I made it back to Boston on Wednesday night. My flights went incredibly smoothly as did pretty much all aspects of the trip. All of my stuff made it home, I didn't have to pay any extra baggage fees (despite all of my bags being overweight) and I got all of my souvenirs back, despite some of them being large and awkwardly shaped (I did get to put all of my stuff through the metal detector on the way out of customs because of that). And during my four hour layover I even ran into a friend from PaP and a RPCV from Guinea, so we grabbed some dinner together which was nice in helping to kill a little time. Here, in no particular order, are some of my thoughts/observations on being back in the US:
-It is very, very cold here. I came inside two hours ago and still haven't taken off my down coat.
-Being able to drink the water that comes out of the tap makes brushing your teeth a much less daunting task.
-Having reliable and nearly unlimited hot water makes showering amazing.
-The air here is DRY!!! My skin started freaking out more and more the closer we got to Boston even on the plane. It remains very, very dry.
-After not having been sick in a long time I have already caught and gotten over a cold. In about 48 hours.
-Being able to effortlessly communicate with strangers is great.
-People like to make cholera jokes.
-People assume my experience in Haiti was awful and horrendous.
-I don't crave American food post-Haiti like I did every time I visited from London. I ate like a king in Haiti whereas in London....well, it was a bit more difficult.
-Fast internet is great.
-Being able to walk around freely is great.
-Having to worry about what would happen if I got hit by a bus tomorrow because I don't have health insurance in the US is not great and is not something I think anyone should ever have to worry about. Score one for the NHS. Get it together, USA.
-Seeing friends and family again and knowing I have more than 2 weeks to cram all of my visits in with people is really nice.
-Watching the Patriots games at home is awesome!!!
-I have a very, very supportive fan base at home. And I feel very lucky for that.
I'll add onto the list as things come to me. But for my first 48 hours at home I think I'm doing pretty well. I'm hoping to finalize some tickets to India in the next few days, so wish me luck. I'm very excited at the prospect of this trip.
If you're in the home area, get in touch! I have the same old phone number as usual.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Lodge
Last weekend some friends and I went about an hour up the mountain from our house to a place called "The Lodge." In its hey-day (probably the 70s?) I think it was the place to hang out if you were an upper-class Haitian. Today I doubt that it has changed much since then (certainly the decor hasn't), but it seems to be mostly an expat hangout now. Although it's only an hour away (closer than the beach!), it does feel as though you're entering another world. It was cold and foggy and there are pine trees. More Maine or New Hampshire than Haiti.
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| A round church we passed on our walk |
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| Heather with a bit of a view |
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| Our "guides" |
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| Hiking |
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Photos from Today
With my departure date two weeks from today (YAY!) I'm beginning to realize just how few pictures I've taken since I've been here. Justine and I were out in the field today in Carrefour, so I tried to be purposeful in taking some pictures. Here is a random selection.
This picture did not capture the crowd of kids I had hanging off of me the whole time in this camp very well (they're all the way at the end there), but it gives you an idea of how close together the tents are, so I left it in.
A random restaurant in Petionville I noticed today for the first time.
Rubble porn, I like to call it.
A mode of transport, and Justine's niece's name (Daphne)
Trash and rubble. These piles do occasionally get cleared.
A drive-by shot from the car of a camp.
Until recently this structure had plants growing out of those containers on the left hand side of the second floor balcony.
Heading up a big hill to a camp. The contrast in the kids' reactions to us between this camp and the one on the main road (the first picture above) was pretty funny. Obviously not a lot of white people make it up this hill, because we had a lot of kids running, screaming, and crying when they saw us.
But not these kids who gladly posed for me while carrying pieces of cement on their heads.
The view on the way back down the big hill.
End of Campaign Pictures
On the last day of Justine's spraying campaign I bought some party hats and noise makers to give to the staff so we could surprise her and the drivers (who had been working like crazy for three weeks straight) when they got in. It was hilarious. Below are some of the pictures and videos. Enjoy.
Justine and Henri pulling into the driveway.
Djerry got really into decorating
Jonas and Djerry, two of the too cool for school drivers in their party hats.
Some of the team at the front entrance to the office/house
Pictures from the balcony as it got dark
Justine with the hideous plaque one of her teams gave her. And a much needed bottle of wine.
Notice the pump on the plaque and the real pumps in the background.
Nope, the picture isn't fuzzy, that's the actual writing on the plaque.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Futurama
So Tomas turned out to be pretty uneventful for us, here in our house. We saw more and heavier rain once Tomas had actually left than during the hurricane itself. Overall the capital was spared from the high winds predicted, but there was major flooding in some of the areas already hit hardest by the earthquake. Leogane, where my mother and her nursing friends are going in January to treat patients, saw heavy flooding (see a map here). There is a photo from the BBC's website here. More concerning is that cholera has been confirmed in PaP. This is definitely not good news, but it's also not as though this hadn't been predicted. The good news is that it might be easier to get to people with enough time to treat them and to have the supplies more readily available to treat them in the capital than up country. The bad news is that there are more people living in crowded, unhygienic conditions than up country. If you're wondering what, exactly, all this cholera stuff is about, check out the CDC's very useful and easy to understand website.
My organisation has no plans to do anything cholera related. That's not "what we do" and we don't have any supplies or money to be of any help anyway. This is when it is a shame to be such a focused organisation (malaria and dengue fever prevention in humanitarian crises) because it leaves you feeling a bit helpless and silly being so focused when there is clearly a much bigger, more urgent need right in front of your face.
As horrible as it is to say, though, I'm feeling a bit checked out of it all. I reached my boiling point of frustration long ago with this organisation and have now passed the point of no return when it comes to re-finding my motivation, I think. The fact that we never received a single email about cholera or the hurricane (even to ask if we had done any preparation or if we were ok after the fact) has led me to believe that they've forgotten they even have a program in Haiti. We could set ourselves on fire to get their attention and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't notice. My contract is up with them on the 24th. I fly in to Boston around 10pm the night before Thanksgiving (if all goes according to plan, which I'm sure it won't) and as of now have not even been asked if I want to stay with them. In fact, none of the three of us has. That's probably because they forgot we're still here.
Anyway. Unless they beg me (and pay me really well) I don't anticipate coming back to Haiti with them. At most it would be about 2 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to hand over to someone else, but since there's no way they'll have someone hired by then, I don't think that's happening. It will be sad to leave our national staff. They LOVE each other, are such a great team, and have worked hard together. Even when us expats have been at each others' throats, the national staff continue to have the best time together and to come to work every day with smiles on their faces. Some of our drivers, I'm pretty sure, would take a bullet for us. So that will be difficult and if I do return to Haiti with another organisation I already know I will most likely be disappointed with a new national staff. I will not, however, miss this job even a little bit.
My plan in my head right now is this: go home to Boston and be there until Christmas. Maybe work a short temp job for some money, maybe just hang out. The day after Christmas hopefully fly out to India where a friend from London is getting married. I've never been to India and, really, how many times in my life will I have the opportunity to attend an Indian wedding in India? I'm going with one. I have another good friend in Bangladesh, so between India and Bangladesh and maybe some other countries on that continent I am hoping to be gone and travel around for 4 - 5 weeks. THEN, depending on how I'm feeling, I might look into coming back to Haiti with a different organisation, hopefully more sexual and reproductive health focused.
But that's the plan in my head. We'll see what actually transpires. If anyone has some amazing opportunities out there for me, do tell! I like Haiti a lot, although PaP is starting to get a bit dull, now that I've visited pretty much all of the restaurants multiple times. There's no movie theatre or bowling alley or anything, so you basically end up eating a lot, drinking a lot, getting fat, and spending a lot of money. Having the opportunity to travel more outside of PaP for work could be a solution for me, but I'm not sure how feasible that is. So I will put out some feelers before I go, but also want to see how I feel about returning after some time away (and no paycheck).
Speaking of travelling more outside of PaP...for the two weekends we have left in Haiti we've made plans to get out of PaP. Dieu merci. I've only left ONCE in four months, so it's definitely time. I don't want to have been here for four months and only have seen Jacmel, the touristy beach town. Hopefully it all works out, and if so I'll post pictures.
Hope to see many of you over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and maybe in between as well.
My organisation has no plans to do anything cholera related. That's not "what we do" and we don't have any supplies or money to be of any help anyway. This is when it is a shame to be such a focused organisation (malaria and dengue fever prevention in humanitarian crises) because it leaves you feeling a bit helpless and silly being so focused when there is clearly a much bigger, more urgent need right in front of your face.
As horrible as it is to say, though, I'm feeling a bit checked out of it all. I reached my boiling point of frustration long ago with this organisation and have now passed the point of no return when it comes to re-finding my motivation, I think. The fact that we never received a single email about cholera or the hurricane (even to ask if we had done any preparation or if we were ok after the fact) has led me to believe that they've forgotten they even have a program in Haiti. We could set ourselves on fire to get their attention and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't notice. My contract is up with them on the 24th. I fly in to Boston around 10pm the night before Thanksgiving (if all goes according to plan, which I'm sure it won't) and as of now have not even been asked if I want to stay with them. In fact, none of the three of us has. That's probably because they forgot we're still here.
Anyway. Unless they beg me (and pay me really well) I don't anticipate coming back to Haiti with them. At most it would be about 2 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to hand over to someone else, but since there's no way they'll have someone hired by then, I don't think that's happening. It will be sad to leave our national staff. They LOVE each other, are such a great team, and have worked hard together. Even when us expats have been at each others' throats, the national staff continue to have the best time together and to come to work every day with smiles on their faces. Some of our drivers, I'm pretty sure, would take a bullet for us. So that will be difficult and if I do return to Haiti with another organisation I already know I will most likely be disappointed with a new national staff. I will not, however, miss this job even a little bit.
My plan in my head right now is this: go home to Boston and be there until Christmas. Maybe work a short temp job for some money, maybe just hang out. The day after Christmas hopefully fly out to India where a friend from London is getting married. I've never been to India and, really, how many times in my life will I have the opportunity to attend an Indian wedding in India? I'm going with one. I have another good friend in Bangladesh, so between India and Bangladesh and maybe some other countries on that continent I am hoping to be gone and travel around for 4 - 5 weeks. THEN, depending on how I'm feeling, I might look into coming back to Haiti with a different organisation, hopefully more sexual and reproductive health focused.
But that's the plan in my head. We'll see what actually transpires. If anyone has some amazing opportunities out there for me, do tell! I like Haiti a lot, although PaP is starting to get a bit dull, now that I've visited pretty much all of the restaurants multiple times. There's no movie theatre or bowling alley or anything, so you basically end up eating a lot, drinking a lot, getting fat, and spending a lot of money. Having the opportunity to travel more outside of PaP for work could be a solution for me, but I'm not sure how feasible that is. So I will put out some feelers before I go, but also want to see how I feel about returning after some time away (and no paycheck).
Speaking of travelling more outside of PaP...for the two weekends we have left in Haiti we've made plans to get out of PaP. Dieu merci. I've only left ONCE in four months, so it's definitely time. I don't want to have been here for four months and only have seen Jacmel, the touristy beach town. Hopefully it all works out, and if so I'll post pictures.
Hope to see many of you over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and maybe in between as well.
Friday, November 05, 2010
Tomas Update
Well, I don't want to jinx it, but so far this hurricane has mostly just been boring. I haven't seen so much as a gust of wind and it has mostly just been light but somewhat steady rain since early last night. I didn't sleep very well, though, so I know that it didn't even rain throughout the entire night. I don't know how the Western side of the island is fairing since they'll probably bear the brunt of it, but at least they weren't really affected by the earthquake or the cholera. Internet was patchy last night, but today has been ok. There was even hot water for a shower last night. So I can't really complain. Geraldine and I attempted to play the game we bought in the grocery store for 130 gourdes (less than $5) last night, Topple, but she didn't really believe my explaining of the rules and thought I was cheating, so we mostly just drank pina coladas that I made in the blender.
So we're fine, but will wait until all is said and done to hear about how people in the camps faired. I'm selfishly hoping this rain clears up in time for some sun this weekend.
So we're fine, but will wait until all is said and done to hear about how people in the camps faired. I'm selfishly hoping this rain clears up in time for some sun this weekend.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Rock Me Like a Hurricane
Actually, please don't.
Two postings in one day, I know! But I've been getting questions and comments about the hurricane heading our way, so I thought I would write. Yes, as of now Tomas is headed straight for us and is due to hit Friday, from what I understand. Although it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, last I heard it was likely that it could strengthen into hurricane status again by the time it reaches Haiti.
I'm not sure that I can appropriately convey just how much Haiti doesn't need this right now. I, personally, will be fine. I went to the posh expat grocery store today and stocked up on my canned foods, alcohol, and lighters. I might die of boredom if the electricity goes off for a while, but I'll be fine. I wish I could say the same for the people in the camps. Where are they supposed to go? Yes, there are some hurricane shelters that some people will be evacuated to which will help to keep them physically safe, but then what? These people already lost everything in the quake, and now what little they've managed to find for themselves over the last ten months could very possibly all be swept away again in this hurricane. Even if it's not a full blown hurricane, all it would take is some flooding and high winds to destroy most of what people in the camps have: their cobbled together shelters (usually consisting of some combination of actual tents, tarps, pieces of wood, and metal sheeting), buckets for bathing and washing clothes/dishes, some clothes, blankets, maybe some donated items like mosquito nets or mattresses, and the random refrigerator, freezer, or tv (often used to generate income). Keep in mind that many of these materials used to build makeshift shelters become deadly projectiles in high winds. I just don't know how much more the Haitian population can be asked to take. I think they've already shouldered more than their fair share of hardship this year alone.
And to add insult to injury, any amount of flooding will most definitely make the cholera situation worse. This BBC article does a good job describing the potential consequences. If the NGO community and the Haitian MOH did a good job preventing the cholera from spreading to the camps in PaP, Tomas could quite easily undo all of that in less than a day. It's really a huge concern and I am just bracing for impact.
So please, whatever you do (pray, cross your fingers, anti-hurricane dances), please do it a lot for Haiti in the next 36 hours. Haiti could really use a break right about now. And please continue to donate to the charity of your choice, as after the potential damage from Tomas, most will probably be able to use it.
Thanks for reading.
Two postings in one day, I know! But I've been getting questions and comments about the hurricane heading our way, so I thought I would write. Yes, as of now Tomas is headed straight for us and is due to hit Friday, from what I understand. Although it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, last I heard it was likely that it could strengthen into hurricane status again by the time it reaches Haiti.
I'm not sure that I can appropriately convey just how much Haiti doesn't need this right now. I, personally, will be fine. I went to the posh expat grocery store today and stocked up on my canned foods, alcohol, and lighters. I might die of boredom if the electricity goes off for a while, but I'll be fine. I wish I could say the same for the people in the camps. Where are they supposed to go? Yes, there are some hurricane shelters that some people will be evacuated to which will help to keep them physically safe, but then what? These people already lost everything in the quake, and now what little they've managed to find for themselves over the last ten months could very possibly all be swept away again in this hurricane. Even if it's not a full blown hurricane, all it would take is some flooding and high winds to destroy most of what people in the camps have: their cobbled together shelters (usually consisting of some combination of actual tents, tarps, pieces of wood, and metal sheeting), buckets for bathing and washing clothes/dishes, some clothes, blankets, maybe some donated items like mosquito nets or mattresses, and the random refrigerator, freezer, or tv (often used to generate income). Keep in mind that many of these materials used to build makeshift shelters become deadly projectiles in high winds. I just don't know how much more the Haitian population can be asked to take. I think they've already shouldered more than their fair share of hardship this year alone.
And to add insult to injury, any amount of flooding will most definitely make the cholera situation worse. This BBC article does a good job describing the potential consequences. If the NGO community and the Haitian MOH did a good job preventing the cholera from spreading to the camps in PaP, Tomas could quite easily undo all of that in less than a day. It's really a huge concern and I am just bracing for impact.
So please, whatever you do (pray, cross your fingers, anti-hurricane dances), please do it a lot for Haiti in the next 36 hours. Haiti could really use a break right about now. And please continue to donate to the charity of your choice, as after the potential damage from Tomas, most will probably be able to use it.
Thanks for reading.
SGMD
Last Wednesday night I was over at a friend's house who happens to have satellite television. The idea of watching live television coming straight from America is very exciting to us, let me tell you. While flipping through the many channels we came across CNN and Anderson Cooper told us that a report on the cholera situation in Haiti by Dr. Sanjay Gupta was coming up. Apparently I've been out of the US for too long, because I had no idea who this dude was, but Justine and Brian were excited. Brian said he had heard earlier in the day that Dr. Sanjay was going to fly in to do a report.
Watching the report, frankly, just pissed me off. I started to wonder if Dr. Sanjay had ever stepped foot in a developing country before, never mind one with a cholera outbreak. I know I had not, until now, and I can't imagine I would have ever be so presumptuous as to be as judgmental of efforts to curb the epidemic as he sounded. And I thought it was pretty rich that after having flown in THAT AFTERNOON (and probably flying back out that night) that he comes in and talks about how preventable this outbreak was and how warehouses are still stocked with supplies that could be used, etc. I thought he was completely condescending and was doing the typical American media fear mongering thing. And then Anderson Cooper jumped in! Anderson! Shame on you. I expect better from you.
At one point SGMD (Yup, that's what his segment on CNN is called. How lame.) interviewed a guy in a blue shirt who had actually spoken earlier in the day at a health cluster meeting I attended. I believe he works for PAHO. At the meeting he was very impressive and looked very tired (along with all of his colleagues) who no doubt have been working beyond overtime and losing countless hours of sleep in their efforts to stop this epidemic and to stop it from spreading to PaP. Dr. Sanjay made this poor guy look like an idiot, unfairly, I thought, especially since this guy's first language is definitely not English. Dr. Sanjay clearly already had his angle on this story (no actual journalism was going on) and was stating things as though they were fact (like that this was preventable) and daring this guy to contradict him, but in 30 seconds or less to make sure it fit into his 3 minute segment. It actually really, really pissed me off to know that people rely on a source like CNN to have some sort of decent reporting standards (unlike a Fox News or equivalent) and to know that they were going to believe this report and buy into CNN's whole "angle" on this story, which was basically that the government and NGOs had failed to prevent this outbreak.
I realize I might sound like I'm taking this personally, but I don't even work on cholera! I am offended on behalf of the many agencies and individuals I know who have been busting their butts to mobilize everything they've got that could possibly help with this outbreak of cholera as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what Mr. SGMD thinks the mentality of most of the relief workers is over here, but I can assure you that for 85% of people it is not, "Gee, Haiti sounds like a posh place to take a job where I can really just sit back and do nothing for a few months/years." Granted, in any organisation in any part of the world there are always the lazy, incompetent, frustrating, why-are-you-here-if-you-don't-want-to-work people, but I can honestly say that I have met few of them here and that most people work insane hours and are amazingly dedicated to doing things in Haiti to help and to doing things the "right" way, and not just for the sake of doing them.
I think what Dr. Sanjay and many other critics fail to realise is just how many factors are out of NGO's hands when it comes to situations like this. When trying to rebuild a country after a catastrophe like the one Haiti has been through, capacity building is key. So although the Haitian Ministry of Health is completely incompetent for the most part, that doesn't give the NGO community the right to just take over the country's health care system (as hard as that is for me to admit, because many times I would just like to). NGOs have to continue to work with the MOH to try and empower them and to try and capacity build as much as possible, especially in emergency situations like this that they will inevitably be faced with in the future. And when a situation like this comes on this quickly, the actual logistics of mobilizing human and material resources isn't as straightforward as it would be in, say, the US. Finding trucks available to transport your materials from PaP to a different region, on terrible roads which may or may not be passable due to recent rains, for instance, are things one usually does not have to worry about in the developed world.
What I have seen so far regarding the cholera outbreak has been, in my opinion, pretty impressive. The MOH declared pretty quickly (in my opinion) that there was indeed an epidemic. My fear was that, even as hundreds of people were dying, they would deny that it was an actual epidemic and therefore prevent lifesaving supplies from getting to the population, just to save face as a MOH/country. The speed with which NGOs then responded in so many different ways has also fascinated me (I say this as an outsider who's NGO has done nothing related to cholera response or prevention and has absolutely no plans to help if it does come to PaP. Not even an email from HQ asking about how we're doing or about contingency plans for ourselves, by the way.). Text messages, radio messages, and posters on how to prevent and treat cholera were all designed in Creole and approved by the MOH for almost immediate distribution. I still get text messages on my cell phone almost daily telling me how to prevent and treat cholera. Community health agents were trained in prevention methods and messages, hundreds of thousands of supplies were mobilized from warehouses in PaP and taken up country, hundreds of thousands of more supplies were flown in to Haiti, trained medical professionals were actively recruited by many different NGOs, emergency meetings and press conferences were held every day and information was widely disseminated to the expat community in English, French, and Creole.
Was the outbreak preventable? Absolutely. Just like the common cold is preventable. Just like pretty much anything, depending on how you look at it, is preventable. Just because it is possible to prevent it doesn't mean someone screwed up and needs to be blamed by not having prevented it. Believe it or not, people are a bit concerned in this country trying to put out whatever fire is in front of them on that particular day. It's triage on an almost daily basis for many organisations, and many don't have the luxury of trying to predict what might become a problem because they're too busy trying to solve what already is a problem. What I think is impressive is that so far the cholera outbreak has been contained in the northern regions and had not made it to PaP. Because, believe me, it will be a whole new level of disastrous if that happens. But NGOs are already on that, too! Contingency plans are in place, community health agents are already trained, cholera treatment centers have been set up, etc, all in case it does come to PaP. I don't know that we (the PaP NGO community) could ever be perfectly prepared for something like that, but it's not like people aren't sitting around thinking about it, which is what SGMD would have you believe.
What I think upsets me most about Dr. Sanjay, is that his reporting style leads me to believe he almost hopes the cholera does spread to PaP, because that would be more proof of the NGO community failing at something and would make good, dramatic TV. Then he could point more fingers and say he told us so. Basically the more death and destruction, the better.
I'm not saying that the cholera outbreak response has been perfect, and I'm not pretending to know the ins and outs of it all. Hell, I've never even visited that region. But as I said earlier, what I find offensive is the implication that the response has been incompetent and inefficient, as though people are idly sitting around twiddling their thumbs because they can't be bothered to help in the response. I think that, given the circumstances of working in a country like Haiti, with the lack of infrastructure, the time of year (just after the peak of the rainy season), and the massive amount of coordination that needed/needs to happen, people are doing the best they can. It's easy to fly in for an afternoon and judge, but it's much harder when you're dealing with the realities on the ground.
I'm already dreading January 12th, the one year anniversary of the earthquake, where every report from The New York Times to the New Yorker (not a broad spectrum, I know) reports on just how little has been achieved in Haiti in the past year. Again, lots of finger pointing will be done by people who have no idea. No idea how hard people are working and how dedicated they are.
And that's my rant on that for today.
(I can't find the link on CNN to the exact video I mention above, but here is a link to a more recent one for anyone who is interested.
Watching the report, frankly, just pissed me off. I started to wonder if Dr. Sanjay had ever stepped foot in a developing country before, never mind one with a cholera outbreak. I know I had not, until now, and I can't imagine I would have ever be so presumptuous as to be as judgmental of efforts to curb the epidemic as he sounded. And I thought it was pretty rich that after having flown in THAT AFTERNOON (and probably flying back out that night) that he comes in and talks about how preventable this outbreak was and how warehouses are still stocked with supplies that could be used, etc. I thought he was completely condescending and was doing the typical American media fear mongering thing. And then Anderson Cooper jumped in! Anderson! Shame on you. I expect better from you.
At one point SGMD (Yup, that's what his segment on CNN is called. How lame.) interviewed a guy in a blue shirt who had actually spoken earlier in the day at a health cluster meeting I attended. I believe he works for PAHO. At the meeting he was very impressive and looked very tired (along with all of his colleagues) who no doubt have been working beyond overtime and losing countless hours of sleep in their efforts to stop this epidemic and to stop it from spreading to PaP. Dr. Sanjay made this poor guy look like an idiot, unfairly, I thought, especially since this guy's first language is definitely not English. Dr. Sanjay clearly already had his angle on this story (no actual journalism was going on) and was stating things as though they were fact (like that this was preventable) and daring this guy to contradict him, but in 30 seconds or less to make sure it fit into his 3 minute segment. It actually really, really pissed me off to know that people rely on a source like CNN to have some sort of decent reporting standards (unlike a Fox News or equivalent) and to know that they were going to believe this report and buy into CNN's whole "angle" on this story, which was basically that the government and NGOs had failed to prevent this outbreak.
I realize I might sound like I'm taking this personally, but I don't even work on cholera! I am offended on behalf of the many agencies and individuals I know who have been busting their butts to mobilize everything they've got that could possibly help with this outbreak of cholera as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what Mr. SGMD thinks the mentality of most of the relief workers is over here, but I can assure you that for 85% of people it is not, "Gee, Haiti sounds like a posh place to take a job where I can really just sit back and do nothing for a few months/years." Granted, in any organisation in any part of the world there are always the lazy, incompetent, frustrating, why-are-you-here-if-you-don't-want-to-work people, but I can honestly say that I have met few of them here and that most people work insane hours and are amazingly dedicated to doing things in Haiti to help and to doing things the "right" way, and not just for the sake of doing them.
I think what Dr. Sanjay and many other critics fail to realise is just how many factors are out of NGO's hands when it comes to situations like this. When trying to rebuild a country after a catastrophe like the one Haiti has been through, capacity building is key. So although the Haitian Ministry of Health is completely incompetent for the most part, that doesn't give the NGO community the right to just take over the country's health care system (as hard as that is for me to admit, because many times I would just like to). NGOs have to continue to work with the MOH to try and empower them and to try and capacity build as much as possible, especially in emergency situations like this that they will inevitably be faced with in the future. And when a situation like this comes on this quickly, the actual logistics of mobilizing human and material resources isn't as straightforward as it would be in, say, the US. Finding trucks available to transport your materials from PaP to a different region, on terrible roads which may or may not be passable due to recent rains, for instance, are things one usually does not have to worry about in the developed world.
What I have seen so far regarding the cholera outbreak has been, in my opinion, pretty impressive. The MOH declared pretty quickly (in my opinion) that there was indeed an epidemic. My fear was that, even as hundreds of people were dying, they would deny that it was an actual epidemic and therefore prevent lifesaving supplies from getting to the population, just to save face as a MOH/country. The speed with which NGOs then responded in so many different ways has also fascinated me (I say this as an outsider who's NGO has done nothing related to cholera response or prevention and has absolutely no plans to help if it does come to PaP. Not even an email from HQ asking about how we're doing or about contingency plans for ourselves, by the way.). Text messages, radio messages, and posters on how to prevent and treat cholera were all designed in Creole and approved by the MOH for almost immediate distribution. I still get text messages on my cell phone almost daily telling me how to prevent and treat cholera. Community health agents were trained in prevention methods and messages, hundreds of thousands of supplies were mobilized from warehouses in PaP and taken up country, hundreds of thousands of more supplies were flown in to Haiti, trained medical professionals were actively recruited by many different NGOs, emergency meetings and press conferences were held every day and information was widely disseminated to the expat community in English, French, and Creole.
Was the outbreak preventable? Absolutely. Just like the common cold is preventable. Just like pretty much anything, depending on how you look at it, is preventable. Just because it is possible to prevent it doesn't mean someone screwed up and needs to be blamed by not having prevented it. Believe it or not, people are a bit concerned in this country trying to put out whatever fire is in front of them on that particular day. It's triage on an almost daily basis for many organisations, and many don't have the luxury of trying to predict what might become a problem because they're too busy trying to solve what already is a problem. What I think is impressive is that so far the cholera outbreak has been contained in the northern regions and had not made it to PaP. Because, believe me, it will be a whole new level of disastrous if that happens. But NGOs are already on that, too! Contingency plans are in place, community health agents are already trained, cholera treatment centers have been set up, etc, all in case it does come to PaP. I don't know that we (the PaP NGO community) could ever be perfectly prepared for something like that, but it's not like people aren't sitting around thinking about it, which is what SGMD would have you believe.
What I think upsets me most about Dr. Sanjay, is that his reporting style leads me to believe he almost hopes the cholera does spread to PaP, because that would be more proof of the NGO community failing at something and would make good, dramatic TV. Then he could point more fingers and say he told us so. Basically the more death and destruction, the better.
I'm not saying that the cholera outbreak response has been perfect, and I'm not pretending to know the ins and outs of it all. Hell, I've never even visited that region. But as I said earlier, what I find offensive is the implication that the response has been incompetent and inefficient, as though people are idly sitting around twiddling their thumbs because they can't be bothered to help in the response. I think that, given the circumstances of working in a country like Haiti, with the lack of infrastructure, the time of year (just after the peak of the rainy season), and the massive amount of coordination that needed/needs to happen, people are doing the best they can. It's easy to fly in for an afternoon and judge, but it's much harder when you're dealing with the realities on the ground.
I'm already dreading January 12th, the one year anniversary of the earthquake, where every report from The New York Times to the New Yorker (not a broad spectrum, I know) reports on just how little has been achieved in Haiti in the past year. Again, lots of finger pointing will be done by people who have no idea. No idea how hard people are working and how dedicated they are.
And that's my rant on that for today.
(I can't find the link on CNN to the exact video I mention above, but here is a link to a more recent one for anyone who is interested.
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