Day 4
Clinic day 4 is done. Today we traveled to a tent city. The tent cities are the remnants of the refuge camps after the earthquake. They are little more than flimsy structures made of tarps, sheet metal, wood, and sometimes cement blocks. They routinely have dirt floors and are one room. The bathrooms are outdoors and public. Many os the tent cities have been decommissioned and the refuges relocated. However, some are still in place and this is where we visited today.
The clinic was a dirt floored church. Haitian building codes are up to par with most of the world. Their cement is a very sandy mix leading the blocks and the mortar to crumble easily. Likewise the rebar that they use for structural support is much thinner in diameter versus what is seen in the US. In fact, it is so thin, we typically bend down exposed pieces to hang our bags or IV's from. The carpentry has much left to desire. We were a bit nervous looking at the nailing patterns and the common practice it appears of sistering different sizes of dimensional lumber to make a rafter. One experienced and good Haitian carpenter said this building would cave in within 2 or 3 years.
We saw several cases that were interesting. Again, several cute kiddos. Marcie got conned into babysitting one while the mother "ran home" to get some money for the pharmacy. At one point we were wondering if she was coming back. She did return and Marcie was thanked for her good deed.
After the mobile clinic patients were seen, we again returned to Cabaret and the fixed clinic. We performed a couple ultrasounds and saw the remainder of the patients.
Tomorrow will be our last clinic day. We will end the day and the trip having a party at the Drs. Vlad and Merline's home. I have a feeling there may even be a few Prestige in our future.
Everyone is well. We played an epic game of Mexican Train Dominoes last night. Kristin was the big winner despite never playing before. Beginners luck I'm sure.
Until tomorrow.
