Haiti March 2010 Day 3: Dubuisson camp

Can you imagine what it would be like if you woke up one morning and found yourself homeless, with no food, no water, and your family gone. You’ve got no place to go. You have nothing. You feel nothing. Dubuisson camp is home for 351 displaced people, about 90 families, who lost their homes, their loved ones and had no place to go. They live here in make shift shelters made out of sheets, plastic tarps, gunny sacks and string. This camp is where we spent today. We saw 360 patients, built shelters, counseled, prayed, taught waster filtration and left 2 water filter systems, and distributed food to the camp. And we ran out of medicines. We’ve seen 890 patients in 3 days, more than we expected and more to come tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. I’m not sure what we will do. The pictures will tell their own stories. It’s late, and we’re tired. Some of the team are pictured but some are missing. They were the builders and the counselors and the pastors.   

What would you do if you were one of these families?

In all things give thanks,

David

Haiti Marcy 2010 Day 2: Fort National

You’d think we’d be just a little depressed after what we’ve been seeing, but look at the smiles on these faces. It’s because of what we been able to do, feel, share and accomplish. All good. So we came back for more.

We went back to Fort National this morning and saw another 170 patients by lunch time. We held our clinic right in the middle of where those how had been displaced slept and lived. They gave up their beds and tables so we could serve.

 

Dr. Fitz did some minor surgery removing a cyst and for what it’s worth, the procedure went well despite scrambling to find what we needed. It was all there, but a hunt was needed to find it all.

 

All it took to remind us of why we were there, was to simply look around us and see the devastation.

 

Everyone from these homes were living now outside under tarps, and that is where we were. With no water or electricity, Cori, our water engineer (really that is what she does) taught the leaders of the camp how to use the water filters we brought.

And in the mid morning into the afternoon, Michael and his pastoral/counselors went to the Tabernacle community and spent time with about 80 people…a lot of children, most with significant emotional trauma. And the children you see below, are the ones who escaped the nightmares, the recurring dreams of the earthquake.

And I’ve been watching this women for 2 days. She is alone and has stayed in that spot every day since the earth quake struck. She has no family, is mentally handicapped, alone and withdrawn. I talked to the camp leader and asked him to promise me that in exchange for what we were doing there for them, that he would personally care for her. No one even knew her name. We are so quick to run to the children, the ones with the pretty smiles, the adorable faces, the ones you want to hug and never let go. But do we, can we, do the same with her? Or is she too grotesque, too much out of our comfort zone, to hug her without letting go, to take a picture with her, to try to get her to smile….I tried once and she pulled away. I wanted to try again, but she seemed so far out of reach…emotionally and physically. For a day and a half, we walked and worked around her. I’m asking myself how we let that happen.

I think of why we came, and for the sacrifices we made to do so. I think of the being a servant to those who are in need. I look at her and wonder how good a servant I really am. And I remain committed to remembering that it is things like this that remind me of my need to be humble, to feel unashamed to be round those who are less like us, the so called normal people. I will remember her often and wonder if she felt the  touch of my hand if for only a moment.

In all things give thanks,

David

Haiti March 2010 Day 1: Fort National

Fort National is at the bottom of a hill, a community of about 700 people. The area was hit hard by the  earthquake, and there still hasn’t been any significant relief there.

We left this morning and found ourselves among many who were sleeping outside, sheltered only by tarps, surrounded by rubble. What we saw was a re-building of the community by those who took it upon themselves to make a better place for themselves.

Within an hour of arriving, we had the clinic up and running, the pharmacy running smoothly, patients moving from registration to the medical examiners, then to counseling and pastors then to pharmacy. We even had water purification lessons.

In less than 5 and a half hours see saw 360 patients. We go back tomorrow. The stories:

-a father who is wearing his son’s shirt that his son had on when he died in the earthquake; he wears it every day.

-a grandmother who is caring for the last of her eight grand children, 7 who died with her daughter, the children’s mother

-a man who asked for counseling and prayer who on the night of the earthquake, gave up his bed so his cousin could sleep, and he slept outside that night; the building collapsed and she died; he is ridden with guilt

So for what it’s worth, it was a good day. Among the devastation, there is a ray of hope, a smile or two, a laugh heard among the tears. The team felt it all. The team saw it all. And they were touched.

                         

In all things give thanks,

David   

Haiti March 21, 2010

Medical Mercy team has arrived in Port au Prince. We have 23 team members, 12 medical, 8 pastoral/counselors and 3 lay people. We have 1 person from MoM HQ for admin and 2 local country reps and our driver. We brought with us 2100 lbs of meds and supplies. Hot, humid, and more hot. Driving in, things sure are different than just a few weeks ago when we were here after the earthquake. The airport has cleared out, the streets are for the most part passable. There are still a lot of shantys around. Yolie (our admin from MoM) said she saw a line of people 18 blocks long waiting for food....okay things are still bad.
We are meeting soon to get the meds in order, have an orientation and prepare for tomorrow. We expect to be up long into the night.
So, it begins. Grace, compassion and hard work. And in all that we give thanks. Now and always for what we have.
David

Haiti Medical/Counseling Relief: March 20-30, 2010

It will be our 3rd trip back, our second after the earthquake. In 24 hours 23 members of the Medical Mercy team will be leaving for Port au Prince: 12 medical, 8 pastoral/counselors, and 3 lay people, all of whom are servants to those we are going to help. Almost 1000 lbs of medical supplies, equipment, talking bibles, tarps, etc. are being brought with us. We’ve had an advanced administrative team there putting in place things for us so that we will be safe and ready to go. Some of you remember where we were a little over a month ago…in the torn down streets of Carrefour taking acre of patients and in a fallen hospital. This time we will be in a few more places:

The majority of our time will be in Fort National which is a large camp and an area hard hit by the quake. There are roughly 700 plus people living there under sheets and tarps but we expect that once the word gets out we are there many more will come.

There is another small camp – only 361 people but they’ve had no care at all since the earthquake.  It’s called Dubuisson and we’ll spend one day there  or so.

There is a third location called Tabairre68 where about 500 people are staying together afraid to go back to their homes. Our counseling team will go there.

Then towards the end of the part of the team leaves for  Cap Haitian. The rest of the PaP team will go to either Fort National or to one of the other camps during the rest of our stay in PaP

The biggest medical needs are upper respiratory, malnutrition and accompanying complications, diarrhea, infections, diabetes.  Conditions are very rough and simple things like tables and chairs will be rudimentary at best.  Transportation will also be an issue as Fort National is on a hill and roads are bad that our admin team is looking into additional transportation to get everyone up the hill. It is doubtful busses will make it. Some may need to do some walking.

Whatever international aid is being sent is slow to reach these areas. People are suffering a great deal – staying under blue tarps and often with no bedding at all, only sheets. When it rains people get wet and can’t sleep.  Food is very scarce.

We will going into some rugged places, and have security with us. I will be assessing the ongoing needs of the areas we are in ,and Mission of Mercy and Medical Mercy are working to insure that resources such as food, shelter, medical, counseling, spiritual, and safety continues to get to Haiti.

So, I’ll be tweeting, blogging, praying, crying, wringing my hands, and sometimes even laughing and smiling when we see the faces of those we touch, smile…smiling for perhaps the first time in weeks. I look to see the glimmer of God in their eyes as our pastors reach out and pray with them, and the pain relieved as our medical and lay teams tends to them. And I look to you for prayers, and love. Be with us…

 

In all things give thanks,

David

Haiti....again

One would think that going back to a place of destruction would be farthest from my mind, but think otherwise. I'm headed back March 20th with a team of about 20, okay 21, maybe 22...the number keeps changing...but a big team none the less. Half medical, a few lay support and the rest pastoral/counseling. We're going to Port au Prince to work in the camps, then towards the end of the week, part of the team heads up to Cap Haitian for continued work there. When we return, we leave for India 6 weeks later.

So what do we expect? Cholera, dysentery, infected wounds, malnutrition, and post traumatic psychological issues. We'll be doing medical clinics in the camps, where people are living under sheets and tarps with no toilet facilities and the rainy season starting. The pastoral/grief counseling team will be doing just that: pastoring and counseling. But for right now, I need your help...there are a lot of loose ends still to be tied and things to come into place. So, if you have a second or 2, close your eyes and say a little prayer for us. And if you are so inclined, feel free to keep going for as long as you like. Because after all, there but for the grace of God, go I...you...us. And as always,

In all things give thanks,
David

Reflections and updates

It’s been several weeks since I returned from Haiti and India, and the thoughts keep coming, the visions becoming more blurred, the memories still clearly present. And I reflect on the purpose, the intent, the meaning of that time. I learn little from my successes, but much from my failures. When I think of what we were able to accomplish in Haiti and what we left behind, I struggle to sit still and not get going again, back to where life remains dismal and people are perhaps being forgotten. It is just not in Haiti and India. It’s in all the countries we go to, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Swaziland, Egypt, and on and on. But, when the experience is fresh in one’s mind, like that of Haiti, and the slums of India, we tend to focus on that and use the older experiences as a way to feel like we will one day be okay with what we did. But the fact remains that there is much to be done yet in Haiti. There is much to be done really, everywhere. So we are looking to make a trip or 2 back to Haiti soon, sometime by the end of March and perhaps in July. I need to make sure that plans are solid, and that the implementation of those plans are assured and successful. That takes time. I’ll use our experience in Haiti from a few weeks ago and new information that is coming in daily, to make that happen For me, every time I glance behind me, I look twice to the future. That way, I hope to never forget.

In all things give thanks,

David

Thoughts

I'm on my way back from India after doing an assessment trip for the medical mission we'll be doing here the end of April. Slums and poverty were the mainstay of the assessment, with medical needs noted not too drastically different than what we see in many other countries: malnutrition, worms, rashes, chronic pneumonias, TB and vitamin deficiency. One thinks that after all the countries that we've been too that even though the disease are the same, the living environments are not that much different from place to place, that we would find this quite easy to do. What is different. From country to country is the people. Who they are and how they cope. Why they live the way they do and how they try to find a better way of life. The medicine aside, it's the interaction that we have with those to whom we are entrusted to serve. Each culture, each person, each community is different. The antibiotics we give are the same regardless of where we are. It's how we interact with those who come to us for the antibiotics that is uniquely different. And you may ask why. Shouldn't we be gracious to all regardless? Does compassion change from one culture to the next? No, it shouldn't. But what does is out understanding of the reasons why people live the way they do. Without that understanding, we have a tendency to miss the most important part of a covenant relationship with those who come to us: understanding, acceptance, trust and honesty. We can find it easily to take for granted that we know what is best for those who are less fortunate. We are very often far from being right. Like it or not, we put our own value systems into place, based on our own lives and our own circumstances and find ourselves sometimes making decisions for others that may leave them worse off than they6 are now. I come to this simply because of what I've seen: trying to make lives better for those who are less fortunate, when really they are very happy with what they have, and to put them in a different place than where they are accustomed, can cause them angst and confusion.

My parents and their parents, and their parents were all from Egypt and Syria. My parents immigrated to the US and I remember vividly traveling to Egypt with my father to get the extended family out of Egypt to the US to a better life. My great uncle, my grandfather's brother, was 80 years old when we got him to the US. He lived in San Francisco for the remaining few years of his life, living on Egypt time: he kept his watch on Cairo time. He was heart broken and missed his life and his country. He may have been less fortunate, but I believe we compromised the last few years of his life by trying to give him a better life than what he had. Less fortunate. By whose standards. I make not pretense in suggesting that those who live in the slums should be allowed to stay there and that it is not up to us to move them and give them something better. I am suggesting that we need to begin to understand that the life they have, even though it is hard and difficult, is in fact their life. We can make it better by helping them within their own community and make their lives where they live a little better. Displacement, moving, and suggesting that a better way of life is what they need, may be pretentious. It may be t he simply things that may make all the difference in the world for them: clean water, toilets, and electricity. But they can continue to live in their community, surrounded by those they know, in a country they love, and feel like they are better for it.

The harsh reality of Haiti remains. The confusion of distribution of food, medicine and housing. The devastation of lives and families. The harsh reality of the slums of India remains. Different, not as acute and traumatic, but harsh reality all the same.

Medical mission work is serving. I am reminded of the Anglican missionary motto: TRANSIENS ADIUVA NOS: "I go overseas to help." Medical Mercy does just that.

In all things give thanks
David

India: Faridhabad-Ram Nagar Slum

This slum is about an hour and a half south of Delhi.  Ram Nagar  is one of the biggest slums of Faridabad. This slum is located near the Faridabad Thermal Power Station and right behind the New Town Railway Station. Around 50,000 families live in this area under sub-humane conditions. These individuals are migrants from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Most all of them are daily laborers in the power house or other factories. Some are rickshaw pullers and rag-pickers. This place has a big dump yard and many of the children between the age group of 4 to 17 years  work in these dump areas which have a lot of toxic material from various factories in Faridabad picking out items to be recycled.

There has been some opposition from dump yard gangs and Hindu fundamentalist groups who have damaged the school property a number of times in the past where the children go to learn and eat. We went to that school which was just barley in the slum area, but were advised not to go any further into the slum area. It is currently under review as to whether we will go there to hold a medical clinic or not due to the undertone of resistance from other factions. The children there are not as healthy as I have seen elsewhere. There have been reported instances of child kidnappings.

I hoping to be able to bring a team here, but one must be careful.

In all things give thanks,

David

India: Sangam Vihar Slum

Sangan Vihar is considered one of the largest unauthorized colonies of Asia and has a population close to 2 million. Yes, that’s right, 2 million. 2 million people living in an area beyond comprehension. This slum area has in it a sub-division of a slum if you can imagine that is called the “Rag picker” slum, and that is where our MoM children are. The Rag picker slum is only one of the many sub-slums within the large Sangam Vihar slum colony, and the populations is about 200,000 people, all of whom are rag pickers, or garbage collectors. It has a striking resemblance to “Garbage City” in Cairo where we where several years ago (go back in the archives to see that). There is no potable water, no toilets, no sewage. The Slum clusters or the dwellings they live in are made of plastic or other material picked and found during the garbage collections. People go to the city every morning to collect garbage that they later sort though to recycle. They make about $1/day doing this. Children are not allowed to go to school because they are needed to go and pick garbage in order to sustain the family.

They live in small parcels of land owned by wealthy individual who rent the parcel to several families living in there. It is usual a small piece of property, no larger than perhaps a 1/16th of an acre, and rents for about $300/month, which is split by the families living there. There is a middle man, or a contractor who is hired by the owner of the property who collects the sorted  garbage and pays around 25-50 cents for a bag of plastic and then turns around and sells it for $5-$6 giving the owner a cut. The Rag pickers are essentially slaves.

Here’s what you need to know: 20% of the children do not see their 5th birthday due to the illnesses they contract living in the garbage squalor. MoM is there to pave the way to a better life and better medical care by bringing in Medical Mercy. Pastor Koshy and sister Joicy have been there for 14 years and have a remarkable educational, nutritional and spiritual program going all with the help from MoM. Medical Mercy will be there in April of this year. We’ll look to do the best the we can.  

In all things give thanks,

David

India: Kalkaji Slum

Kalkaji is situated in the southern area of New Delhi, and is one of the largest slums there. The populations is around 150,000, of which 40,000 are children under the age of 14 years. It is known for it’s high drug addiction rate and gang related activities. almost all the dwellers are illiterate and

are labor class people who earn les than $2/day if they do work. As most of the men are either drug addicts or alcoholics, the money they make goes to their addiction and leaves nothing for the family. The women try ot work as servants in nearby houses. The children stay home to care for the needs of the their younger siblings. Or…the girls are sold by the parents to gang like sex traffickers in order to get money to live on. The slum area has no water facility and the children have to carry the water in buckets from water trucks that arrive in the slum on rare occasion. Few of the children go to school. They fall into the circle of illiteracy and the cycle of poverty never leaving the slum area. The small rooms that they live in are no bigger than 5x8 with as many as 9 people living in there. There are no toilet facilities except for a small communal area that has a line that can take 2 hours before one gets their turn to go to the bathroom. The alley ways are easier and quicker. Need I say much about the sanitation?

There are those who have and those who have not. Take a moment and look around at what you have…and in all things give thanks,

DAvid