we… are… gonna… DIE!!  On our first day! Tell my parents I… I… I… love them… *sniffle* Well, Kathy must have used some sort of Jedi mind trick because people acted as though she was actually driving a Mack truck and let her through! We make it to Mathew 25 (Our place of residence for the next week or so) no worse for wear… First meal is all vegetarian… #WINNING! 

Things they didn’t tell you about
The accommodations are essentially outdoors… Which wasn’t really a bad thing, in fact, it was quite refreshing! Roosters don’t “cockle doodle doo” in the morning… They do it when they’re good and damn ready… and they are good and damn ready 24/7/365! Usually, when the sun comes up, there is a slow transition to daylight… Not when you’re closer to the equator! It starts off with a slight glimmer of daylight and about 10 minutes later, the sun is UP! There is a woman who walks up and down the street every morning shouting out “M’ gen ou bezwen” (I have what you need)… The main roads are paved… The side roads are not… (You think that we have potholes? HA!) Cold showers are not as bad in reality, as they are in your mind! The Toyota van that they send to countries like Haiti is NOTHING like the ones they send to the U.S. the ones they send to Haiti are closer to an armored car than they are a van…  Haitian peanut butter is like manna from HEAVEN! At least 50% of the structures were knocked down by the earthquake… It rains just about every day… Usually in the evenings…

Day 2
We are all up early… TOO early… Especially, if you are not a morning person… (and I am not!) It’s all good though… We are up so that we can go to a Haitian church service… Despite the fact that we could not really understand what was being said, I found myself in familiar surroundings… Having grown up in a Black church (Shout out to GFCC), it seemed as though the cadence of the service very similar to what I had come to know… After church we were outside and were greeted by quite a few children…  AKA the future of Haiti… and they are ALL happy go lucky typical kids… The adults are seemingly very happy as well and nattily attired… One would never know that they are on their way back to a “tent city”…

After church, we headed over to the clinic… and again, the main roads are decent, but the side roads? uh… no… unpaved… large pools of standing water… Yet again, Kathy had the force with her and navigated like a champ! We finally arrive and start to set up the clinic… Moving tables/benches… Counting/separating/arranging meds…

Head back to base camp (Kay Matthew 25)… All and all it was a very good day!

Veggie dinner AGAIN!

Day 3
Up early again! Roosters doing their thing… Again! We are up for breakfast and that is when I get my first taste of Haitian peanut butter! I had heard something about it from some Haitians that I know, but had no idea that this “Butter from Heaven” was as good as it was! Good thing my momma wasn’t there! *smack*

We head out to the clinic (17 people in a 15 passenger van – shout out to Toyota!) and it’s a bit of a rough ride… Not only from the aspect of being over crowded in a van travelling over rough terrain, but seeing a people, who have already suffered so much, navigating their way back to some sort of normalcy… Kids in their school uniforms… Vendors selling everything from bread and mangos, to cell service… Tap Taps transporting people to and fro… We see buildings, still in their collapsed state… Numerous tent cities… Very little in the way of reconstruction… People make “chicken soup from chicken shit”… One and one half years after the earthquake… My heart goes out to them…

We make it to the clinic in about a ½ hour (20 mins if Kathy uses the force!) and there are several people waiting already… Patiently… We go to our assigned positions and start to go to work… I am in the pharmacy, so there is not so much to do first thing… I whip out my… CAMERA! (shame on you for thinking something else!) and snap a few shots of the area around us…  Some of the meds… Some of the surrounding buildings… A few of the people working with me… I had some time on my hands… I think to myself, if it’s gonna be like this, I might go crazy by the end of the week!
We break for lunch… Note to future travelers to Haiti on a mission such as this… If you bring canned food items for lunch make sure you have a can opener! Or at least make sure that you are accompanied by a seasoned “cut man” LOL

Well… You know the expression, “Be careful what you wish for”? After lunch, there was a CRUSH of people! We were hopping from the moment we got back from lunch until about 4-5 hours later! We saw around 180 patients or so and dispensed some sort of meds to them all… *Whew* The fact that we were able to do that in that short a time, with very few mistakes, is a testament to our incredible teamwork…

Back to the van… Back to “home”… At least for the next few days…

We have a post meeting and decide to make a few minor changes to improve the flow…

Dinner is vegetarian AGAIN! It’s like I called ahead and ordered!

Day 4
In case you were not keeping track, today is Tuesday… More heavenly Haitian PB to start my day… At this point much more “acclimated” to my surroundings (translation: I don’t even hear the roosters any mo!) which means that I am sleeping better… Yeah!

We make our way to the clinic and I am still amazed at the resiliency of the people of Haiti… Each day I see a little more than I saw the day before… They have a fortitude that is unmatched…

We get to clinic and again there are people waiting… This time we are armed with some new tactics and everyone is almost immediately doing work… The pace is a lot less hectic through out the morning and less stressful for all involved… We break for lunch and all are feeling good… While at lunch everyone seems to be in good spirits and talking about how a few minor changes made all the difference in the world… Success!

We are about to get back to work and someone says “What ever happened to that woman who came in and was concerned about her pregnancy?” *silence* The OB/GYN in the group says “Uh… She…  Lost the baby…” She was several months pregnant and had not really felt any movement for the past month… She was carrying a dead baby for a month… It was all I could do to keep from crying… In fact, I am having a great deal of difficulty as I am writing this… My thought is this: What if we had not been there? How much longer would she have carried the baby? *pause*

The rest of the day, at least for me, was a blur… *pause*

The one good thing about that day was the school… The clinic is affiliated with a church and a school and every day the kids got out about 2:30-3:00… They are filled with so much joy! I got some great pics of some of them clowning for the camera… I even let them take my camera and shoot some themselves…  They were a great “pick me up” on a day that was a bad one for me…

George Benson runs through my mind… “I believe the children are the future…”

We finished up earlier than the day before which was a good thing… We saw about 150 or so patients… We hopped back in the van and when we got back to the main road… RUSH HOUR! So much for getting back early! We were in the “jam” for more than an hour and nobody lost their cool… Not even Kathy – The Jedi Master…

Veggie dinner again??!! YEAH BABY!

Later in the evening a young lady who was a doctor stopped by our place to commune a little and in conversing with her I found out that a few days after the earthquake she came to Haiti… and ended up staying… She now runs a TB clinic at the nearby hospital… She gets money and supplies donated via twtter and a webpage… @doktecoffee (twitter) and doctorcoffee.org (web page) She is doing some good work down there and if you can help her out, I’m sure it would be appreciated…

Day 5
By this time I am now a morning person! No need for an alarm clock… (I used it anyway – just in case I reverted back to my normal ways! LOL) The last bit of “Butter from Heaven” is used today… I eat it like I’m on death row and the call from the Governor is not coming!

We pile into the van and on the way, I ask a Haitian who is with us, who was born in the states, but spent his summers in Haiti as a child, what he was thinking… He always seemed very pensive on the trips in the morning… He replied “Truthfully… I’m just trying to keep it together…”  He didn’t elaborate, and really didn’t need to… He was crying inside for his people…

We get to the clinic again and it’s more of the same… People lined up for free, much needed, healthcare…  The thing that struck me was that these people, some who had come from far and wide, were so incredibly patient… I wonder if under the same conditions, (no air conditioning, hot temperatures, standing water everywhere, jacked up transportation, living in tents), people in the states would be the same… Probably not…

Today is another very smooth day… We are functioning like a well oiled machine at this point… So well in fact, that I get a chance to see some of the kids again and practice my Kreyol… I took a course several years ago and had forgotten much of what I learned, but a good portion of it came back to me and I was able to converse in a limited manner with them… I am struggling to converse with this one little girl (about 7) and she asks me where I’m from… I tell her America and she says something in English… I said “ou pale angle”? (you speak English?) She says yes… During the course of the convo I find out she is tri-lingual! She speaks Kreyol, French and English… WOW!
Later some other kids join her as they are waiting for their ride and one of the members of our team, who is of German descent and speaks French, is talking to them… Two of the girls are a little younger, not in school and do not speak French are not understanding what is being said to them… Well, my tri-lingual friend jumps right in and translates for them… It was a beautiful moment…

Again the day ends and we head back to our humble abode… There was a traffic jam again, but to a much lesser degree… Cool is once again maintained!

Guess what? VEGGIE AGAIN!!!

Day 6
Just another day in the neighborhood! We hop in the van and head out again… Everyone is in high spirits… We all kind of go to “our spots” in the van and one of the team members jokingly asks me why I keep getting the seat closest to the door (which seemingly has more leg room – but it doesn’t really) I say: “Manifest Destiny!” and chuckle under my breath… I think she got the humor in that, but I am not really sure, because there was not enough room to turn around and look to see…

We arrive again and today I am moving to another position in which I interact with the people more… I am in an area called “triage” where we speak to the patients through an interpreter about what ails them and then we determine what doctor they are going to see… this for me was truly a good experience because it forced me to recall the Kreyol that I had learned so many years ago… a few of them asked me if I was Haitian and when I said “no” they were quite surprised… Surprised that I knew as much as I did and that I took the time to learn it…

I am humbled…

After filtering through all the patients for the day I had a few minute down time to reflect on my experience thus far… To this point it has been mostly positive… I know one thing, the few things that I complain about in my life, pale in comparison to what an average day in Haiti is like for the “average” Haitian… If you ever hear me complain about anything… Slap me!

The rest of the day for me was spent in the pharmacy doing what I, and others, had become pretty good at… Dispensing meds…

It’s the last day of the clinic and for me it was difficult… We had done so much in seeing between 600 and 800 patients in 4 days, but it barely made a dent, I’m sure, in the total health care picture…

So much more to do and not enough time…

So we pack up the clinic and head back… This time Kathy is not at the helm… Missy stepped in and filled those mighty big shoes without missing a beat… (I think she is a Jedi too… The Force is strong with her!!)

You guessed it… Veggie… one… mo’… 'gain!

Day 7
On the last couple of days they take us to a resort on the south coast in an area called Jacmel…  On the drive there they took us on a trip to see the presidential palace, which was severely damaged during the earthquake… Essentially the roof collapsed forward and rendered the whole building un-usable… The French Government stepped up to the plate and offered to re-build the palace… On one condition… That they call it reparations… What the???!!

Those French people have a lot of nerve… (I’m not expressing my true thoughts because I am pretty sure that my mother will read this and she has virgin eyes!) WOOO SAAA!!

The Haitian Government declined the offer…

There are two or three guys on the roof, disassembling the building… By hand…

Back to the trip…

On the way we are on the highway and there is a lot of traffic… There seems to be some construction going on and we are moving at a snail’s pace… Stop and go… On one of our stops, a young boy comes up to the van and asks for some food… The Haitian guy opens the window and hands him a protein bar… Two other boys see this and make a bee line over to our van… By this time the traffic starts to move a little better and the Haitian says to the boys that we have no more food and that they should move back before they get hurt… They keep running with the van and knocking on the window… Again the Haitian guy pleads with them to move back… They don’t…  There is only a foot between the van and the roadside which is piled up with dirt and debris and these kids are running alongside of us just knocking on the window…  With very little space between seemingly life and death… One misstep and they would be under the wheels of the van…

After what seemed to be miles, they relented and stopped running… one of the other guys remarked that that would be an image that he would not forget… and started crying… The image of two boys driven by hunger, to risk their lives, so that they could eat was too much for him to take…

Understandably so…

The rest of the trip was spent going up a mountain and then back down… We made a couple of stops to see a clinic that was set up to treat ovarian cancer… The doctor used to live on the clinic grounds along with other family members, but everything was lost in the earthquake… Flattened…

I don’t know how he does it…

We also stopped to get lunch at this cool little place that was like eating at a beach, complete with sand… and the food was really good… I made the mistake of eating some shrimp… Not good for a vegetarian…

We finally made it to our final destination… Our hotel had hot and cold water, air conditioning and a beach… By this time I couldn’t take a hot shower… It just didn’t feel right… LOL And to be perfectly honest, I felt a little guilty going to a resort after the experience…

Dinner was good… Not vegetarian though…  I had shrimp again… Not good… It was the gift that kept on giving throughout the night! (I won’t go into detail)

Day 8
The next morning I got up early and went to the beach to exercise and take a dip… Refreshing! I get back to my room and my “room mate” was in there practicing his… *ahem* “French” I stood outside and listened for a minute while he practiced… “Franch Toast! Croissant! Franch Fries!” I walked into the room and he was really into it… Complete with the accompanying hand movements that French people so often do! LMAO…

Had breakfast and we were on our way…

We stopped for lunch at an orphanage in an area in the mountains called Fondwa… We parked and had to walk about a mile or so to the actual orphanage… The walk was down a rather steep, mostly paved road… The sights along the way were breathtaking… People have farms that are cut into the mountainside… It is really a spectacular sight… My room mate said that if he died and went to heaven, this is what he imagined it would look like…

When we got to the orphanage we were given a tour of what it used to be… You see, they lost everything as well… They were now in temporary buildings… We sat down to eat and they fed us well… Rice & Peas, salad, and… *drumroll* chicken… Which I did not DARE touch after the night that I had!

Some of the other team members and I went to talk with the children… They ranged in age from infancy to teenagers… Again, another opportunity to practice my Kreyol…  By this time, I was almost functional… One of the teenagers told me in English that my Kreyol was pretty good… I told her in Kreyol that her English was pretty good too…

It was another good moment for me…

We took pics and chatted for quite a while and again, you would never know the incredible hardship that they have had to deal with… They were seemingly very happy… Strength and resilience is a hallmark of the Haitian people… ALL of them…

To that point, one of the older girls was very shy about taking pics, I tried to sneak up behind her and grab her by the arms so one of the other team members could snap a quickie shot… She broke free like she was a NFL running back! In fact, I do believe that had I held on, she would have dragged me across the floor… EASILY! She was about 5’5” maybe about 120lbs and I’m 5’11” and 200lbs… I mistakenly thought that I was in okay shape… NOT! We eventually talked her into taking one…

I related that story to my cousin and she said that I got beat up by a teenage girl…

All I have to say to that is… Huh huhhhh… (inside family joke)

So now it is time for us to go and we say our goodbyes and I notice that they are getting their lunch… All they are getting is the Rice and Peas… No salad… No chicken… I would have GLADLY passed on the salad and chicken if I knew that that was gonna happen…

Another tough moment… *pause*

Walking back, the trip was mostly UPhill and now the sun was out and BLAZING… Most of the group left before us or took a ride on the back of a scooter… We decided to hoof it… We thought we were going at a reasonable clip until this woman walked by us… With about 20lbs of stuff in a basket on her head and she passed us like we were standing still! To make matters worse…  She was wearing flip flops!

 I was reminded of the classic line from the movie “Cleopatra Jones”  - “… you ever have feelings of inadequacy…”

I’m not gonna explain the whole scene you have to rent it!

We made it back to van intact (except out pride!) and the rest of the trip back to “home base was uneventful… Except for the torrential rain storm… We were almost back when the skies opened up… We had to stop and get some bags off the roof… The people closest to the door jumped out and grabbed the bags… So much for Manifest Destiny!

Do I even need to tell how glad I was to be back? That’s right… Veggie again!

Day 9
I woke up “feeling some kind of way” because we are leaving a country and a people that I have grown to love… I will be back though… I am hoping to organize a trip with a group of people from my university (Shout out to Howard U – Get at me if you’re interested) and hopefully, through other HBCU’s…

We make our way to the airport, through the 3 separate security checks to the waiting lounge and as we are sitting there, what do I see?? BUTTER FROM HEAVEN!!! So I, along with a few others purchase some, stuff it in our bags and get on the plane… Of the 4 people who bought it 2 of us had it confiscated in Miami airport while going thru customs…

I can happily say that I was NOT one of the two who was subjected to the great government PB &J conspiracy!!

Again, the flight to Miami was uneventful… A few of us stop to get some food at the airport, after which we go our separate ways… I have a ten hour layover and fortunately one of the other team members has an eight hour layover… I say fortunately because he is a member of the AA “skyclub” and he gets us both in! #WINNING!

I really enjoyed his company and we chatted about a wide range of subjects… Two guys that were leaving gave us their free drink tickets… We had four between us … I used mine to get some bottled water and he didn’t use his… I ended up giving his away to a couple who came in after him…

Pay it forward…

The couple that came in after him were an interesting sort… They were as opposite as they could be… She was from West Virginia, and sounded like it… was from New York, and he sounded like it too…  They were devout Christians but the man looked and acted like a stereotypical Jewish person… and guess where they were returning from… ISREAL!

I think one day he is gonna go on ancestry.com and find out the truth! LOL

They proceeded to over-share and tell me practically everything about their lives… How they have six kids… How they couldn’t have any of their own… How all of them were adopted… What the kids were gonna do with their lives… Blah blah blah…

I happened to mention that I was returning from Haiti and tell them a little about the trip… At some point, in a rather flippant tone, the husband blurts out… “Have they raised the construction standards there yet?” Rather than “undress” him right then and there I just said “I don’t know…” My thoughts though were something like this… “Are you aware that the construction standards were based on hurricanes and not earthquakes?” “Did it occur to you that they haven’t had a earthquake in about 200 years?” “If this had happened in Manhattan and 50% of the buildings were knocked down, there would be utter chaos?” “Did you know that San Fran in their last major earthquake, had major structural failures? And they have much higher ‘standards’ than the vast majority of the country??”

I let it go… My mom always told me, that if you argue with an idiot, what does that make you?

So, that’s pretty much my trip in a nutshell… a rather large one…

Oh one more thing… If you get an opportunity to “upgrade” your seat to first class for not very much money like I did, do it… On the way back to BWI, one of the flight attendants was taking out the cart to pick up the beverage cups and a woman who had just come out of the bathroom and wasn’t looking too well was behind him…  I’m not sure what seat it was, but she needed to go back to the bathroom in a hurry and didn’t make it… The flight attendant had to change clothes and a few passengers needed some paper towels…

I am still in the process of arranging my pics and posting them to my Flickr page… I should have them up in a few days…

I will post a link soon…

Peace,
DG

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Fear of the H2O...

As someone who travels quite a bit, I like to bring refreshments with me on my trip... As anyone who spends any amount of time on planes knows that the "meal" selection is somewhat lacking... You get your choice of beverage... Uh... I mean their choice, and a hearty snack... pretzels that are so salty, high blood pressure is induced immediately upon opening the package... If... you can get it open...

To prevent the sugar shock and hypertension brought on by airline food I started bringing my own food and drinks on the plane, as did many other "seasoned" travelers...

Then along came the liquid and gel "threat" (I suspect that it was made up by the same people that came up with the "duct tape and plastic" scare of a few years ago!) in which you cannot bring anything through "security" *1 that is more than 3 ounces... What that means is that you can no longer bring any bottled water, juice, coffee, toothpaste, deodorant (unless it's a solid), jello etc... unless it is in very tiny containers... If they catch you with the offending contraband then they give you the option of throwing it out or drinking it... Of course if you opt to drink it you have to go back out into the concourse drink it, and then go back through "security" *1... Who the hell has time to do that??!! So into the trash it goes... Damn, I paid x-amount of dollars for that shit!!

So you are left with either: A. Risking an aneurysm from the plane pretzels or B. Buy something from the vendors who have set up shop beyond the gauntlet, also known as the "security checkpoint" *1... I, like most people opt for choice B...

Then I got to thinking... Is Osama Bin Laden really sending his minions out to disrupt america's lifestyle with Crest?? or Gillette series Cool Wave clear gel?? Seeking to bring down the economy with Aquafina and Deer Park??? Probably not... Are big corporations like Sodexho and McDonald's losing money as a result of the weary traveler deciding to try to eat/drink something healthy?? Absolutely!! What better way to get people to comply with corporate wishes? Scare the hell out of them!! And make them go back to buying crispy cremes and Big Mac's!!

You see, ever since the reagan administration big business has had unfettered access to political rule makers and this is just another example in a long line of them... JMHO

*1I recently went up the "security" entrance with a bottle of water in my hand, I proceeded to put it in my back pocket and walk through the metal detector and no one said a word... I feel safer already!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I wanna hold your... WTF???


Okay... I was about to go to bed, when I came across this picture... I was under the impression that cops were supposed to keep their preferences to themselves... At least while working! Don't give me some B.S. about conferring on a case... Or some new method of catching crooks... This is just plain unacceptable from people who are sworn to protect and serve!

Maybe if this was Cambridge... (Ma. NOT England) Henry Louis "Skip" Gates would have not been arrested...

No longer a Virgin...

Aaaaaaaa yoooo, A-ight!

What's up my people? I am finally trying my hand at this blogging thing... I have never attempted anything of this sort and I'm sure that I will hit a few bumps along the way... So please bare with me!

What's my blog gonna be aboout? (shout out to my Canadian friends LOL) Iono... I told you I ain' neva dun nutin' like dis here befo'... I do know that I am passionate about music and my people, so probably a lot of stuff about dat der... Oh... and when I say "my people" I mean BLACK people... You know, African americans... Nothing against those who are "melanin challenged" , but I loves me some Black folk!

So anyway, no more delay... Wanna hear it? Here it go! My 1st BLOG!

TaDa!