Thursday, March 29, 2007
Once again, today was quite an eventful day. It's already 12:52AM (Friday) and we still have a prayer meeting later on. I guess I don't have to go, since some of us are already sleeping, but I might as well since I'm staying up to type this up.
This morning we had electricity for quite a while. I used my laptop to show the kids Snow White (dubbed in Korean). Still the electricity was on long enough to fully recharge my battery. Once again I'm a happy camper. I'll be even more happy when I get internet (and SIM card, and broadband, and...).
Today we went to a small village called Laplaine. For the past two days, when we arrived at the clinic site, there were already people sitting and waiting with a number card in their hands. But this time there weren't any. Apparently someone didn't tell the people around the village that we were coming. But that wasn't really any problem because people seemed to gather instantaneously. After all, it is a small village.
Once again I took charge of the dermatology department (i.e. disinfecting and applying ointment, period). One interesting case I had was an old man who had skin disease on his arms, buttocks, and crotch, including a part of his scrotum. So, yeah, I had to disinfect and put ointment on all those places while some girls were giggling at the sight (no, we don't have walls in Haiti. Just kidding, we just had to do the clinic outside this time). One baby had boils and fungus infection all over his body. Poor baby...
We closed the clinic in the early afternoon, and drove to various places including the beach at Morrue. As you can imagine, the beach is really nice, although the place we went wasn't the cleanest place, but the water was blue. That's good enough for me, even with some garbage floating around. We had lunch at the beach, and a few of us took a boat ride along the shore. Nothing fancy, but it was still neat.
They started the prayer meeting now. I'll be back...
Wow, it's 2:20AM now. There were only Haitian guys at the prayer meeting. They sing so energetically. Each person has an instrument and plays them really hard. So you can't really sleep while that's going on. They sang and prayed in French/Creole (and no interpreter) so I didn't understand much, but I clapped and prayed with them anyway. By the end of the three months, I hope I can at least understand what the prayer topics are and know a few songs in French/Creole.
Ugh, the mosquitoes are eating me alive.
Anyhow. After the beach, we stopped by a village called Lully, where there are lots of fishermen. We bought some crabs and lobsters (I think they were lobsters, but they could be some variation of them) that came fresh out of the water. I thought they had caught it just then, because they pulled it out of a cage in water, but now I think they caught it before and were just keeping them in the cage (they seemed to have lost some weight, too). Nonetheless they were fresh. So guess what we had for dinner. It was a feast.
I learned some more French/Creole on the road, mostly from Enock (that's how they spell). When we came home (the House of Love), I tried to talk with some guys in French. They are very friendly, although shy at first, and were eager to help me learn the languages. The more I talk to them, the more I remember French from high school. They can't speak much English, so I have to work really hard. I'm looking forward to spending more time with them.
Tomorrow the team will fly back to LA. I wonder what my life will be like, since after they leave I probably won't be as busy as we were this week. Most likely I'll be teaching Korean/English/guitar. And playing with the kids, of course. I hope I can visit Zanmi Lasante in Cange. A brother of one of the guys I talked to today had been there to get an operation on his shoulder. Maybe I can find a patient to take there. I would be helping the patient by finding free treatment, and I'll get to visit the famous hospital. It's called mutualism. I don't want to be another Paul Farmer, but I see what needs to be done, and I'll find my way of doing them. I just hope that I can be involved in the doing while I'm in med school, like Paul Farmer was.
It's late. Bon nuit.
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