Reports from Haiti

Our work at the clinic has begun to pick up this past week. On Thursday, we helped the technicians organize medical records. Patients’ files are ordered numerically and the number is matched to the patient’s name in a spreadsheet. We had some initial confusion about the record system because some numbers were accidentally used for multiple patients, and a lot of the names sounded very similar (for example, there were files for twins named “Josenide” and “Josemide”… as a twin myself, I would just like to thank my parents for giving my sister and I very different names!).

Kelly and I also observed that the techs were not using the Excel program as optimally as they could have, so we’re hoping to show them a few pointers if time allows. The techs were really friendly and interested in learning English, and I’m excited to continue working with them.

I also spoke to Dr. Lucien and Dr. Gustave about the lab protocols (Gram staining, hematocrit, urinalysis, etc.) that can be performed with the Diagnostic Backpack. They were interested in having the technicians read and become familiar with the protocols, but because the directions are only in English, I suggested that Kelly and I could translate the directions to French. Between the two of us and our translator, we hope to translate as much as possible before the mobile clinic on Saturday (5 days! I can’t wait!).

On Friday, we taught a bone and dental hygiene lesson to the lower grades and a malaria and typhoid transmission lesson to the upper grades.

We discussed how we have 206 bones in our body, where the main bones in our body are located (cue Kelly’s amazing skeleton poster), how our teeth are a type of bone, and how and why we brush our teeth. When we asked them how long we should brush our teeth, we got some really funny answers, like 52 minutes, 2 hours, and other rather lengthy amounts of time. Kelly and I realized that the hand washing song is ~30 seconds, so if you brush your teeth while singing the hand washing song 4 times, it’s a pretty good teeth-brushing timer (4X in 3 classes + teaching the song 2 weeks ago = we are now singing the song in our sleep. That, on top of chloroquine, makes for some very interesting dreams).

We had other amusing replies to the question, “What do we put on our toothbrush?” We were hoping to hear “clean water” and maybe a few “toothpaste” answers, but the entire class replied, in unison, “COLGAT.” Apparently Colgate has strong branding strategies in Haiti.
The 6^th grade lesson was really interesting and fun, as always. Kelly and I intended to tie together the germ transmission lesson and cell lesson into a disease transmission on a cellular level lesson. We used sheets of paper to depict the sequence of both typhoid and malaria transmission, with purple glitter representing the typhoid bacteria and silver glitter to representing the malaria parasite (as you can tell, glitter might be our most popular teaching tool). After we explained each step in the transmission process for each disease, we asked several students to hold the papers in front of the class, put the transmission steps in order, and explain the events of each step.

As a visual learner with nonexistent artistic ability, I think it’s been helpful to show a few images on my computer of whatever cell/bacteria/parasite we’re discussing so that the students have a better mental picture of the concept as well.

The students asked a lot of really great questions, like “what kind of mosquito carries the malaria parasite?,” “can you get malaria from eating from the same spoon as someone who has malaria?” and, “can you get malaria if blood from an infected person gets into a cut in your skin?” (which led me to ponder their knowledge of HIV, but that’s a whole other summer’s worth of material…). I love the question/answer part of our lesson; it’s almost like I can see the wheels turning in the students’ heads.

For me, this lesson was one of the most rewarding parts of our teaching experience so far. To hear the students explaining the function of red and white blood cells, the importance of hand washing, the affect of germs on our body, all in one class period, was like seeing pieces of a puzzle finally fit together. It’s still a work in progress, and we might have lost a few pieces and jammed a few pieces into the wrong place, but I can start to see the overall picture.

We had a fairly uneventful weekend, with the exception of Dr. Schuler, a Rice professor at the Jones School, and his father-in-law, Jean Boubour, arriving on Sunday to begin their Capteur Soleil project, which is a type of solar device used for cooking, medical instrument sterilization, and other heating applications. Kelly and I were particularly excited about a potential soap-making application as well, as we’ve noticed the lack of soap in the school’s bathrooms, and we’ve considered initiating a soap-making project with some of the older students once school is out.

While helping with some of the assembly of the device this afternoon, we’ve discovered an addition to the list of “Things Kelly and Jocelyn Do That the Haitians Find Hilarious” (eating mangoes being first on the list): using screwdrivers, hammers, or any other tool. One of the kitchen ladies watched us struggle with a bolt for a few minutes, laughing to herself at the phenomenon of women using tools. For our next act, maybe we’ll play soccer with the boys. While wearing pants 😉