Children of Delmas

Mobile clinic to Delmas 32.

We arrive to a dusty IDP camp, pigs amid the central garbage dump, children playing beside them. There is a large white tent that sits beside the school, ready for incoming transient NGOs to provide their medical services. But the rains have washed mud through it, and school is in progress today, meaning the benches are being used.

We spend the first 20 minutes scraping mud off the floor and locating benches, chairs, lumber to create a makeshift clinic with space for patients to sit and be treated. We then walk through the camp, someone finds a loudspeaker, and we announce our presence. It promises to be busy.

This camp does not have the benefit of an NGO residing nearby, and the engineering that has been done in Petionville does not exist here. Their paths are muddy, their garbage and latrines spill out onto the main routes, and malnourished kids run around in bare feet, shouting at us "Blanc! Blanc!".

We tour the camp and return to work. It is busy, with many patients asking for the same things; something for their acid reflux, their headache, their joint pain, their itchy eyes, their diarrhea, their respiratory infections, Oh, and by the way (they add as an afterthought) they can't sleep.

The stories pour in, and before you know it I am crying for a 12 year old girl. And being hugged and kissed by a 9 year old. And trying, trying, trying, to not let the dam burst while caring for these amazing kids. It is 80% children here, and many of them come alone, without parents. So brave, so strong. Earthquake survivors, all of them. Our pediatrician takes only a five minute break all day; her lineup of patients is long and overwhelming to all of us. She works through the hunger and thirst, smiling the entire time. Amazing.

We treat 200 patients in four and a half hours. At the end we pack up and head out, exhausted, thrilled, saddenned, and deeply fulfilled in ways that can never be recreated. THIS is why we are here. THIS is why Haiti needs us. I look at the happy faces of our new volunteers and know that they too have been transformed in a few hours; they are now in Haiti. Living, breathing, working, and loving Ayti.