Hannah & Haiti: The Middle

Yesterday marked the halfway point of my time here in Jeremie. I have now spent more time here than I have left. It got me thinking about things in terms of middle ground, mediation and being the go-between.

We have two visitors with us currently and just as two weeks earlier when we had seven, I feel as though I am in the middle. I’m not quite a visitor as they are, but I’m not quite a host or resident. Not having a set task here I get to float between the permanent clinic and the visitors’ activities. Two weeks ago I helped the lady volunteers paint and served as the gopher translator for the carpenters. This week I am working with an eye clinic, translating for the nurse on the team and bringing patients between the Sant de Sante and the “Haiti Hut” where we are holding the eye clinic. I love serving as the middle woman, translating across languages and cultures as best I can.

A perfect example of the go-between I get to serve was with one particular visitor, Angela, who hoped to visit a local school. Dr. Wolf had arranged with Genezye, a friend/groundskeeper of the clinic who runs a nearby primary school, for her to spend a morning observing. The morning she was supposed to go visit, Genezye was nowhere to be found. Not to let a visitor be disappointed, Dr. Wolf quickly improvised a new escort: namely myself and Gemy (the water project coordinator). This proved to be a blessing in disguise. Gemy knew the teachers at the school and I was able to translate our presence into Creole for the school kids to understand. In exchange, I got to sit in on 6 different “classrooms” (all in one building, with three classes meeting outside in the most refreshing of breezes). The littlest of children sang us a song of welcome and the older groups stared and smiled as whispers flew. We spent an hour in their presence before heading back down the hill towards the clinic. Shortly after we left the schoolhouse we ran into Genezye on his way up to meet us. Satisfied that we had had a successful visit he escorted us down to his house. We sat in the yard and drank coconut milk fresh from the tree, brought to the ground by a perfectly hoisted 25 foot 2 x 4 and hacked open by an expertly wielded machete. It pays to be the mediator sometimes!

Kendy, Richard and an 83 y.o. patient getting her first pair of glasses

This week I am again a sort of mediator. Two folks from Milwaukee are here to run an eye clinic. It’s a limited service as we do not have an ophthalmologist* on the team and are only able to provide reader glasses and eye drops. Nevertheless, in the nearly 70 people we’ve seen so far this week, we’ve had quite a few giant smiles emerge as people are able to see again. I’m helping the nurse on the team fit people with glasses once their prescription has been determined. We ask if certain glasses are clear, if they can read (or count) things off the bottom of charts and if they fit their faces to their satisfaction. It’s terribly enjoyable and my Creole vocabulary is growing ever more eclectic. I can only imagine what the second half of this adventure will bring. But for now, I’m quite happy to be right here, in the middle.

*This word was properly spelled on first attempt. Thank you former scribe job!