A deaf child and the interpreter from the US who was visiting

We started at 9 at St. Vincent’s again, treating those kids we had not had a chance to see on Wednesday, some family members of the staff, and more staff members. It was a cool day for Haiti, I think the remnants of tropical storm Bonnie, which had blown through the day before, had shifted the winds and we had a nice cool breeze all morning. Some of the kids from Monday and Wednesday came by to say they were feeling better, and just to say hi, which was really fun. Treatment is always more successful if you have some follow up with your patients, that will be possible with St. Vincents for sure.

Woman showing us her headache!

This time I used my computer to analyze some of the cases which was helpful, and between sips of a Sprite to settle my stomach and give me some energy, taking breaks by lying on one of the examining tables, and yelling over to Kim when she got stuck and could not understand even the translator’s english, the morning flew by.

We had an appointment at 2pm with the director of the Notre Dame Nusring School, and had to also pack up all our supplies to be returning to the storage closet at the L’Hopital Francais.

We made it to the nursing school by 1:30 and then waited till 2:30 for the director, but the meeting went very well. There was no need to convince her of the efficacy of homeopathy, or the benefit to her students in the field, or the legitimacy of our organization. She had already spoken with the doctor who put us in touch with her and was ready to hear our proposal. She really wanted us to come back on Monday with an introduction to Homeopathy class in hand.

So, we are putting together ideas about where to go from here, we have this school and one in Leogane who want us to teach nurses basic homeopathy. It looks like I will be returning almost certainly in 2 months to be part of the teaching team and to provide a teaching clinic also for the nurses.

The "team" with our drive in the center, Joseph

This is the best news, for being able to support Haitians in being self sufficient is much more important than any other goal I might have held onto before.

Having spent a week at the hotel, of course I made a few friends, one of whom was a waiter in the dining room who spent time teaching me Creole. As a parting gift, he gave the last members of the group a keychain with the word Haiti carved in wood. When I said goodbye he said in Creole, you leave my heart sad, which was just how I felt.

I leave Haiti definitely ready to go home, however also ready to return. They are a proud and dignified people who deserve much better than what they have drawn this time. When I arrived the situation seemed so hopeless, how could anything change here? But as I am leaving, I am feeling much the opposite. And I know that I would like to be part of that change.

Artwork for sale on the street in Port au Prince

This is the man who was so helpful in organizing and translating for us, JoJo. He is also a painter!

We had an interpreter, JoJo, who I spoke about before in a previous post. He has no arms or legs, sits in a wheelchair, answers his cell phone with his tongue! speaks english very well, and seems to be the Master of Ceremonies at St. Vincents. He was a great help, as he knows all the kids, had a great connection with each of them, and was super motivated to help us help them.

What did we treat? Mostly problems we encounter anywhere, headaches, indigestion and heartburn, ear infections, back aches. However, two things stood out for me, which were not things I encounter in my practice in California.

A boy at St. Vincent's and a woman on the staff

One was related to the prevalence of voo-doo in the minds of the Haitians. Some spoke of family members who believed who were superstitious about why they fell sick. For instance, one young man had fallen into a delirium after the earthquake where he felt he did not know where he was and had lain in bed for months, unable to attend school. His relatives thought it was the cause of a curse, or spirits. This is a real impediment to treatment because if you believe that is the cause, then why seek out medical treatment? It could not possibly help, they may conclude.

Here are the remedies, laid out on an examining table in the clinic. Lauri and Kim are my teammates with HWB

The other was the underlying sadness of the situation and their response to it. In Homeopathy we not only are treating the physical symptoms of the person, but also the emotional state and mental state. So the best cases, the easiest ones to treat, are those where the physical and emotional symptoms point directly to the same remedy. This is not always true, especially in the states where cases are made complex from the heavy use of over the counter drugs, prescription drugs, self-help books, and just our analytical focus. It leaves many people unable to clearly state what emotions they are feeling. Here, the gift we were given as Homeopaths, was that not only could we clearly observe the internalization of their grief written on their faces and in their body position, but also the physical symptoms were in line with the most commonly needed remedy for internalized grief, Natrum-Muriaticum. So while not ALL the people needed this remedy, we gave it to about 50% or more of them.

So, altogether it was an instructive and exhilarating day of treatment. I look forward to Friday, when we will see people from outside the school. We have no idea what to expect, which is the norm in Haiti. Something I have had to acclimate to, as things are very different here, and even when you think you know what is going to happen, something entirely different occurs!

Photos by Yair Ademar Romero Sikorski

We wanted to treat mostly the children and pregnant women, but to do that required that we share the tent of Partners in Health. They required we have a registration number from the Ministry of Health which we do not have, so there is still negotiation going on. The need to great there, but the potential for a bad situation to develop is also high. As we were leaving we had brought some things to give away, infant formula, diapers, toys, some first aid things. What seemed like an easy task became quickly scary, we were surrounded by about 50 people immediately, with more coming toward the car. The head of the committee encouraged us to leave quickly, but even that was hard, as the kids were all around us and not moving, it was totally sad and a bit scary at the same time. We did manage to give away what we brought, but you feel like it is such a drop in the bucket, the hopelessness of the situation is so apparent.

We learned a lot about how Haiti’s medical system works from meeting with the head of the hospital yesterday. It seems there are 2 types of hospitals: private and public. Regardless of insurance or not, in a private hospital you rent a room, your doctor visits you there and performs surgery or does the treatment, but you are under his care. The hospital itself does not have doctors, they provide the nurses and the rooms. And all of this you pay for yourself. The public hospitals are free to the general public. But here is the interesting part: 80% of Haitians will go to a voo-doo doctor (a houngan) first, then if they have the money and the access to a MD they would go to him (her). But outside of POP, there are almost no MDs, clinics are staffed by nurses and medical supplies are almost non-existent. To add to these problems, since the earthquake, the NGOs have brought down so many doctors and health professionals, that the Haitian MDs have taken a real hit. The doctor we spoke to had only done 2 surgeries since January, because everthing was being funneled through the NGOs. Rather than hire a Haitian doctor, they brought MDs from the US and around the world, paid as much as $4000US a month to keep them here, and all that money then went back out of the country, rather than remain in Haiti. Another example: they distributed $3mil worth of condoms in the last few months. They could have, for $2million, built a factory to manufacture condoms, and hire Haitians. These are the kinds of AID that would have long lasting positive effects on Haiti.

How does all this affect our work here? I came down here very anxious to TREAT people, to have them line up and help them feel better. This is definitely needed, and today we will be doing that. However, the real need, is to empower the Haitians to treat themselves, to offer them an alternative to poor health and death from  preventable diseases such as appendicitis.

We have an appointment on Friday with the head of the nursing school here, and will see if we can set up some classes for nurses when we return.

Now we are off to St. Vincent’s to treat the children and staff of the school.

Word is that there will be a strike tomorrow, so we are wondering what that means. Thinking we might have to stay put tomorrow, not sure.

Once outside, there waited a sea of blue shirted Haitians hoping to give you a ride to wherever you wanted to go. Not finding any of them holding a sign up with my name on it, I asked a kindly older woman to help me choose one. She approached an older man, nicely dressed, who brought me to the hotel and has become our driver for the last 2 days.

We spent Sunday driving to some appointments at different clinics and just getting familiar with what is going on here. It is a lot to take in, and best taken in slowly, in spurts as there is not much to be hopeful about here, except perhaps in the spirit of the Haitian people. In spite of the awful conditions they live in, you rarely see anyone poorly dressed, their crisp white clothes are not even dirty, their shoes are shined, hair combed, and the men are perfectly shaven with recent haircuts as well. How do they do it when they live in a tent, with no bathrooms, only port-a-lets, bathing in small plastic tubs, washing their clothes by hand amongst the dirt and dust of the whole city. Just the amount of rubble still left is enough to get you discouraged.

It is difficult to even begin to list the number of things that need to be fixed here, but we did discover one thing that is working well. And that is what I will talk about here – we are starting a clinic at St. Vincent’s School for handicapped children. A truly wonderful place in the midst of all this chaos. It houses about 40 children right now, many more before the earthquake, and runs a school with about 60 children, all physically handicapped in some way. The place is clean, the kids are happy, well fed and groomed. The school is functioning, I spoke with a group of young men who were discussing history and philosophy with me! So we will spend part of the time treating the kids who are there, then the staff, and then on Friday we will be opening up the clinic to whomever they bring in from the tent camps. We are very excited to get started, and I will write a bit each day about our experiences.

Today we are visiting the director of 3 hospitals in Port au Prince who is interested in working with us. We believe it would be more of a teaching opportunity, but may also include some clinic work. He is well connected here in Haiti, so it is a good chance to get into the system.

As far as the personal side of things, I can’t really convey to you all how it is here, pictures would do a better job. It rained the first few days, which kept things cooler, yesterday there was no afternoon rain, and the temperature was above 100 deg F. We spend 2 hours in traffic getting to a tent camp to meet with the committee who runs the camp. No one speaks much English, so my French has had to suffice, so I have had a lot of practice. Most people speak French and Creole, which are different enough that it makes it hard for me to understand the Creole.

Unfortunately I cannot upload any of the pictures yet, but I will keep trying. Au revoir , A Demain!

The two remedies most people are needing this year are: Nux-vomica and Gelsemium. Review the list of symptoms below and determine which remedy fits your state the best. The best results will be with the remedy that covers both your physical symptoms and emotional state. Then begin with 2-3 pellets of a 30C potency, two doses, one hour apart. You should notice improvement after the second dose. Do not take any more unless the symptoms return, then take the two doses again. If they don’t help you may need a higher potency, the 200C. You may take that in the same way as you took the 30C.

Nux-Vomica

1. Sudden onset with fever and severe chills, can be so severe that the least uncovering causes the patient lots of discomfort, this is typically the strongest symptom
2. Raw, sore throat which is better with warm drinks
3. Irritability
4. Head pain is severe, can be pressing or bursting pain
5. Body aches can be anywhere in the body

Gelsemium

1. Slow onset with an overwhelming tiredness and feeling of heaviness with trembling sometimes
2. Feels the eyes simply cannot stay open, must close them they are so heavy
3. Weakness and chills which run up and down the back
4. Anxiety, can be brought on from worrying about an upcoming event

If you have any questions, feel free to call Lisette and schedule an appointment for a phone consultation. Treating yourself or family members with homeopathic remedies is safe if you follow the guidelines above, and can truly help in avoiding complications from colds and flus!

• Many of these meds have never been tested on children
• Many of them are ineffective in reducing the severity or length of the illness
• It is during childhood that the immune system needs to be exercised in order to provide healthy responses as an adult. This is also  expressed here: “…shadow side of increased vaccination usually ignored by physicians and the media: “decreased exposure to viral infections in early childhood…may provide less and less normal stimulation of the immune system with more susceptibility to allergies in later years.”