Bienvenue Madame Sara

On Monday, I had my first day as a teacher in the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program.  I was welcomed with a lovely chalk art drawing of a person climbing a tree, an elaborate bird, and lots of colorful fruits and vegetables covering the entire board. The six students were just finishing it up, writing “Bienvenue Mme. Sara.”  They call me Madame Sara, which I find very sweet.

I’m really glad I had met the students on my previous trip, had seen the classroom, and of course that I was familiar with HAS.  I had taken pictures of each of them, and took down their names from Janet, the teacher at the time.  I wanted to be able to recognize them and know their names when I returned.  I printed the pictures with their names at the bottom, along with the words “RTTP 2011.”  I showed them the pictures thinking we might put them up on the wall, but I quickly realized that they really wanted to have the prints for themselves.  I could see the pride in their faces when they looked at them, posing as they were, looking so self-assured.  I was pleased to be able to give them this inadvertent gift.

Even though I had read the material to present on the first day, I found it hard to think of enough things to say to them about the subject of balance apart from the notes I had.  Without a lot of experience, I don’t have a large well from which to draw examples and ideas.  So the first day was challenging.

Once I knew what to expect, though, I did much better.  I had a plan for the next morning, to be more engaging and demonstrative with the material, to ask more questions to draw them out, and to expand on their previous work.  Our afternoon balance lab was more structured, and I did a lot of demonstrating for them.  We got balance equipment from the hospital PT clinic, like a platform with a ball as its base, so that their balance could be challenged a bit.  They are so coordinated that they were practically doing gymnastics in the parallel bars, rather than trying to imitate a patient with balance problems!

There are certain things that seem to characterize these students. While they are unfailingly polite, often smiling, and clearly enthusiastic about becoming rehab technicians, they also don’t hide the fact that they may be tired, with glazed eyes, unstifled yawns, or heads on tables (which could not possibly have been due to my scintillating teaching!).  I don’t think this is rudeness, just reality.  One student rides his bike for an hour to get here.  It’s hot.  Didactic work is boring, yet is the system to which they are accustomed.  I therefore have a lot of motivation to find ways to be more engaging and keep them more active.  I’m not seeing much drooping now, but it is still clear when they need a break.  Another thing I noticed is how unhurried their pace is.  When we went over to the Hanger Clinic, they didn’t walk, they sauntered.  I kept turning around, wondering where they were! 

We started coordination today, and Silla, the Swiss PT who is my housemate, gave me some great ideas about using functional activities to work on improving coordination.  I was able to download some short videos to show them of coordination problems, and they seemed fascinated by these.  We also had two opportunities for real patient observation; one a stroke patient that they had seen last week, and the other a little boy just coming out of a body cast following a femur fracture, with weakness and decreased coordination in movement and gait from disuse (who will likely return to normal fairly soon).  For gaining experience, there is no substitute for the real thing!

Back Again

I got in to Deschapelles about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon.  There was a pink and purple sky once again during my favorite time of day.  As soon as I got out of the Land Cruiser, I noticed familiar scents, a mix of heat, dust, wood smoke, and flora that I hadn’t remarked on before, but which immediately confirmed that I’m back in Haiti.

Last time I was here, Haiti time matched Eastern time, but this time it’s an hour earlier here than on the East Coast, even though Haiti is farther East.  That’s because Haiti doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time.  Can you imagine getting everyone in Haiti to change their clocks?  It would be ridiculous, in the grand scheme of things!

I had a flight glitch due to a fire at the Miami Airport, which caused several flight cancellations.  American Airlines kindly re-booked me on a flight the next day, which would have arrived in Miami several hours after my flight to Port-au-Prince had left, so I spent a long time on the phone working that out.  Instead of flying from Portland (where I was visiting my Mom) to Dallas/Fort Worth to Miami, where I would enjoy a good night’s sleep in a hotel before flying to Port-au-Prince, I flew from Portland to LAX , then took a red-eye to JFK, then on to PAP yesterday morning.

Thanks to a little sleep aid, I slept several hours on the LAX to JFK leg, snoozed for an hour or two at JFK, plus before and after the meal on the flight to PAP (interestingly, the flights to and from Haiti seem to be the only ones on AA that offer a free meal any more), and even in the car on the drive to Deschapelles.  It's pretty remarkable for me to be so relaxed!  But I was still with it, since I only took one pill.  (I Learned my lesson about taking two, as Bill can attest – he had to guide me for several hours after we landed in Boston last fall!)

I’m in a different house this time.  It is still generous in size and traditional in décor, with tile floors, dark wood bookcases, and ceiling fans.  It has colored lights draped for ambience at night.  I’ve got my own pop-up mosquito shelter, so I’m all self-contained for sleeping.  This also serves as protection from the house cat, Dino, who would probably be all over my bedding if I let him.  (I have antihistamines just in case.)

My house this time is close to where I stayed last time, but not within the gated area which also comprises Alumni House (where I had my meals before) and the pool.  I have a nice housemate, a physical therapist named Silla, from Switzerland (alas, she’s from the German part, so we don't speak French together, although her French, perhaps her fifth language, is better than mine).  She recently retired and decided to spend 3 months working here.  We have our own cook and security at our house.  The security, de rigueur in Haiti, is mostly for privacy, so that locals don’t come up to the houses selling things or asking for kados (gifts).  Silla told me that the night guard sits on the porch outside her window, and sometimes he gets cell phone calls in the wee hours and just chatters away!  She’s very tolerant, but I’m glad I’m in the back room!

Last night I heard live music out my window, and before long they played the song from the video I made, so I knew it was the Hanger band, “Prestige.”  They were doing a performance at the residential dorm for the prosthetics patients.  Silla and I went over to listen for a bit, and I met up with Yvener and Joel from the Clinic, Nick who runs the art and music program, and Oliancy, who runs the art program for children that I visited last time.  It was fun to be recognized and welcomed!