Mid-term update

I thought I could get by with just posting pictures, but my fellow bloggers aren’t letting me off the hook so here's an update on my life at the mid point of our stay in Haiti. First, to give some update on my water project, I’ve sampled about 40 wells around Milot, Thbieau, and Carrefour des pairs so far. Unfortunately, only 4 wells have turned out to be “clean” (negative for coliform bacteria and ecoli). Of those 4, 3 were wells built or rehabilitated by an NGO called Living Water International. Professor Hyde and I were both impressed by this group’s work so we were planning on sending them a letter and report of what we’ve found. It turns out, however, that an American couple living in Milot is working for this organization. I got to meet one of them last week and I am planning to go out to the field and learn more about their work next week.

I’ve also had some memorable moments aside from my project. When we were in Thibeau the first time, all of us were swarmed by a sea of blue uniforms (and a crazy lady).

As I was taking pictures of the kids, I heard kids behind me shouting, “Jackie Chan! Jackie Chan!” Since I am the only one who even remotely resembles Jackie Chan, I turned around and saw kids trying to grab my attention so they could have their pictures taken. I made the unfortunate mistake of sharing this story to others, and since then some people have been calling me Jackie. When I visited Thibeau the next week, I walked at least 2 or 3 miles away from that school to get water samples. I was surprised to hear some people there (not the same little kids in uniform but some teenagers) greet me as Jackie Chan as well. To make matters worse, when we visited a church on the way to Thibeau for our weekly blood pressure clinic last Sunday, Maggie and co taught 2 Haitian women to say “I Love You Jackie Chan!” while I was trying to retrieve my back pack from church after getting locked out.

On a more positive note, I’ve also become famous for my “stomach of steel.” So far, I’ve eaten every single thing they serve at the compound and a whole variety of seafood while we were in Cormier beach, and yet I have not had a single episode of diarrhea/vomiting. I just really hope my stomach can hold up for at least 3.5 more weeks.

In any case, it’s still only Wednesday and this whole week has been pretty darn hectic. A team of about 30 volunteers arrived this past weekend and somehow they’ve brought a whole lot of interesting medical cases with them. Just to name a few cases I’ve seen or heard about, a man with a soft ball sized squamous cell carcinoma on the side of his head, a child with diabetic keto acidosis, and a guy with a huge neurofirboma on his head (Eric who saw it personally saw it said that it looked like someone had pooped on his head).

Ok, I think I’ve written enough to make this count as a “real” blog post, so I’ll let the other guys describe the craziness that’s been going around us in more detail. Now I am just going to go back to my old job and start posting more pictures.