Que vaina (at a loss for a good title)

It has been an interesting week. I have done a lot of meeting and greeting, getting to know the town and the people. I have been to some pretty remote areas and seen some pretty grotesque living conditions. I mean, absolutely deplorable. Things that make bathing in reclaimed pig urine(why do i keep going back to that?) seem hygenic.

More than anything else, I am just trying to establish relationships and foster connections and begin to network. We have a lot of ground to cover and its not super effective if I walk into a clinic and say, "blah,blah, blah, infectious disease, blah, blah, host a volunteer?", so I am meeting people that can introduce me into the community. It is quite a process. The people here are very supportive of our mission, so that's nice.

Recently, there has been an outbreak of severe diarrhea/cholera in the area heading towards Haiti. The municipal hospital here in town has been overwhelmed with people being admitted for severe dehydration with symptoms of the dreaded cholera. The fear is that it will begin to penetrate the town center, and from there to the outlying villages. Once the ball starts rolling it is hard to stop. The local medical staff here took the initiative to spend this morning going out into the most affected areas and giving them a brief class on cholera prevention techniques and also gave them clorox to disenfect water, soap to wash their hands, and rehydration salts to treat diarrhea. I was able to tag along and contribute, which was a really great experience. We must have hiked for around 3 hours to 6 or 7 different homes hidden/scattered throughout the hills. Mostly one bedroom houses that slept 7-10 people very uncomfortably. No floor, no bathroom, no kitchen. The problem is that these Haitians that live in the area do their business wherever they can pop a squat and that "business"...henceforth.....makes its way to the river that they, coincidentally  drink from, bathe, wash dishes, etc. It is a vicious cycle, and its heartbreaking to see a whole mess of filthy Haitian children with extended bellies full of parasites, malnourished.

Needless to say, it is an area we plan to focus on  and hopefully partner with the local government to build some latrines so we can reduce the number of incidents. Not even 3 days ago a child died from severe diarrhea, which is something very easily preventable.

This photo took 15 solid minutes to upload on my "dial-up" connection, so its the only one you're getting! One of the homes had easily 4 children like this running around naked with terrible skin infections and lesions . One of the local Doctors i was with wrote a few prescriptions to have filled at no cost to the families, which was a great sign of solidarity between Haitians/Dominicans.

I had the opportunity today to travel deeper into the Haitian countryside and visit a remote community called La Miel. I went with a German NGO that is doing work in reforesting Haiti. They have done a great job there making the land sustainable and implementing techniques to avoid erosion, which contaminates the main water source everyone drinks from. They are a model for sustainability, and I hope to work with them at some point during our project. I spoke with a local leader in the community about possibly bringing some work there. AIDS and Cholera are prevalent in the area. We will see how it fits in the program. I am getting overwhelmed with possibilities. I need to relax and start at least one of them, ha.

Well, i guess that about it for now. There are a few holes in my roof that I discovered after a heavy rain when my kitchen was completely soaked. I was feeling unfortunate about it......then I went to Haiti.....im good :)

Ill upload more photos later.