Some say that this is the very essence of life; the ebb and flow, the pulse of life. A kind of roller coaster experience. Wherever you are there are as many good days as bad. In Haiti, the pulse of life is just as palpable, but the rapidity with which situations change is unbelievable. Since […]
May 9, 2011
How does it go? “Calm before a storm?” I know there is a calm that settles in after one as well. It would seem that I’ve skidded to a sudden halt, my mind demanding a moment of stillness. I am now in my third month in Haiti. It has taken ninety-some days for me to […]
March 7, 2011
This week I started work in the pediatric outpatient clinic just down a short incline from the hospital; 45 kids yesterday, another 25 today. In my entire seven years of medicine, I don’t think I have treated that many kids at once. A little boy was brought in today. He was maybe four or five. The wiry older lady […]
March 2, 2011
The ‘Paradise of Quebec’ – Auverbege nan Quebec – is the nearest hotel to the hospital. It’s an outpost just four kilometers up the road. So, we – a pack of volunteers from the hospital – descend on Auverbege with the intent of using their TV – a TV, any TV – to catch the […]
February 22, 2011
Although I acknowledge fully that I have only been in Haiti a few weeks, my subconscious nags at me that it must be longer. Months, at the least. Years, even. I’ve begun to greet my surroundings with familiarity. I know how to fulfill my basic needs. Water, shelter, food. I have my own little space […]
February 21, 2011
1994 by Lucille Clifton I was leaving my fifty-eighth year when a thumb of ice stamped itself hard near my heart / you have your own story you know about the fears the tears the scar of disbelief / you know that the saddest lies are the ones we tell ourselves / you know how dangerous […]
February 15, 2011
July 9, 2011
1