Haiti #6 - Tiger and Fiona

Dear Friends,

November 15, 2011

I am sitting in a motel in Miami, preparing to return to Haiti in the morning. I flew here Sunday afternoon to attend a meeting about the future of Project Medishare’s involvement at Hospital Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince. I was scheduled to return to PAP this morning but slept thru my 9am flight (oops!) so I have spent the day in my jammies, watching mindless HGTV and Sesame Street. Today, Big Bird introduced the letter H for Habitat. I could have tried to book a later flight today but sometimes my fatigue scares me so I chose to hang out with Big Bird instead in my habitat at the La Quinta Inn East.

So many of you e-mail me, asking me how I am doing and how is my life and I truly do not know what to say. My hours blur into days which blur into weeks and I totally lose track of time. I had no idea that next week was Thanksgiving. October 31st, I went to Mega Mart, PAP’s local WalMart of sorts and their Christmas decorations displays were constructed. I was stunned. And the decorations were cheap and imported, none representing Haitian life. And the overhead speaker was playing ‘It Is the Most Wonderful time of the Year.” I wonder if the people even listen to the words?

Halloween and Thanksgiving are not celebrated here and I see no indications of Christmas. I’m told that before the earthquake, people decorated their homes and surrounding trees and foliage, with lights. They don’t have Christmas trees and don’t really understand decorating with ornaments but they do exchange some presents with family and friends.

But since the earthquake, all that has changed. “People are still so sad. So many people were killed, so many gone that no one wants to celebrate” according to Philip, our lead driver. No one is even speaking of Christmas and no one has requested the day off.

Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving!

Another 10 days gone and I cannot account for them. Everything blurs now. Many of the employees have malaria and typhoid but luckily, no cholera. Two patients have died of rabies because there is no rabies vaccine in the country. Two others have died of tetanus. People who had an infected tooth now have massive facial cellulitis because they delayed treatment or used home remedies. Lots of gun shots and stabbings, some make it, some don’t. We have daily deaths due to untreated hypertension resulting in massive strokes; most of these people are between 35-55. There are daily admissions of people being hit by cars, falling out of tap-taps or young men falling out of trees trying to pick fruit. Most don’t make it. Cause of Death: born in Haiti. What a depressing paragraph.

Tomorrow we will have a turkey dinner on real plates and not out of Styrofoam containers. The catering company who provides the volunteer meals, bought some turkeys to make us dinner. I’m wondering how it will be prepared and in what form it will be presented: chunks, slices, mashed? And if the omnipresent creole sauce, beans and rice will be the sides?
And Tiger and Fiona? Veronica came to visit for 12 days and we spent a night at the Olafson Hotel, a grande dame of a hotel. Through the years it has been a war hospital, military headquarters, dictator du jour headquarters, abandoned and now a funky little hotel that plays some roaring Caribbean music on Thursday nights.

Almost all dogs in Haiti are medium sized, light brown and not vaccinated. Not unlike the dogs in Africa, India, SE Asia. Perhaps it is 1 father and thousands of mothers, who knows? I do know that most dogs here are assumed to be rabid and looked upon as animals, not family members to be fawned over.

Except Tiger and Fiona. They are LARGE, dark brown bull dogs who are owned by the Owner/Manager of the Olafson Hotel. They obviously own the place because they lumber along, sleeping everywhere! Fiona has obviously had many litters of puppies because her chest is almost dragging on the floor. They are old and start slow, tapering off. They are clean, vaccinated and wanting to be petted, planting their bodies under every hand that reaches out.
They also have a pal, a small, fluffy thing that I thought was a mangy cat but is a small, fluffy dog. Just appeared one day, no name and thinks that Fiona is her mom. Fiona moves 3 steps to take another nap and small, fluffy dog Velcro’s herself to Fiona, bouncing along. Their antics are the “floor show” during dinner on the veranda. Why is this my title? I couldn’t think of anything else; but mainly because these dogs and Veronica’s visit brought me a few moments of joy and silliness.

Thank You to all of you for your love, support and presence in my life. Have some mashed potatoes and gravy for me. Any maybe a few black olives.

Kathleen