The silly and amazing happenings in Haiti

This morning we could still see the moon while the sun came up. Daniel said: "jodia li pap prale lakay non manman". The moon is not going home today mom!

So I found this woman in front of the surgery door waiting to get in. I asked her to have a seat and wait for the nurse to come out.  Later I found her standing right before the same door again. She had something in her hand. A cup with....urine. She was standing in front of the wrong door! She had to go to the lab.

A young woman with 2 children came to the clinic. She used to get an "every-3 months- shot" for not getting pregnant. Her husband recently went outside Haiti to work so she would not be needing any family planning at this moment. But her shot would still be valid for another month. And that's the reason she had an infection of her private parts....so she told me.

A mother told me the father of her children died last year. Today she told me her husband was sick and admitted at a voodoo doctors place. So I ask her about this guy. Well, she says, the father of 6 of my children died. And I have 12 kids all together.  But only with one father. I am lost.

A father and a mother come to the clinic with their 1 moth old baby. The baby has a lot of gas I notice. It's like firework! The father talks about 

While doing an ultrasound on a 5 month pregnant woman I notice she has not enough amnionic fluid. I mentioned this to her and her husband. Oh said the man that's what the gynecologist already told us. He said to just drink more water..... Actually it's not the first time I hear this advise.

So this morning this young healthy woman from far away tells me this: I had an accident 2 months ago. I had to go to school first but now I am here. So tell me what did I hurt in my body during the accident?

So this older surgery patient had his shirt on the wrong way. Backwards and inside-out. No one said a thing about it all day. When he was sitting on the surgery table I changed his shirt for him until.....the nurses explained me why he had it like that. It is to avoid and prevent evil on the way. Oops. An old custom everyone knows except me....not even after 20 years.

I got up at 4 a.m. and while feeding the dogs I see my neighbour lady sitting in the waiting room all by herself in the dark. She tells me she has a bad toothache. So I got inside to get her a painkiller and I hear her say "are you getting something for me or what?".  I answered "yes, what do you think I am doing now?". So I got her the meds and then she asks me "should I take them today?".......

To make sure that works continues I taught 2 young women today how to peform an ultrasound on a pregnant woman. While checking the foetus' gender we saw it was a boy. And we saw more. We saw a boy who was peeing!! We al l together (including mother) had a big laugh about it.

Today I had to tell 3 separate people they were infected with H.I.V. One of them told me he had it tested 4 times already. Four times positive. But he went to the witchdoctor and that man explained to him that all though the hospitals would tell him he is infected, that he shouldn't believe that because treatment would not be good for him. During the years in Haiti many people would tell me the same story. Very discouraging.