Rule Number Four- Do Not Shake the Hand of a Haitian Wearing a Glove

Hey Everyone-

We have the afternoon off, so I figured I’d update the blog.  I’ll start of with a funny story then update you on what is going on here in the very hot and humid Haiti.  As I am sure has been stated on the blog, we have made it a point to work out early in the morning.  I’m talking like 6 in the morning (trust me I was not the one to come up with idea).  This is for three reasons- 1. Because its healthy 2. Because it is when it is the coolest and 3. We attract the least amount of attention from dogs, Haitians, goat, chickens and anything that can chase after you.  So yesterday morning, sticking to our routine, we ran to the top of the palace through Milot.  Through the shouts of “Blan, Blan, Blan” and “Give me a dollar” a dog started to chase after us and bark ferociously.  A crucial part of this story is that the dog was probably a foot long.   Apparently not hearing the expression “its bark is worse than its bite,” Spencer, out of his fear of rabies, decides to book it through the streets of Milot with the dog in pursuit.  This provided a lot of entertainment to the locals. What provided even more entertainment was when he caught his foot and fell onto the concrete floor.  The only reason I am sharing this gem is because Spencer did not get eaten by the one foot dog and he didn’t get rabies.

Last Friday we met with the Community Health Agents for the first time.  We introduced them to our project and they were all excited about the prospect of having a functional Emergency Medical System in Milot.  We then went on to teach them bleeding control, shock, and spinal stabilization.  For each of the sessions we went over a presentation quickly and spent a majority of the time on hand on activities (as Andrew’s pictures show). All of this went SO much better than we thought.  What made our day worth it was when Spencer asked at the end of the session, “was this helpful?” and we got a very strong “WI!”  For those of you that don’t speak Creole, that means YES!

Today we went to visit the CHAs in Thibeau.  As part of our project we wanted to observe the CHAs to really get an understanding of their day to day life in their villages.  The CHAs led all of us through their morning rounds.  They took us to about ten houses where they counseled people on many topics including malaria prevention, the importance of prenatal visits, cholera prevention, and the importance of going to the doctor for medicine (rather than buying them from the street or market).  It was incredible all of the work that they did!  After meeting the CHAs we went to the local school.  I could of sworn they thought we were celebrities.  Once they saw us, everyone swarmed out of all the classroom and mobbed us.  We have some awesome pictures and a video of Maggie getting swarmed in the middle of the school yard. 

Well that’s enough for me!  Oh, and I came in third place on the bet.

Eric