Medical Clinic

Our school building is used for a free medical clinic. It’s run by an American Nurse Practitioner who has been in Haiti for quite some time. Today was the second day of the medical clinic since school opened. The clinic is very orderly run and only 50 patients are seen each day. Last year, the clinic was open 3 days each week but this year more funding was obtained and now it will be open 4 days, two days for medical, two days for dental (also a huge need here). I’m not really involved in the clinic but once a week we send a few students in the school who are sick. I went around to each class and asked which children were not feeling well. Pretty much every hand went up! I then narrowed it down to any kids who didn’t have a headache, didn’t have a stomach ache and didn’t have a cold. This caused most hands to go down. I then proceeded to lecture them about the importance of drinking a lot of water and why your head might hurt if you didn’t drink enough. They just smile and nod, it doesn’t matter how many times I tell Haitians this they don’t believe me. They have a very strong belief that medicine can cure all ills and nothing else will do. The stomach aches usually have to do with worms in their stomachs and we give them medicine for that several times each year. (sorry to gross you out) So I brought the kids to Dr. Ed (as we affectionately call him) and he told me what medicine to prescribe for them. I'll follow up each day to make sure they take it. I'm so thankful we are able to help out our students in this way.
On a less positive note, two people were told today that they had little time left to live because they have cancer and it can not be removed at this point. It's a harsh life in Haiti. Some people who come to the clinic have never had the opportunity to go to the doctor due to lack of money and sometimes by the time they come unfortunately it's too late. I was reflecting on the clinic today and I think it's a good reminder for me. The children I see each day are relatively healthy because we provide them with two meals each day and we take care of their medical concerns, and sometimes it's easy to forget that most Haitians do not have these access to these basic human rights. The clinic keeps me balanced and reminds me of the importance of what we do each and every day at Adoration Christian School.