02.25.10
Wilson with two Haitian orphans at the Kings Hospital complex in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Haiti in context: Reactions from a recent medical mission
By Sallie Wilson '07
My dad and I decided to go to Haiti in August of last year. We were both interested in doing medical mission work and I had recently reignited my French language skills in France. Little did we know, we would be narrowly avoiding death, or at least tragedy, by leaving two days before the earthquake of January 12, 2010 struck.
We stayed with Haitian-born doctors Hubert Morquette and Junie Hyacinthe and worked at their newly built mission hospital named Kings Hospital in Port-au-Prince. Their complex includes a six-story hospital, an orphanage of sixty-four children, and a school of 108 children.
Upon first arriving in Port-au-Prince on a Sunday night, the entire city seemed to be out and moving, with many people on foot despite the pouring rain. Those that were not walking were piling into vibrantly painted “tap-taps,” pick-up trucks with a rain cover attached to the bed that serve as Haiti’s public transportation. Upon asking Hubert why there were so many people outside, he explained saying Port-au-Prince was a city built for 600,000 people that has a population of 2 million. In other words, people were moving because they had little reason to stay in any one place. A “private home” (a house surrounded by high walls topped by concertina wire) like Hubert’s, the one to which we were driving, is an anomaly in Haiti rather than the norm.
It was not until the morning that the backdrop to this mass motion unveiled its full spectrum. Driving along the main road to Kings Hospital, named Maïs Gåté or “Spoiled Corn,” I saw a city filled with trash, goats, hogs, roosters, and dogs, and lined by shacks. No more than two or three open-air rooms comprised these dwellings. There was not much obvious evidence of starvation in the adult population on this particular road, but hunger plays a large role in the political instability in Haiti. About 80% of Haitians live on less than US $2 per day. Children in the area, unlike the adults, did have the attributes of malnourishment.
The most eye-opening part of the trip was not the sight of the shantytowns or the size of the stomach of a malnourished child, but the repetition of these sights. We drove to the beach on the Friday of our weeklong trip. Again and again we passed young children with stomachs that ballooned out in front of them due to malnourishment. Even at the orphanage, where the children are well fed, the two youngest orphans had enormous bloated bellies from being malnourished as infants.
The top of Kings Hospital had a commanding view of both a suburb of Port-au-Prince called Delmas and the surrounding valley leading to the coast. Few buildings were more than one-story high and a few rooms large (the hospital was the tallest building within the 360 degree view). Everything seemed to be falling apart except the mountains.
This is not to say Haiti is not beautiful. The white-sand beaches of Jacmel could be mistaken for other beaches in the Caribbean on which world-class resorts build their reputations. The mountains were lush, green, and terraced.
Haitian mangoes, pineapples, avocadoes, sugar cane, tomatoes, vanilla, papaya and coffee each explode with the kind of flavor that only comes from organic growth in naturally-occurring fertile conditions. The Haitian rum was enough to make my dad leave the gate of our outgoing plane to buy five duty-free bottles. Since the United States placed an embargo on Haiti in the 1990s, the country has never been able to reestablish strong trade relations.
Hubert and Junie, our hosts, were equally proud and critical of their community. Junie liked to discuss the adaptability of Haitians as evidenced in the move of all three of her children to Montréal. Hubert, being a gourmet chef, liked to discuss the cuisine. Hubert and Junie were considered part of the elite class in Haiti, both being practicing physicians, but used their position to lend much-needed aid to the 80% of Hiatians living below the poverty line. Taking on a project like building and running an orphanage, hospital, and school in Port-au-Prince is not for the faint of heart. Their strong ties with American medical missionaries were upheld by their belief that resenting outside intervention was counterproductive.
When I found out the earthquake hit, I was shell-shocked, stunned, speechless, what have you. The most immediate change I could pinpoint with what little information was coming through the news was that the Presidential Palace had been damaged. I had a picture of it in the packet of developed photos I had just brought home from the drugstore. Without being able to articulate it at the time, I felt that all of the memories and stimulation that had painted my experience, the sights, the smells, the people, the sounds, had ruptured along with Haiti. This kind of heartbreak was new to me.
A day after the earthquake I heard from Lumière Medical Missions, the group that had organized our trip, and found out Hubert had called at 5:30 pm after the earthquake to say no one had died and the hospital was one of the few in Port-au-Prince still intact. Up until the earthquake, King’s Hospital was not open to patients due to lack of funds, supplies, and staff. It is currently filled to over maximum capacity. Hubert and Junie are working furiously performing surgeries on wounds and broken bones, and are in desperate need of both doctors and supplies.
My main concerns for Haiti are: One, the thousands of homeless Haitians who now will have an even harder time of finding the food, water, and shelter we take for granted. Two, the escape of the inmates from the prison in downtown Port-au-Prince. This means there is a possibility some of the pro-Aristide gangsters responsible for the violence from 2003-2008 are now free. Three, the country itself had so far to go with its medicine. Kings Hospital was in need of fundraising to establish a beneficent fund to support the many Haitian patients who could not pay full price for their necessary medical attention. Now the attention of the world is on earthquake relief (as it should be). Thankfully, Haitian causes have become the focus of charities nationwide, but to what end will Haiti be restored?
My mother had asked me earlier in the day on the day of the earthquake what I thought the future of Haitian medicine was. I confided in her that I thought it could only go up from where it was. All we can hope is the aid and disaster relief efforts will fuel Haiti to a new height, establishing greater infrastructure rather than eliminating the recent but tenuous stability Haiti had due to an increase in police force and the recent capture of the leader of the gang responsible for the revolts by President Préval.
Haiti is not just a disaster-torn third-world country that deserves to be patronized or deserves misplaced pity and energy. I urge you to participate in the restoration process for the sake of its people and potential. Obviously, my favorite way would be to donate time or money to Lumière Medical Ministries, www.lumiereministries.com, but at the very least I urge you to resist becoming desensitized to the issue as the images of disaster become redundant and stress about daily life makes it easy to tune this crisis out. What the earthquake has not changed is Haiti’s potential to be a thriving island nation with an intriguing identity. Now more than ever it needs help to get there.
Sallie Wilson '07 is a junior at Columbia University, where she is majoring in French
with a premedical concentration and is a member of the ski team.