It’s just over a year since I arrived at the Hòpital de la Convention Baptiste d’Haiti (HCBH) and what a year it has been. Time has passed both quickly and slowly at different points on my journey; the last 3 months in particular have been quite draining. Maybe I bit off a little more than… Read More »
Today was a throwback to my early days here. In the morning I built a couple of hospital beds, then we spent a little time (nearly 3 hours) driving around town trying to find some bits for the generator. That was successful. I took a bit of a liberty though – we have early on-set… Read More »
Thursday. Remembrance Day in fact. I followed it in, having just run an errand, so I was driving. Which meant I didn’t have my phone out to film it, but the memory will live forever, even if not captured for ma ‘gram. As it rolled past him, Joe our Translator (though he is a lot… Read More »
I sleep well, very well, and quite late. But suddenly ‘rest’ has become ‘boredom’. I guess after 19 days full on, including (un)healthy dollops of stress, I can’t cope. And with covid in the team, my plans to leave become slightly less concrete. After as many ‘housekeeping’ tasks as I can manage. I finally… Read More »
The solar experiment is working, but it is hard work. It starts around 0830 and one of the team visits every ward with the bad news, AC and fans off, please. All other non-essential equipment off, please. Lights out when you leave the room, please. We then check the readings on the generator and if… Read More »
We have long had problems keeping the fridge cold, of key importance out here when every day is never less than 28 degrees, over the summer we were at mid-thirties, and now into the autumn it still more than 30 most days. The fridge door is dodgy, we can’t quite work out why, but the… Read More »
The fuel shortage continues, but Friday we heard that it was increasingly likely that even the drip feed would stop. With less than a week of diesel left we had some hard decisions ahead (aka Department closures). The hospital held a crisis meeting and advised all staff that we would have to make (unspecified) sacrifices… Read More »
Many of the disputes and much of the unrest at the moment is political, not just who is in charge (or not) and what they do (or don’t) strand for but also a nod to history, with the marron or Bourgeoisie of Haitian society who are perceived (rightly or wrongly) to unfairly have all of… Read More »
Back to the wind ranging field of activities that never featured in the ‘job description’ this week. All great stuff though and as I think I have said before so rewarding; I wouldn’t change anything, not even the cold showers. Though I have to confess the cold showers have been few and far between lately;… Read More »
In an earlier post I talked about a community with no water or sanitation, today I visited a charity that digs wells for communities, like the one we had at the hospital back in January. This was an easy meeting because I had dealt with the team before, and they had good English. A good… Read More »