What a week!

The week started out more or less like a fairly typical week for me.  Monday and Tuesday I went to the school in the morning to do the groups with the children and some individual play therapy.  In the afternoon I wen to Kay Ste. Anne to do activities with the children.  Then on Wednesday, as a result of the announcement of the elections results everything was different.  People do not believe, and for good reason, that the process was fair, that one of the two candiates announced as the winners who will be candidates in a run off elections really received more votes than another.  People were burining tires, gathering and protesting in different places.  I hardly left the premisis for the rest of the week. Other than remenents of tire fires and distant smoke, I did not directly witness any violence and never personally felt unsafe.  School was cancelled.  Since people could not get to work, there was help needed in the rehydtration center, previously referred to as the cholera tents.

I primarliy helped in the pediatiric tents. I gave children serum oral to drink, fetched sheets and supplies from the depo, changed diapears on babies and older children who needed them not because they are not toilet tranied, but because their diarhea was so frquent and sudden.  Even though my Creole is still quite basic, at times I was able to translate for a doctor or nurse, such as those volunteering from Italy,  who could speak english but not Creole.  I watched children who had almost no energy and frequent diarhea when they arrived one day, smile, laugh and prepare to leave within a day or two.  I saw pain in the eyes of  mothers, a few of whom had multiple children who were ill.  In one family there were three children who were all sick; the oldest sister and baby recovered quickly and then spent a day wathcing their brother who continued to suffer from frequent and severe diareah (there is hope that he will recover.)  Sometimes in the children's tents one meets an ill woman being treated on a bed beside her baby's crib since both are ill.  As most people do recover fully and quickly it is actually a place of hope.  What is of concern is that since there were no tap-taps on the roads for a few days, and people were afraid to travel it is possible that there were people in need of treatment who could not find transportation to the tents.

Today, things seem calmer.  Tap taps are running.  It was considered safe to leave.  I was able to go to Kay Ste. Anne.  It was wonderful to see the children there again.  The calm of course is not likely to continue as the situation has not really been resolved, but let's hope for peaceful, just and quick resolutuion.    

Know that I am well and safe as the grounds here are quite secure, but please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers.

Also, please excuse any spelling errors, as I am using someone eles's computer and I can't figure out how to change the blogspell check from french to english.