Final thoughts from Team B
Team B has returned after a week in Haiti. The level of acute trauma has decreased but there are still many people affected by the earthquake. Haiti now has a population of amputees, people with poorly healing wounds, and an incredible number of displaced families without a home to return to.
Areas that were not as severely damaged are now feeling the affects. People from the Port-au-Prince area have moved in with family members in areas such as Les Cayes, the area of southern Haiti where Forward in Health has primarily worked. We have received reports of a family 8 cramped into a small home now trying to accommodate a total of 40 people. Food, water, and medical care in Les Cayes and the surrounding area is in short supply.
Forward in Health is planning a response by sending a medical team of 18 at the end of April. This will depend on commercial flights flying into Haiti. We will coordinate care with the minister of health in Les Cayes to know where our efforts would be best suited. Our directors in Haiti Lex and Renee Edme are will begin planning work this week.
Finally a subtle change in how white Americans are greeted in Haiti. Whenever a pickup truck of white people would be seen driving through town children would always shout, "Blanc, blanc," Creole for white. It was never meant in a mean way, just pointing out that white people, a rare sighting, are driving by. Since the earthquake the shouts of "Blanc, blanc" have changed to shouts of "Thank you" and "God bless you."
