st marc
On the weekend we visited Claudy’s home village, a moderate 2-hour drive north of Port au Prince — road conditions varied as they always do. Thankfully we had a 4×4 as did everyone else. Getting out of the city was beautiful as we often had a coastal view of the mountains meeting the Caribbean. Modified school buses cruised by with their loud horns and paint jobs, facilitating inter-city travel.
Once in St Marc, or the small village outside of it for that matter, we met a childhood friend of Claudy who has since become a doctor in Haiti and uses his salary to run a weekend clinic in their hometown farming village. This weekend, however, we had free medications to fill a month’s worth of doses, paid for by donations collected prior to our trip.
We saw close to 200 people, assisting him in taking vital signs, measuring blood glucose levels, and learning first-hand the pharmacological treatment of common maladies in the area (ranging from osteoarthritis to hypertension to parasitic infections). Resources were limited and we soon understood a new framework of assessment and therapy choices when there is no lab, microscope, or x-ray available.
After a long day that ran 3-hours overtime, we swam away the weariness at the beach and enjoyed an impromptu joy ride in a passing fisherman’s boat.
No worries: big boat + small motor = little chance of capsizing