Correspondence to friends in the Mountain Empire and elsewhere

Precious friends,

We thank you for all your prayers and messages of encouragement, they give us much strength. I know you are all waiting for more news and I’m sorry it has been so long, but I’m sure you also know that time has galloped away and I’m not even sure what day it is!!

Firstly, to back up a little, as you are aware Charles, Breck and the son of friends in New York, Jake Turlinsky, arrived on Saturday, coming through the Dominican Republic with many a story to tell of that passage – but leave it to a Warne to add a bit of spice to the trip!. Once through the frontier and certainly not wanting to spend the night in a very difficult area, it was decided to ride on to Beladaire where ZL has another hospital – yes! – on the back of motorbike taxis. Bags and boxes of supplies loaded on to the handlebars, they took off, much to the amusement of the surrounding spectators, and rode the 3ks. to the hospital. Those on the side of the road saw 3 crazy ‘blancs’, and the ride has now become the stuff of legends.! You may think I am being a little frivolous, but the few laughs available are therapeutic.

The last few days have been very difficult, with cases coming in that have been waiting in other hospitals for a week to be seen, or have been sent on here for difficult surgery. The same syndromes go on – crushing, fractures, several paraplegics, some with complete paralysis. The great news is that wonderful teams of surgeons – general, plastic surgeons and orthopedic, anesthetists, (with one from SC) have arrived and are working nearly around the clock. Plasters are being put on, operations and of course the inevitable amputations, which have been many but many have been saved. Breck and Jake are a formidable stretcher team and have all the young volunteers running almost as fast as they, Breck using his first responder skills to the max. Charles has been wearing many hats, filling in wherever necessary.

Many of the very complicated operations have been moved to Hinche, including some of my first little friends, and it was so hard to see them go. Breck has been making the difficult trip with them, and is in awe of their courage and strength in the face of incredible pain. Today several patients were moved back to PauP for kidney dialysis, but with little hope of survival. We have lost two patients, one who was paralyzed and none of her systems could work, and the other a paraplegic. The sound of wailing women is very difficult for the staff and all the other patients lying in the church.

Sunday was one more unforgettable day but in a different way. Having the church occupied by patients, church service was set up in the External Clinic Auditorium, with the Alter on the platform, and seeing it all set up as in any other Episcopal Church was of great comfort. As you can imagine the space was packed with people overflowing out on to the road, but everyone dressed and clean, children polished to a shine and voices lifted in glorious harmony. Even some of the choirs were able to squeeze in, and thanks to a few words to the music staff, the speaker sound was reduced so as not to shatter eardrums! Words from both Fr. Lafontant and Fr. St Louis were hard, very hard, with the descriptions of the losses in all areas -- but with the final words of hope and prayer, and Communion being served to everyone. I’m afraid to say that this was my moment to break down a bit, and I guess my neighbors didn’t quite know how to deal with a normally very smiley Guilene with tears streaming down her face. But tears were soon mopped up and the plea to be given ‘Strength and Courage, to do the work He has given us to do” resounding in all of our hearts, has given just that.

Both Priests visited the Church, hospital and surroundings taking words of comfort and communion to patients, the small Acolyte choir singing a couple of special hymns.

Difficult situations of sanitation and trash are being dealt with, as even now the risk of infection and disease is real. Tanks of drinking water are being filtered through our system, a connection to the septic tank outside the church has been accomplished and even the showers and latrines at the school are being used. Jackie is on an endless march against trash being left around the complex and has made huge bags to be put in many areas. Even with all this, people still chuck stuff beside the bags and don’t seem to see what they are doing. Jackie’s patients are smelling just wonderful, she having tapped in to her precious stock of French soap and creams to be used when bathing patients in the morning. Her “Pollyanna” attitude has helped us all remain focused and positive.

Shock is still high, and the second shake yesterday morning threw everyone into a panic yet once again, with people not wanting to work inside some of the buildings for a while and others refusing still last night to sleep indoors. Beautiful Cange, has held strong with no evidence of damage.

After dealing with all the casualties of the moment, my mind has continually been moving on to that saying that I have been using in other areas of our work here “and now what”, and I am convinced that we here in the Plateau Central will have a huge part to play in the rehabilitation of Haiti. I am working on a very large and optimistic plan for the agricultural side of this, and know that as much as this is a rural country it is from this source that help and strength will come. As you can imagine, my little brain is buzzing with ideas and am off to a meeting about that as soon as I close this off. Charles and the others are waiting impatiently at the door, so will send you these words and hope to continue again later tonight.

Next message will be a tough one because --- YESTERDAY I WENT TO PORT AU PRINCE.!

We all send our love, and are hanging in there.

Nap Kembe Gillaine

(... two weeks later ...)

As time Goes By -----

As the weeks pass and the atmosphere in the Church and the OR changes, we are once again humbled by the incredible resistance of the Haitian people. We are seeing fewer new patients coming in, but those who do have wounds that are now already one month old, and they are in terrible condition, needing drastic attention.

Stories are still amazing -- one patient who did not seek help for a very serious fracture because she thought there were others far more urgent than hers, will be operated on today and will hopefully not loose her leg. Others are more fool hardy with people climbing into collapsed buildings trying to find objects or even looting, and having the buildings fall on them! One father came in with his child who had been thrown to him by his grandmother, who couldn’t move quickly enough – he and the child escaped with various injuries, but the grandmother was crushed.

The smiles of patients who are healing are heart warming, and we have all had a few laughs watching the first stumbling steps of little ones on crutches. Theirs are the biggest smiles of all!

Balloons of blown up surgical gloves with faces drawn on them have been batted around the space, and some coloring pencils and paper have made long hard painful days a little easier.

Some of the apparatus being used to pull these shattered legs together are amazing to see, I certainly would need a long course to understand the workings of them, but the patients are really accepting and now that the severe pain seems to have abated they are starting to get up and about with various means of support. I think it is also very healing to be able to go outside under the beautiful trees, breath the fresh air of the country, see the fish and enjoy the beauty of the full flowering bougainvillea!!

The incoming teams of surgeons and nursing help have been constant and their work and assistance beyond value. Their enthusiasm and dedication is a credit to the medical world. We have had a team of 15 from Duke here for the last two weeks and they will leave tomorrow.

The next teams arriving will come in from Ireland and will also stay for two weeks.

Many patients have been allowed to go home if they have some family or friends to go to, and an assurance of ongoing care for wound dressing etc. We are still waiting for promised tents, and with the numbers of displaced persons growing by the day they are badly needed.

All of these arrangements are being made from PIH [Partners in Health] Boston with connections and implementations here, and all are doing an incredible job.

The wee small hours of the morning are often very fruitful, as was a recent one for me. I was wondering how some of our young arm amputees would be able to manage with only one arm, and figured that if we could design a sling bag to facilitate carrying etc. that could help a lot.

Talked about this to Jackie, who immediately set about making such a creature and off we went up to the church to try it on one of the patients --- much excitement all around, and we now have five very happy people who are proud to display their hand made bags from the Art Center!! Here is a photo of Clairnite modeling her bag, which can be worn on either side, whichever is more comfortable.

My work down on the farm has been a wonderful stabilizer being the positive side for the future. Our emergency program is underway and we have had several meetings with the local farmers who will benefit from this first phase. I am really encouraged by their excitement and willing participation, and great to see the more advanced form their committees and choose leaders. We have actually prepared and sown our first crop of ‘precocious’ corn on the farm, and the spinach beds are ready and will be planted today. I really think that the most beneficial thing, or at least going hand in hand with the agriculture, is the promise of a future, the thought that not all has been abandoned, and that we ZL/ZA are not going to run away and disappear but are here with support and encouragement for the long term.

Paul [Farmer of Partners in Health] was here on the weekend, and of course spoke eloquently at church on Sunday. Documentation group filmed the whole service ( manches longues) --- it would be lovely if we could get some of the footage as all the choirs were in great voice and Fr. St. Louis delivered an outstanding sermon. Certainly casting nets and fishing for people being the main topic was appropriate for us all here. Paul is obviously working 24/7 with incredible dedication to this adoptive/adopted country of his. We are all hoping and praying he will have a large say in the way in which the country will be re-built. We have had non-stop visits from the press, in all ways, shapes and forms, and as one can never count on their versions we are hopeful that a fair and just assessment will be made of the work being done here, and no crazy sensation seeking incorrect stories.

I may be heading home this weekend so, please pray for safe travel.

Gillaine

---

For more up-to-date first-hand accounts of struggles and triumphs in post-earthquake Haiti, one excellent source is Cine Institute, Jacmel

Graphic below: Native, oil and glitter by Yon Barth, Ghana
"How can we measure the resiliency of the Haitian people who are the poorest in the western hemisphere with 55% living below the extreme poverty line of $1 a day? On a good day in Haiti, nearly half the population doesn't know when or where the next meal will come; in good times, 47% don't have any access to the most basic health care; 45% of the population doesn't have clean water and 80% are without basic sanitation. People fear going to the nation's main hospital, which we have worked to bring to life over the last week, because at its best, it provided inadequate care in facilities with marginal electricity and water, and received no funding. When we arrived there, we found no basic medical supplies to restock the meager supplies we could fit into our bags and our small plane.
How can we measure the resiliency and capacity to endure of these people who have endured for 200 years? Perhaps it is in the strength of the 85-year-old woman found yesterday in the rubble 10 days after the quake still breathing, with a pulse and blood pressure and who after some intravenous fluids, started producing urine again. Or the little boy who a day after being found in the rubble after a week was running around our medical camp hugging the nurses and doctors who brought him back from near death? Or the 13-year-old who ran to the top of the 3-story building as it collapsed under her, riding it down to the ground suffering 'only' a massive laceration to her thigh that her mother attempted to stitch without anesthesia with a needle and thread. There is barely a whimper from the hospital campus where we reduced fractures with only a little pain medication and where gaping, infected and necrotic wounds are re-bandaged daily without sedation. There is only the occasional wailing from a broken heart...." -- Mark Hyman M.C. in The Tsunami Coming, Huffington Post

"... 'Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble,' said Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said. Asked about the total number of victims, she said, '200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?' Lassegue told The Associated Press that the government's figure of 150,000 buried from just the capital area was based on figures from CNE, a state company that is collecting corpses and burying them north of Port-au-Prince. An estimate of 200,000 dead was reported last week by the European Commission, citing Haitian government sources. As of Monday, the United Nations was reporting at least 112,250 confirmed deaths [now confirmed as being over 230,000], based on recovered bodies. The final toll will clearly place the Haiti earthquake among the deadliest natural catastrophes of recent times. That list includes the 1970 Bangladesh cyclone, believed to have killed 300,000 people; the 1974 northeast China earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with 226,000 dead...." -- Vivian Sequera and Mike Melia for the Associated Press, 1/24/10

Working with a mission, a young [Johnson] City [TN] native describes experience in Haiti earthquake on video

For art created by Haitians in personal reflection of the catastrophe to their home, click the New York Times special page displaying responses to their request for expression.

Graphic: multimedia by Margaret Gregg, Abingdon VA