Midwives for Haiti trip Day 1 - Arrival

Day 1 (Saturday September 29th)

 Well thankfully my flight down went perfectly!  As soon as I got my luggage in Port-au-prince the driver found me (the sign he was holding was a picture of a baby that he drew :) and we met up with the midwife and doctor from Virginia that are also volunteering here this week.  They are both very sweet and the OB doctor reminds me a lot of Dr. Carolyn Martin, my doctor I came here with last time.  She is totally open and down to earth and fun to talk to.  We then picked up Dr Steve Eads (the medical director for midwives for Haiti) and Nadine Brunk CNM (the founder of MFH) who just happen to be visiting here this month. It should be a great week, so interesting getting to hear all the behind the scenes stuff and talk to people who know all about it.

   On our way we stopped in Trianon and drove over giant ditches with the super pink MFH jeep, to get to the new birthcenter/medical clinic that is there.  It is very fresh and clean and should be a great addition to their community.  It will be staffed by two graduate midwives from our program. It is SO much nicer than the hospital we work at in Hinche!

Due to food spoilage, they don't kill any animals before they get to market, but they don't have special farm trucks to transport them, so they tie live chickens and goats by their feet and hang them all around their trucks.  I feel so bad for them, but I guess it keeps the food healthy.  We saw quite a few of these trucks on our 4 hour drive through the mountains from Port-Au-Prince to Hinche, in the central plateau.

MFH have moved into a new house since I was last here.  It is wonderful! They have electricity via a generator and running water.  But they still have the "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" rule to try and conserve.  There is tons of space for all us volunteers along with 2 of the midwifery students and 2 teachers and many others to live together comfortably.  And it has a great space for the classroom.

As we were getting ready for bed tonight we found a giant spider in our bathroom, it was the size of my palm, no kidding!  Talk about a relaxing thing right before climbing into our beds. I am glad we have mosquito nets on our beds, and not just because it will keep the mosquitoes out, but the giant spiders too!  Well off to bed, going on 3 hours sleep and some airplane naps, so I am ready.