Tent city

Today opened an impromptu clinic in a"tent city". One of the local
organizations "Quisqueya" has an abundance of meds and supplies and
were happy to furnish us w these to go off on our own looking for
patients. With both clinics well staffed w picked up 2 translators
Alex and mike. It's worth a moment to discuss them. I learned we are
supposed to pay them $20 from quisqueya. I was surprised bc all the
other hospitals are paying $5-10 if anything. The American runnih
quisqueya who's been here 50 hrs informed me min wage =$15/day ant
that is hard to live on Having shopped here I believe he's right. He
stated simply "just because it's the third world doesn't mean they
should live like itsthe 3rd world.". It hadn't dawned on me that I was
paying exploitatively low wages just because I could. These are
invaluable parts of the team and though they'd make nothing if they
turned down work for $5 for the day there skill set and services
really are worth the $20. If I raise any funds upon return to states I
don't think xlators is such a bad place to put the money as it
empowers localsand puts money into the Economy without just giving it
out which really can I think risk a dependancy mindset. Anyway we
got to Nazon neighborhood near the fam clinic found the 26 year old
Charles a hatian who had emerged as a strong neighborhood leader and
he took us (after trial and error) to a modest sized tent city ( there
must be hundreds if not thousands like it). No one new we were coming
but within about 30 seconds of me sitting at a table In the central
clearing about 10 people lined up. Within 5 min there were perhaps
100. Johnnie and I started evaluating patients w translators while Mac
set up and ran our little pharmacy. We treated innumerable aches and
pains and diarrhea and colds. Mostly people who weren't sick Enough to
seek a doc (though they also hAd no idea our clinic was only a 5 min
walk away). But we were mostly looking for needles in the haystack.
The 3 or 4 people who actually needed a doc. The volkmanns
contracture was one. We referred him to justines hospital (sacred
heart). A seizure girl maybe 8 yrs old w profound mr (set her up to
see dr rouzier at gheskio. It's nice having met all these docs
personally so I can just call them and send them. We did a lot of
evals w no documentation. Probably the wrong thing to do but when
handing out Tylenol for an ache I don't think it really matters. Again
we were mostly weeding thru healthy people to find those we could
help. At one point I took a woman back to her tent for privAcy to
evaluate c sx. Scar. It still amazed me waking thru these byzantine
alleys to a Tiny hovel and it's someones home. A few nicknacks. A
single matress for her and her infant. For her this has no doubt
normalized as home. Periodically while working I'd look up and feel
like I was in some Sally struthers commercial. It was the
prototypical scene of people lined and crowded to have a stethascope
pressed against them and told they're ok.
Wish I was a better writer to depict the scene
gnite
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