The first 3 days

I arrived safe and sound at Port-au-Prince. The view from the plane gave me a great appreciation of the size and population density of the city. The city sprawl appears to be limited on the west by the sea and to the east by the mountains. There is a wonderful chaotic Caribbean vibe with endless street sellers carrying their produce on their heads.

My host family sent a lovely tap tap driver named Anel to pick me up. He spoke no English, I spoke no Creole. Despite this, Anel felt obliged to give me a comprehensive language lesson. I smiled, nodded and repeated some random sounds!

It took two hours of proper four wheel driving on worse than country type roads through the city to get home (it's probably about 20km). There is no apparent use of any road rules. The nature of the roads reminded me of driving up the McCauley riverbed to access the Godley valley in New Zealand, just throw in a few million Haitians for effect. There appears to be no observance of any road rules. I have to admire the spatial awareness of Haitians. Trucks, tap taps, cars and people all miss each other by fractions of a millimeter!

Despite my exhaustion after a sleepless night at Fort Lauderdale airport (where the airport sheriff told me to “expect the worst down there” thanks mister, that added nicely to my nerves!), I went straight to the clinic.

Global Therpay have done a great job at getting an indoor clinic up and running. The clinic itself resembles a shed in the backyard of a house. It is small but functional. There is no toilet for patient use and to wash your hands, you have to go outside to the store room.

The Clinic!

I'm working with two very enthusiastic Haitian guys called Andrew and Frantzo, they have made me feel very welcome and are very eager to learn.

Andrew is the clinic manager and my translator. He has done such a good job that he will be funded this year to attend university in Minnesota to study a Physiotherapy Assistant program. Frantzo had recently graduated from a 9 month rehabilitation technician program in Haiti.

There is a rooster who greets me each morning and calls my next patient. I think I'll call him “The Secretary”!

The Clinic "Secretary"!

Inside The Clinic!

I am slowly learning Haitian Creole thanks to Andrew, Frantzo and some good people at Kansas University who complied a survival guide.

The patients appear to arrive all at once. There is no concept of scheduling. It works on a first come first served basis and people don't mind waiting for as long as it takes. It is my instinct to get stressed if there is a patient waiting for me, however, in Haiti, it may look chaotic and hectic but it is ok to work at a reasonably relaxed but efficient pace.

To date, the majority of patients I have treated have suffered CVAs. This is due to a large incidence of uncontrolled blood pressure as a result of a lack of primary healthcare. We also see a number of traumatic orthopaedic injuries and I have ordered a prosthetic lower limb for a lady who sustained a below knee amputation.

It appears that the patients are genuinely excited to receive treatment and each patient has a beautiful big smile, bigger than the next. The patients are exceedingly pleasant, courteous and appreciative of any intervention that you give them. I wonder if this politeness affects my treatment evaluation...? I will ask Andrew! They are eager to learn and appear to be particularly compliant with advice and exercises.

The following are some images from outside the clinic:

The kids from the house next door! They couldn't afford to continue school after the earthquake  so some kind Global Therpay volunteers are funding them.

Overcrowding due to a large population density.

Poor living conditions.

Hanging out the washing before the rains come.