Being in the back of the truck is nothing new for me but seeing large cracks in the road and HUGE boulders in the road right where the truck slowed down to crawl up the mountainside was! At one location we passed American military working with heavy equipment breaking up the car size boulders-nice but it would be been better in our opinion if they had been working on dislodging the bus size boulders still hanging above the road ready to come crashing down!
Very few buildings in Leogane remained standing. Rubble and debris dominated the landscape. The Wesleyan church met under blue tarps beside the destroyed church building. We set up a few stations beside the truck using the side which could be lowered for a shelf to hold supplies.
A few bricks from a destroyed building placed in the mud puddle made a path. A bent wire, something with a rope tied to one end helped to keep the small crowd back.
We were set up mostly for wound care not general medicine clinic so only saw 20 people. But a few of those cases were in need of major wound care and surgical treatment. While we saw folks a couple of young Canadian military stopped by to see what we were doing. Able to confirm their medical presence in town we directed the more serious patients to go for additional care the next day.
Another car of light skinned foreigners stopped by as well asking if we happened to have any baby formula. They had six newborns at their location and nothing for them. After our negative response they quickly returned to their vehicle and speed away.
Done before noon the local pastors took us to a second site in town-the soccer field where they thought people would be in need. However another medical group already established there told us that few people were showing up for treatment. Perhaps because it was Sunday?
We stopped in at the Canadian command post and talked with them a while. We compared notes on how many groups of foreign medical folks had stopped in asking for a place to set up shop. At TiGoave on any one day we'd have 3-4 groups stop in to see what we were doing, many wondering where they could best be a help.
Each time this happened I was reminded thankfully that I now had a team and a place to belong. Those first days of wondering and working solo remain clearly in my mind, a weird kind of loneliness in the midst of busyness.
On our way back to the campus we stopped at a tent city by the side of the road. Side by side often sharing a sheet wall, hundreds of people were living. Small children ran playing. A small field transformed into a city. This location like the last already had received medical treatment. So we headed back home and helped our guys finish up with the people they had waiting.
A local pastor helping us at TiGoave asked that we come to his church on Monday. He would set up the spot and let the folks know. So we packed up supplies again planning on a second motile clinic the next day to Papette.
1 comment:
An Earth-quake causes heavy loss. Experts call for taking adequate precautions to minimize losses. Alarmed by the recurrence of quakes during recent years, should be taken as a signal for a major earthquake.
Post a Comment