Warm Welcome

Welcome to Haiti! We safely landed and I already feel at home. Dr. Matt left a mark here in January that contributed to a warm reception. After 2 unsuccessful attempts to pass through customs with 200+ lbs of baggage, we were finally unleashed into the chaos of grabby Haitian hagglers and the beating sunshine. Before we even have time to confront a plan of action, I hear “Dr. Matt! I think I know you!”  Our friends and interpreters, Charles and Peter fended off hagglers, loaded us up, took us to exchange money and purchase a cell phone. We headed north past Arcahaie towards the mountains where our new home, Mission Matana, was nestled.  The scenery on the drive reveals a countryside in a better state than I anticipated. Being the rainy season, the green abounds. We drive by a few “tent cities” and mounds of rubble, but all in all the place looks better than I expected from all the presentations, books, and accounts of those who have come before me.

            An inspiring Haitian woman named Mahalia founded the compound we now call home. Her impressive history includes working as an international diplomat, managing banks, airlines, and getting her masters at Harvard. Her husband Raymond is a brilliant engineer, designing solar panels for use in the Caribbean. The two of them are quite the team, both very committed to improving this community. They could live in the U.S. if they chose, but their hearts are here in this community to serve God through tending to the poor and in need. They have housing, food, and employment for people on their grounds, and take in young women with nowhere else to turn. As Mahalia put it – “We tell them, if you must sell their body for food, come and be safe here.” Construction is currently underway for more housing and a large kitchen to host international teams to have clinics, help with agriculture, construction, etc. Big goals for the future here include a women's and children's hospital as well as a nursing school.

            They are devout Christians, and have daily services open to whomever. Each evening we fall asleep to the children singing their hymns and are awoken around 5am with the men starting their day with songs of praise. It is interesting and honestly refreshing to see bright faces embracing Christianity here at the compound. We are nestled in the “voodoo” capital of Haiti, which is a mix of Catholicism and saint worshiping as well as priestly witchcraft, bad spirits causing diseases and good spirits bringing healing (for a steep price to the “priest”). It will be interesting to see how this plays out in medical practice – may be hard to treat people for diseases that they believe a spirit caused and only a priest can fix.

            The real stars of the show around the compound are the animals. Goats nibble anything and everything, sheep stand wide eyed in the roads, chickens peck near our feet with their babies close behind, mangy mutts have no shame in begging, and the roosters just don’t shut up. Eating dinner our first evening, Matt wolfed down his first chicken leg so I offered him mine too – feeling a little guilty with Mr Chicken’s cousin pecking around my feet. He promised it wouldn’t take long for me to get over the guilt, and in fact the chicken would taste better than Kalmus’ after a few too many rooster awakenings.

            The highlight of my first day was walking around the community. It is just beautiful. So lush, palm trees and greenery all around – not what I expected. I briskly followed Matt as he led me on dirt paths following the canal system traversing many backyards. At one part of the canal, you see three little kids playing naked, splashing and giggling enjoying their baths. Just downstream, sits a young girl with buckets to fill and carry back to her house for drinking and cooking. This is possibly the simplist explanation for the stomach aches and diarrhea to be seen in the future…

            When walking, kids and adults alike line the streets and shout “Blan!”, because yes, we are white. In fact, I haven’t seen another white face yet in our several trips to town and back.  On the exploration, one young girl is extra friendly, waves at us and is motioning with her hands in her hair, and waving for us to follow her. It looks like she is asking me to come back and have my hair braided or something, what is she doing? She leads us back into the homes, where the celebrity of Matt’s blogs was sitting and getting a bath from her mother. Turns out the girl’s motions with her hands on her head, really meant “come see the little girl with the big head!”. The little girl with hydrocephalus had seen by local specialists, thanks to Matt’s persistence, including a neurosurgeon who told her that since she had made it to age 5 (which most don’t), she would be able to live with the condition and not need a surgery.  The moment she set eyes on Matt, she burst into clapping and giggling, never had I seen such excitement in another being. She was just shrieking, and her mother followed suit.  The little girl’s head is still too big for her to balance on two feet, so her mother picked her up to place in Matt’s arms, where she began rubbing his hair and touching his face with glee. I lost it, and was fumbling through tears to get out the camera and try and capture it. Keep in mind the language barrier - no one is really speaking, but we stayed there for about 15 minutes just laughing and hugging. Her mother immediately brought us chairs to sit in out in the yard, and went inside to retrieve two cds with images of the CTs that were done on the last trip to the hospital. She had saved them this whole time, waiting for him to come back. The blan had arrived.