Haiti Dreams

Maybe it's because it's less than two months away. Maybe it's because people are starting to post on the Facebook page about what tools to bring. Maybe it's because I get my final rabies shot today. Whatever the reason, I had the greatest dream about Haiti last night...

Our tent was 6 times the size of the one I shared with 13 women last year (we even had furniture) but we numbered only eight. The temperature only got to 85 degrees. It rained - briefly - every now and then to cut the humidity. I had discovered an electric hammer that would work on the hurricane clips.  My alarm went off before I found out whether the showers had warm water...

I've been reminded lately of how hard the builds are. Someone at the gym was asking about the trip. I told her it's fun! I have great friends who go every year, and you always make new friends.  We sometimes travel together before the build (forbidden in Haiti). We get to discover new countries.  And then I get to the build site and realise that I've forgotten again how HARD these builds are! Maybe not for everyone, but for me with no building skills, whose low blood pressure keeps her off ladders and scaffolding, who wilts in anything over 80 degrees (build temps are typically closer to 100) - for ME it's really hard! And there are NO NAPS! In India, I started getting lightheaded from the heat and my workboots didn't fit properly. In Thailand, my feet had blisters and I was walking funny the whole time from the pain. Last year in Haiti, I worked all Wednesday feeling like I was going to faint, but made it to almost 3.00, when my roof crew disbanded for other tasks, before I went to the cooling tent.

 Somehow I forget how miserable I was, and only remember the fun part when I sign up every year. Better that way. Hey, a week of freezing cold showers is a small sacrifice to help a family move out of a makeshift tent into a permanent, hurricane-proof home. It's just hard to remember that when the cold water hits you and takes your breath away...

Rabies.

Ha ha ha... wait, seriously?

Today I went to my appointment at the Travel Clinic to see what shots and prescriptions I need to go to Haiti. I went in feeling all experienced since I've been going there almost every year since my trip to India in 2006. I knew where to park, I knew what entrance to go in, I was so far removed from that terrified traveller who darkened their door six years ago.

Yeah, they've moved. Just down the hall, but it was enough to throw me off and remind me that I know nothing.

Debbie pulled out my chart and reviewed my history. World Traveller here didn't need anything - I'm even done with Hepatitis A for life. No Tetanus. No Typhoid. Covered.

"But where you're going, and because you're sleeping in tents, a rabies prophylaxis is recommended."

Yup - bats. They're out there. We saw them. And I, in particular, wander around outside when I can't sleep to avoid waking my tent-mates, so I couldn't even promise just to avoid the bats: I'm their prime target between the hours of 2-5 a.m.

Normally I would have taken my chances with the rabies exposure, but I just read an article about a little girl who got The Plague (yes, that plague) from touching a dead squirrel when she was camping. So, like Yodel before me, I'm getting rabies shots. It takes 3 shots over 4 weeks, so I'm grateful that ECMC is right off the 33, that you park for free on the ER ramp for the travel clinic, and that they're pretty darned efficient in there.

What I'm not grateful for is the cost - today the shot, consult and prescriptions for malaria meds cost me $300. I couldn't help but think that, if I need all these shots to go to Haiti, what do the Haitians need?

I know that big pharma donates plenty, and Haitians are not paying $300 for a shot, but donated supplies are limited, and rural areas where disease is more likely are hard to get to. A cholera outbreak after the last hurricane killed 5,000 Haitians, but cholera hadn't been seen in Haiti in a hundred years: Haiti was blindsided when it was brought in by earthquake relief workers. Last year the Travel Clinic didn't recommend rabies - how many Haitians got rabies before that recommendation surfaced? And Hepatitis? And Typhoid?

While I'm feeling pretty broke, I'm also feeling awfully lucky that I can afford the protection I need and that it's available to me. And the free parking. Free parking at the hospital is huge.

Isaac

Word is that the homes we build last year withstood the storm with minimal damage. Those living in tents weren't so lucky - many lost their homes entirely, while the dirt-floored homes of thousands more are flooded. Despite pleas to evacuate, people remained in their camps, afraid that looters would take what little they had left. Haiti is not yet equipped to handle another disaster, even though the impact of Tropical Storm Isaac was not as bad as it could have been.

NY Times Photo Gallery of damage to Haiti caused by Isaac