French Reporters!

Do you know what riding a roller coaster feels like? That intense feeling in your stomach right before you are about to be dropped 50 feet at a 25 degree angle? The rush of overwhelmingness in your throat as you struggle to catch your breathe before you turn at the next corner? Can you picture that feeling? Well hold on to that and then multiply it by 500 times!!!! That was how my day felt like...a giant unpredictable never-ending roller coaster.

My day started off like any other day...waking up at 5:30am and leaving the compound by 6am. Today we went to the port area of Haiti. It was so beautiful. We drove through the normal traffic and tap tap central, but then all of a sudden, out of no where, this incredible green landscape appeared in front of my eyes. My reaction was: Are we in Dominican Republic or something? is it really this close? We passed fields of green trees, clear blue waters, and even an outdoor sauna. (What?) Yeah, it was such a different world. It made me really realize the disparities of a third world country, which sadly, Haiti has become after the 2010 Earthquake. We kept on driving until we reached a small church at the end of a paved drive road. We spoke to the pastor about a possible distribution in the town, but it did not end up working out. We headed back to OECC and many of the volunteers from the last rotation were getting ready to leave for the airport. We all took pictures and said our "goodbyes," it was bittersweet. I have spent my last 10 days here in Haiti with this group of people, day in and day out. It is really incredible the bond some of these people and I have formed. They are all Tzu Chi volunteers from all over the world, and it is just such a rare opportunity. I feel very fortunate to have met all of them. See y'all around the world!!!

After a quick breakfast, the newly formed team and I, headed to do a site assessment. This was a church, not too far away from OECC. We got to the place and it had one of the steepest hills I have seen so far in Port-au-Prince. We made it up alright and met the pastor. He gave us a tour of the families that are members of the church, but it was Church Sunday, so no one was there at home or church. Sundays in Haiti are all focused on Churches and down town entertainment things. You will see crowds of people walking on busy streets with their nice and fancy church clothes. It is quite a scene to behold when a man wears a full-on suit and jumps onto a garbage truck for a ride down the street. I love it.

The site assessment did not go as smoothly as we had planned, but it is still going to work out in the end. When we got back, we were told that the soccer stadium was open and that we were going to move our medical team there due to the large capacity of the tent families. So I went along with them, served as translators, director of operations, performer of mandarin sign languages, children's entertainment, and french interviewee????? What??? Yes, you heard me. I was helping out with the whole Tzu Chi operations, when a camera suddenly appeared in my face, and said, "Tu parles Français? (You speak French?)" I happily answered yes, and that was when all the questions came firing at me. The microphone guy came and the backup guy came, as well. They asked me all these questions about Tzu Chi and I was like so caught off guard that I don't even remember what I said. It was cool though. they were a team of three sent here to Haiti to report on the situation of all the displaced people and the city. I was super excited. I felt special. Maybe you can see me on French TV? It was pretty cool.

The clinic started at the stadium and there were many many people. We saw so many different cases. The patients were in far worst shape than the patients we see at OECC on a daily basis. There were urgent cases, which we had to transport to the nearest hospital for, and just down-right sad stories of earthquake victims. There population was made up of mostly mothers and children. We did the clinic till 5pm, with 3 doctors, 3 translators, and 1 nurse. It was pretty incredible. I felt like i was in the ER again. Awesome feeling.

It was definitely a fun filled and accomplished day for me. Tomorrow will technically be my first day alone with the new group of Tzu Chi volunteers. Let the bonding begin...