Matthew 25 News

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The latest dispatch from Matthew 25:

It’s been one month since the earthquake, and three days of prayer and mourning have been declared by what is left of the Haitian government. As I write this I hear a pastor outside in the camp leading whoever wants to join him in prayer and song. Later this morning there will be a Mass offered.

The prayer and song takes place each morning here beginning at about 5:00 AM, and most evenings. Last night I was fortunate enough to join two little girls and go over to the camp to enjoy the singing and prayer. Although I couldn’t understand the words, listening to the songs, and swinging arms with the children served as a soothing end to the day.

It is early Friday morning as I write this. The background noises I can hear are a clapping, prayerful chant accompanied by occasional rooster crows, and barking dogs. I know that as the sky lightens there are market women (known as Ti Machans or little merchants) walking toward their place at the side of the road where they will sit all day in the dust and exhaust fumes hoping to sell what little they have. Well, maybe today, there will be less exhaust fumes as there are few cars on the road. Many Haitian people are dressed in black and white, their colors of mourning.

Those of us who have black and white in our limited wardrobes don them in solidarity with the Haitians.

We will open the clinic today. It has been closed for everything but dressing changes, and emergencies for two days because we haven’t had a doctor. A five person medical team arrived here from San Francisco early last evening so we will have one doctor, while others in the team work at another camp for the day.

THE HAITIAN PEOPLE AS WELL AS MATTHEW 25 HOUSE HAVE RECEIVED HELP FROM SO MANY PLACES

PROMESS, which is part of the World Health Organization has been such a great help. Always compassionate and patient, for the past four weeks they have tried to help by providing us with medicine, and medical supplies. Everything they’ve offered for the past three weeks has been free. These workers really tried to help in whatever ways they could. After the first two weeks we needed to have a medical person sign the form, which certainly made sense, and is now possible. However, in the beginning they understood how many people like me were out here with no medical training other than way back when in Girl Scouts, and what I learned over the years in “Mom School.” Once medical help arrived we regular folks did the hauling of supplies. I shudder when I stop to think about how many cases of gauze, and kling bandages, how many bottles or peroxide, etc., have been used at this one location, and we continue to run low. PROMESS now must charge for supplies ordered by private clinics and hospitals. That means us. Our understanding is that public hospitals and clinics will continue to receive free medical supplies. We are running low on some things, so will go see them today to learn how much these items cost. Most of the people who have been working at PROMESS are from France.

A water cistern from a Sikh charitable organization based in the United Kingdom delivered a 600 gallon water “chateau” to our camp yesterday. They have also brought us medical supplies several times during the past few weeks. I’ve mentioned other international efforts such as the Belgian B-Fast early response team; the Israeli Field Hospital; the French Hospital and The U.S.S. Comfort in previous posts, but there have been so many more. A medical team from Germany took over what had formerly been a children’s hospital, and we received medical supplies from Denmark, and Norway. The Dominican Republic has begun to restore the electric power grid starting from their border with Haiti, reconnecting power as they move through the mountains; Cuba as always, has supplied many medical professionals; The Emergency Medical Response Team from Korea is working in one local hospital; an Islamic Emergency Medical team has set up a clinic on the grounds of a Catholic Church near here; The Italian government flew in a complete surgical recovery room, and set it up at St. Damien’s Children’s Hospital.

There are many others also: An Irish organization called Haven is installing latrines. They installed them at three camps near here. At Matthew 25 House we’ve enjoyed the company of four medical professionals from an organization based in Portugal. They leave each morning after breakfast to work in a clinic downtown. It is one of the busiest and most overcrowded camps. There are people here from many other places also, such as Iceland, and China, but it is the ones mentioned above with whom we’ve gratefully had direct contact.

Sweden also bears notice. They are installing several waste treatment plants. I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that our septic system had to be emptied. We contacted the company we’ve used previously, and a couple of members from the organization known as SOIL followed the truck to see where the waste was dumped. They had previously been told by the Haitian Health Ministry that there was a legal dumping area outside the city, and were given the GPS coordinates.

When they arrived at the site they found that there was nothing there. So the folks from SOIL followed the truck when it left here, and The Red Cross followed SOIL, and the Swedes followed the Red Cross, and some New York Times reporters followed everyone, and all of them learned that the waste was merely driven out of the city to a fairly remote area, and simply emptied onto the ground. Hopefully, the Swedes will correct this for all of us.

OUR HOSPITAL CAMP HAS DWINDLED

Our hospital section of the camp has fortunately dwindled to about 12 people, small enough to be able to provide patients with a bed. They had been on mattresses on the ground prior to now. Some of the young men “built” a great little hospital area, giving each patient a little space, and surrounding it all with tarps. I was thinking of the down side to that though as I went to the singing last night. These folks confined as they are, always had some visual entertainment. They used to be able to see all around them, and be more part of things. There is always something to see: new people coming to the clinic; people getting water; children playing, young men playing basketball after the clinic closes; the nightly prayer gatherings. Now they are really “in the hospital.” I hope that we can roll up the “walls” when something is going on so that they don’t feel isolated.