We arrived in the Dominican Republic three days after the earthquake, and navigated our way into Port au Prince.  We were fortunate enough to be traveling with a Haitian/American physician...without his guidance this trip would not have been possible.

 

We managed to get a ride to the bus station, a ride from a Haitian and his Dominican friend.  He had just arrived from the states, he was traveling to Haiti to pick up his four year old daughter, his wife had been killed when their house collapsed.  Another man sat next to us with a bag full of rope, gloves, and a knife.  He was going to Haiti to find his mother.  Apparently the only access to her home required travel over a bridge, that bridge had collapsed. 

 

We ended up working at the Haitian Community Hospital, a private hospital that had opened its doors to all patients free of charge after the earthquake.  We slept on the roof in tents, took cold showers and ate pop tarts for ten days. 

 

 

Day 2-I woke up to a woman screaming, I ran down stairs and she grabbed my arm.  She brought me to a car that her sister lie dead in the back of, I began CPR, she was pronounced dead shortly after.  Five minutes later a baby was born in another area.

 

After that the days seemed to blend, but aside from the morning of the 6.1 aftershock, not a day went by that we were not awakened by screaming.  Once a woman screaming because her baby was dying of tetanus...there were no tetanus shots or appropriate antibiotics available. 

 

On the last day of the trip we had coffee on the curb with a Haitian woman who had lost her leg, her home, and her entire family.  When we cleaned out our backpacks she insisted on getting up...on her crutches...and throwing our garbage away for us.  She thanked us for coming to help her country.

 

We returned to Haiti two weeks after that trip, again to volunteer at the Haitian Community Hospital. 

 

We will be traveling back March 8th, for one month and hope to have a constant influx of volunteers during that time. 

Write your post here.