Shards

Belle Anse

May 13, 2015  At first sight approaching from the sea or the high mountains above, you would think Belle Anse is a lovely place.  In fact Belle Anse does mean “ beautiful cove” and indeed there is a half moon pebble beach that crests around the town and is backed by a shelf of mountains.  It doesn’t quite all add up even though palm trees dot main street – the bucolic setting is ground down by the inevitability of Haiti’s hard luck and neglect.  The little houses are cute but grimey, dusty pebbly roads are spitting old shoes, plastic bottles, condom wrappers and donkey dung.  Despite the tempting turquoise sea, swimming is life threatening due to the surf and the current.  The seas are too rough to fish right now so there is little food, the rains haven’t come so there is little water.

The cutest (and only) hotel in town where I could be staying

I am working here for the week, doing my usual gig in the MSPP clinic here and living in the residence, enjoying the kindness of Dr. Cajou a dear doctor here who drives the only car in town, and the resident nurse, Miss Etienne, who cooks and takes care of me.  I can hear the surf roll in from my hot little cell block behind the clinic.  We have been seeing about 35 women a day, no one has ever had cervical screening. We work together without a break and finish by about 2:30  - just in time for lunch, or Haitian dinner. 

Haitians really just eat one big meal a day.  Breakfast is some strong coffee and bread or spaghetti, maybe some eggs, and an evening meal doesn’t really exist unless you want to eat leftovers or labui, which is very thin porridge.  It took me a while to realize that was how things were, cuz sometimes I’d pass on the midday meal because it’s so hot.  Then I’d hang around looking hungry at dinner and be ignored.  One evening I smelled the delicious fragrance of BBQ chicken, and when I came to the table there was a big plate of pitch-black charred bones.  Everyone dove into the dish with an "ummm" and "ahhh."  I tried one with a tiny bit of flesh on it but you couldn’t eat the meat without eating the bones that crunched in your mouth like a hard Cheeto.  When I asked what it was they said “wild bird,” with further questioning, ranmye.  Pidgeon!!

Instead I am here behind the kitchen where they throw waste but piglets 
and strays clean it up

Two cases of cholera rolled in last night, the quarantine is still up and running here after most of the cases elsewhere in the country have subsided.  Because of the lack of clean water this place is more vulnerable.  There are about 15 cases a month now, during the height of the epidemic there were 30-40 patients pouring in daily.  Luckily I use a lot of bleach in the work that I do…..

decontamination in the time of cholera

Dr Cajou, the sweetest flower of Belle Anse

Miss Etienne and the gals

MIGHT YOU WANT TO DONATE?? PLEASE GO TO HISPAÑOLAHEALTHPARTNERS.ORG.

Thanks so much for all you love and generosity

There is an optimism here, maybe its a belief in magic, that objects that are not functioning will one day become useful.  Or that their mere presence is enough.  On the wall there's a clock that always says 6:47 or 3:23.  One or two fridges are in a room with no electricity, their doors loose and dangling.  Rooms fully plumbed for a shower and sink have never felt a drop flow through its pipes, outlets everywhere with ne'er a pulse of current.  My toilet seat is but a small shard - broken long ago but still there to make you think you are not sitting on the cold bowl

Prestige is my best friend at the end of the day

 

a few last Haitian funnies:
krapo means frog
"Patience Shop"  is what they call an auto repair shop
Fè LaFrans or "act like you're French" means pompous