Day 2

Rubble everywhere

The presidential palace

We saw this imagine several times spray painted through out Haiti

Church downtown, It looks destroyed but as you drive by you can see they still gather and worship inside what is left

Last night I did not sleep well but got up around 6 this morning and started getting ready for the day. Jeanne and I were the first dropped off at our satellite clinic in Bon Repo. We set up our pharmacy and began to see patients, we both had our own translators. Today was only a half day but between the two of us from 9am to 2pm we saw 110 patients. We were very busy, I saw things from Staph to high fevers. I am very nervous about seeing patients for the fact that I do not know enough medically to make confident decisions and am glad tomorrow is our sabbath day off. I learned alot of things today such as the difficulties we are going to face in trying to take patients to the hospital. Alot of hospitals are shutting down and the general hospitals are too expenisve. If you go to a general hospital the only thing free is the bed and a dr. to look at you otherwise you have to pay for sheets, pillows, food, and anything that you use or may need. I hope we do not have to face an emergency situation where we have to try to get a patient into the hospital but I have a feeling we will be facing alot of that. After work we went through downtown Port-Au-Prince. They say about 70% was destroyed from the quake but it looks so much more than that, we are able to get out at the presidental palace. Most of the rubble is still there and whatever rubble they have removed is being tossed in the ocean. Its hard not to think about the bodies still trapped underneath. Trash is everywhere piled up in the streets and pigs are the animal I see the most. As you drive down the street you randomly see people going to the bathroom and children bathing in the filthy streams. I am in shock with the unsanatary conditions and cant imagine the diseases that will arise because of it. When we get back from our adventure through downtown we have some rice and our meeting. I am very tired tonight, the heat is beginning to get to me however as I sit here and listen to my music I begin to hear the rain beating against my tent. I foresee another sleepless night as I begin to think about those living out on the streets and the shelters that will not hold up during the night. I begin to think about the children who are given alcohol as a sleep aid and the amount of people who have not eaten in days. The suffering I've witnessed today is nothing I have ever experienced before but I know that God has not turned his back on Haiti.