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| Eric Adman, right, with students from EMT class in Haiti Photo courtesy Eric Adman |
Shoreline Firefighter and new Northshore Fire Commissioner Eric Adman has taken three trips to Haiti since their devastating earthquake, to teach emergency medical response classes
By Eric Adman
In October, I returned from my third trip to Haiti this year. If you had asked me if I ever thought I would go to Haiti once, let alone three times, I would have said no way. This year I went in January to do relief work in a clinic (see story), in August to help teach Port-Au-Prince Medic One class #1, and in September to attend the graduation of those new EMT's.
The class was a total success, despite all the usual obstacles of Haiti, which included heat, humidity, chickens and goats underfoot, and tropical storms blowing in to our open-air outdoor classroom. Not to mention we taught in English, which is not their first language. We finished up with some incredible Mass Casualty (MCI) training drills, and a graduation ceremony which featured many of the well-connected in Haiti, as well as lots of friends and family. Following up on the class, we are coordinating with various entities in Haiti to help develop a better EMS system, and plan to offer at least two more EMT classes there next year.
I stayed at the EMPACT Haiti house as usual. That house is great - not necessarily four star comfort, but you really get to live with the local people there. To get there, you ride up the "road", as steep and bad as any jeep trail, while riding in the back of a Toyota pickup ("tap-tap") on a hard wooden bench seat. Everyone waves and says hello as you pass through the neighborhood! Every other person seems to be related to Hubermann, one of our translators and EMT graduates. You also get three meals a day of Haitian food courtesy of "Madame", who cooks for us. Spaghetti with sauteed onions ("ZOH-YOH") and salami, plus mayo, ketchup, and hot sauce, is a typical breakfast!
Unusual for my trips, I actually had time to do some sightseeing during my third stay. We got out of town a couple of times - once to a resort north of Port-Au-Prince on the coast, and once to a town to the south called Jacmel. Jacmel is considered a center of art in Haiti, and has beautiful old buildings reminiscent of the French Quarter in New Orleans. While in Jacmel we also got to swim in a series of pools fed by waterfalls up in the nearby mountains - beautiful, and not what you expect. Haiti is still not most people's first choice for tourism, but they are making efforts and there are some nice places.
Back in Port-Au-Prince, I spent a day with a Haitian friend of mine, Windy. Windy has started a school in a slum area that he grew up in, Cite Soleil. I got smuggled into Cite Soleil in the most beat-up tap-tap I'd ever been in, to see the school. I felt like a celebrity. The children sang me a welcome song and everyone was excited to meet me. The school is a little oasis, in the poorest, most bombed-out looking area, with garbage and puddles of unknown green water around. Little kids who saw me pointed and yelled "Blan! Blan!" (white person), which made me laugh.
Windy and his brother are doing a very professional, organized job. They have started a school where there was none. They are teaching 50 first-graders, paying a director, two teachers, a cook, feeding the kids, paying rent on the church - for under $5000 for a year. This is funded by contributions from the US - here is where you can learn more about it and donate
Later that day, Windy and I struggled through Haitian traffic and visited an orphanage started by a friend of his, Pastor Sila Caduc. Pastor Sila is another example of the unbelievable selflessness you find so often in Haiti. The pastor and his wife have dedicated their life to taking care of 60 children, ranging in age from 1 to 17. While the kids live in a building, he and his wife stay in a tent. They, too exist on a shoestring budget & can use any help we can send.
People ask me each time if things are changing in Haiti. That is a hard question to answer, but I can say that each time I go I meet more people who are working on good things. I guess I would have to say things are slowly getting better, but there is a very long way to go.
I also have to admit what a tremendous sense of relief and enjoyment I feel every time I come back to the good old clean and organized USA. Comfy beds, nice hot showers, clean water from the tap. No pervasive smell of sewage, burning garbage, smog, etc. Driving on roads without massive potholes everywhere. Despite what you may hear on the news, it is pretty darn good here.
Check out Eric's photo galleries from his trips:
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