Dr. Dror Paley’s Haiti Epilogue

I am now sitting in my comfortable living room one week after leaving Haiti. I returned to work the day after we got back (March 22) and have had a very busy week. I had little time to reflect on the experience since Monday. Today being the Sabbath again I have taken the time to relax, clear my mind and think. As an epilogue to this trip to Haiti I would like to share my thoughts with you as I close this blog.

Haiti is and was a poor country earthquake notwithstanding. It has had a tragic history related to colonialization by the Spanish, French and by the Americans. It became the first independent black nation following a slave revolt against the French. It was the second independent nation in the Americas following the USA. Also similar to us it faced the threat of reoccupation by its overthrown colonial power. While we fought the war of 1812 to finally throw off the threat of reoccupation by Britain, Haiti a much smaller nation had to pay tribute to the French for their losses of sugar export revenue. A major part of Haiti’s GNP went to pay off this debt until the US bought this debt from the French. It was not until WW2 when this debt was finally forgiven. Misrule by the Duvalier’s followed by corrupt rule in the name of democracy by Aristide have bankrupt this nation into modern times. The result is a country that has few exports and needs to import nearly everything including sugar. This is a country that has had no investment into its infrastructure and where the majority of wealth is owned by very few. Despite its longstanding poverty these people had a roof over their heads and had learned to live with very little except for shelter and basic food. The earthquake took even these away. This earthquake killed more people than any other quake in modern history. It displaced more people than any other quake. The immediate and early response of the entire world was amazing and for two months Haiti was the top item in the news. Volunteers and aid of unprecedented volumes poured in to help the situation. Free medical care was established for a population that had no socialized medical care. The acute medical problems were dealt with using modern medical equipment by well trained clinicians. Where are we now after all this outpouring of good will. Hundreds of thousands of people who had a hard roof over their heads now live in nylon tents or under plastic tarps in what can best be described as tent cities. These tent cities can be seen covering any open fields, parks or ground. Even the grassy area on divided roads is covered by tents. The rubble is off the streets but little new construction is apparent. Previously there were volunteers stepping on each other while now there are not enough. Previously it was in the news nonstop while now there are few stories on Haiti. Questions are arising as to whether the aid is getting to where it belongs.

I have been asked so many times since I came back whether the situation in Haiti is improving. My answer is that it is actually getting worse. How could that be? The rainy season followed by the hurricane season is beginning. The tent cities with their limited sanitation and their close quarters are not going away. They are at risk for epidemics of cholera, malaria, dengue, typhoid, etc that would replace the wards of orthopedic patients with medically sick patients. If this happens the death toll will skyrocket and threatens to double the casualties of the earthquake.

On the last day in Haiti, we took a tour of the city for several hours. We started by walking up the street from the hospital to the Adventist University. The campus is now a tent city. As we walked the grounds of the University dozens of children ran up to us and interacted with us. All with smiles on their faces. Singing could be heard from a church service that was going on nearby. A well dressed man started calling for the children to come to a children’s service and educational session. We followed the children and observed an outdoor one room schoolhouse teaching session. The teacher taught them stories and how to read. Under an adjacent tarp the high pitched voices of younger children could be heard as they sang church songs.

I talked to the well dressed many who told me that most of these children were homeless and parentless. He asked me how we could help. I told him we were helping at the hospital. He asked me how we could help here in the tent city. I did not know what to answer. I decided that the only effective way I could help was advocacy when I got home. The Haiti disaster is not over. Haiti has been a disaster for a century but now it is an apocalypse. I have travelled all over the world. I have been to India ten times and to Pakistan once. I have travelled through the Fabellas (slums) of Rio and Sao Paolo, Brazil. I have seen the poverty in Peru and Ecuador. I have travelled to the townships in South Africa and through villages of Zimbabwe. I have been in the West Bank and Gaza and in the impoverished areas of Egypt. I have never seen as hopeless a situation as I saw in Haiti. I came with great visions of helping the situation by my actions. I left feeling I did little despite having worked nonstop for seven days.

My team did 30 surgeries and treated about 300 patients over the course of six days. We hit the ground running and started operating one hour after we arrived a the hospital and then daily to and including Saturday until 10 at night before we left the next morning. We helped a few people. We left behind thousands more that need medical help and hundreds of thousands more that needs socio-economic help. I thought I would feel accomplished when I returned. I thought I would feel good that I had done something instead of staying home and earning more income. I thought I would make a difference. Instead I feel defeated. Instead I feel I have not done enough. Instead I feel perhaps I went for the wrong reasons. I do however feel a glimmer of hope. I realize that if every volunteer going there feels the way I do when they return they will recruit two more to go back. Haiti needs volunteers not just money.

What can you do to help? Each and every person can help in one way or another. My ex wife Wendy who has spent her life volunteering for different causes told me that she wished she had a skill like I did so she could help in Haiti. I took this at face value until my experience at Hopital Adventiste. Every morning and every evening at the group meeting I got to meet the various volunteers that made that hospital run. Aside from the expected nurses and doctors and other medical personnel, here were administrators, plumbers, electricians, architects, computer specialists, hairdressers, mechanics, accountants, lawyers, housewives, personal trainers, life coaches, chefs and many other professions. There were so many people that got involved through church and synagogue groups, community groups etc. All of our food was being cooked for us by a volunteer vegan group related to a following of ‘the Grand Master’.  My daughter a freshman in college was trained by us to be an instrument specialist in the operating room. The only qualifications for helping in Haiti are goodwill, selflessness and willingness to help. One needs to be willing to forego creature comforts for the duration of ones stay. The personal rewards in terms of a sense of well being for what one has done are all you can expect in return.

There is a golden opportunity for us to rebuild Haiti, a country on the doorstep of the US, a country that has had a relationship with us for nearly 200 years and which has been occupied and dominated by us for the past century. Haitian Americans are a productive important minority in this country. They add to the flavor our multiculturalism with their Creole language and cooking and many of their traditions. They are a wonderful, kind and gentle people. I enjoyed getting to know them and look forward to my next trip back. We have set up a 501c3 that is pending final approval in the next month. It is called the Paley Save-the-Limb Foundation.  A major mission of our fundraising will be to sponsor future volunteer missions to Haiti.

More pictures will be posted in the next day or so.

Sincerely
Dror Paley, MD

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