So the second day in Haiti was even better than the first day...go figure. It was pretty awesome. I woke up at 4:00am for the 4:30am distribution at a local church space. I got out of my miskitoe net and temporary make-shift hospital style fold-out lift and changed with lighting speed. Everyone met outside at the OECC compound to be assigned a car to be loaded on. We all had to be there at exactly 4:30am to leave, because we were following the U.S. army orders. I've always thought that getting an army and/or police escort was not a huge deal and that was overrated, but oh boy was I wrong hahaha....yes sometimes people need to feel like they, too, can be in the president's shoes. We had the U.S. army escorting us on this early morning distribution, well the U.S. 92nd Airborne Civil Division to be exact. Both their Alpha and Beta teams came out to help us out with security issues. It was pretty cool I must admit, watching men and women in uniforms with giant guns hanging in front of their chest....people saluting one another with dark and mysterious shades on...I wonder what is going on in their heads as they secure the premises? It was way too cool, like an awesome WWII movie or something. Maybe I am completely romanticizing this, but I don't care, because I felt like I was in a movie today. The military groups referred to each other as "the White Falcon" and "the Black Falcon." So we were completely surrounded by "Falcons" this morning, with 5 cameos escorting 5 Tzu Chi vans. It was pretty intense out there on the streets.
We finally got to the distribution site at around 5:15am and we started getting everything ready. The U.S. army secured the premises and was walking back and forth between all the barracks. When we arrived, there were already a giant line of people waiting for us to hand supplies out. The distribution was not suppose to start until 6:30am. Everyone started unloading all 100 boxes of Tzu Chi blankets and 100 boxes of Tzu Chi tarps. We also practiced mandarin sign languages to a couple of different songs that we were going to perform at the opening ceremony. Once the gates opened, the people poured in. It was a very heartwarming experience to go through. The distribution went on for about two hours after that. Throughout the whole ordeal I was pulled left to right to help interview the Haitian volunteers and people who had received the donations. I would interview them in French and then translate their responses into Mandarin for the Da Ai channel in Taiwan. It was a very fulfilling experience for me. Everyone was very grateful. After the distribution was over, everyone started to fool around with the military people. We talked about life back in the U.S. and what was their perception about Haiti. Most people told me that they have been here for about two months now and they have not yet seen any governmental personalle come out to help their own people and even now they are taxing people for receiving humanitarian efforts???? WHAT??? NOW THAT IS JUST INSANE. I don't know if it is true what the U.S. army people said, but if it is, that is just sad. The army, once again, escorted us back to our compound and we gave them a thank you ceremony of their own to end the distribution period.
I quickly grabbed a bowl of rice porridge, but it wasn't long before I was pulled to go help translate for the free medical clinics. I was running back and forth, in-between four to five doctors, helping both the Haitian clients and doctors to understand each person's situation. They were so short staffed that I was put at the Dentist clinic to do initial intake (i.e. name and age), blood pressure readings, and current temperature readings, as well. It was pretty crazy, but I loved it. There is something about chaotic situations that I just love for some reason. Then after I went through about 25 people in that line, I was pulled to go help out a famliy doctor to translate for her patients. After about 45 patients with her, the pediatric doctor needed me to help translate for him, which I was super happy about because I got to play with cute babies (yay). Then after that I was pulled to the Acupuncture station and then the Internal medicine clinic. It was pretty awesome. Translating English, Mandarin, and French while doing like a super residency rotation in all domains of medicine. Needless to say, I felt pretty useful at the end of the day. The Haitian patients left with a smile on their faces (while it is either the huge amount of drugs they just received for free or that it was my help to translate their problems? you can decide :) ) and the doctors felt relieved they helped make their lives a little bit better and more manageable.
I did that job till about 12:30pm and then was immediately told to get in the car because we had to go show the next group of U.S. army escorts where our next distribution site was going to be at. It was to do a site assessment, so the army can have a plan of tactic for safety barriers. We drove for miles and got lost and I started to speak French with the driver, ha, it was quite an ordeal. One small SUV with a native Haitian driver, while two U.S. army cameos followed behind. Getting lost is one thing, but getting lost with the military behind you can be quite stressful. Then the fancy army gadgets came out with all their GPS systems and all, but the coordinates did not help too much, since it wasn't an exact location, so in the end, asking random people on the streets prevailed (yes, men need to learn how to ask for directions more often, but that is just my own personal opinion). When we finally got to the site, there was so many children waiting outside to greet us. I shook everyone of the kids' hands and they all giggled. Many children didn't even know how to shake hands, they would just hold on to your hand for as long as possible. That was the cutest thing ever. We assessed the site and I spoke at length to the locals about the history of the sites and the earthquake in French. It was a really great learning opportunity. The compound was comprised of about 150 families and the majority of the population at the site were people under the age of 10 years old. It looked almost like a women's shelter, since there weren't that many men to be seen. It was just one of the many tent communities that is spread through out Haiti right now.
We got back at around 3pm and I continue to pick up the translation part in the medical clinics again. That lasted till about 5:30pm and then this guy ran over to me and was like "I heard you speak French" and I was like "yeah I do. Can I help you?" and he said that it was just crazy that an asian girl from Taiwan would speak French. We got into this whole huge conversation about the country and languages and how much pride Haitian has of their country. I completely agreed with him and told him that he should be proud of his country. So then I ended up helping one of his friends translate her story, which Da Ai channel is covering. We drove all the way to her old home, which was destroyed in the earthquake. I mean, we see a lot of broken down homes and complete pancaked houses, but to actually walk through the rubles and to come face to face to someone's house that has been destroyed is a completely different thing. She talked about how her family was not at home at the time of the earthquake and she, herself was at work, but her four friends who lives in the basement weren't so lucky. The house, which you can tell was a very well off home, completely pancaked on itself. She told me that all four of her close friends died in there and till this day, they are still under the rubble. It was a very sad sight to see for sure. I hugged her and told her how strong she was. I was sobbing inside.
So came back to the compound at around 8pm and started writing reports. Tomorrow will be another fun filled day with U.S. military escorted distribution in the morning, medical clinic rounds, and tent city interviews. I cannot wait. On the way back home from the tent cities today, I stood on the back of a pick-up truck looking over the city. It was beautiful, not by the landscape or by the neon lights glowing in the far distance. Haiti was beautiful to me because I heard the chants of the people who refuses to give up on their country and whole-heartily believes that a better day will come. Yes, a better day will come, we gotta believe.
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