Some of my fondest memories in my nursing career have been working with elderly people. I've worked in a number of nursing homes over the years as well as in hospitals. The stories - history they have survived is so amazing. Sometimes its value is hidden, locked away from those of us caring for them; sometimes because the elderly don't think its important to anyone else, sometimes because we don't listen to what they have to say. Taking the time to listen is so important but we lose sight of this in our increasingly busy lives where the clock is always ticking. This morning I took the time to read the following article from Dr. Ray Ford, a physician who has been coming to Haiti for 20 years. He shared this bit of wisdom with a network of medical folks that work in Haiti.
OLD FOLKS: Many of the patients you see will have the same complaint—GAZ. They will touch their heads (tet fe’mal) or their neck, shoulders and backs to indicate their discomfort. Gaz (or gas) seems to be the common term for “discomfort” in the north of Haiti. They will complain (through your interpreter) of gastric discomfort and fever. Their skin will itch from head to foot and sleep will be difficult and interrupted. Many will have burning eyes, diarrhea or constipation. Old men will have trouble with their pee-pee and old women lower abdominal pain. You may feel at a loss to know how to help them. After you have listened to their complaints, ask them what problem is most important to them: make certain that you have dealt, at least, with that issue.
Then, as hours of patient contact pass, it becomes evident that many older Haitians are simply hungry:--to the point of malnutrition. You will discover that some are edentulous or arthritic. More insidious will be your realization that the possibility of chronic depression exists, made even more difficult by cataracts, presbyopia and deafness isolating them from their world. And so it goes, but do not despair.
You will ask yourself “how do they survive”? Who takes care of them? The complexity of that question and the answer, blurred by our vast cultural gap, comes as a gradual revelation to us, especially for the “veteran” physicians who come to Haiti again and again. If they seem ignorant to us—ignorant of our strange ways—imagine how ignorant we are of them. Haiti is a culture of networks (“webs”) of relationships that date back hundreds of years. Remember that all the people that you see will be descended from individuals kidnapped from Africa more than 200 years ago—they are unique.
We have grown up in America. We understand; we need not even contemplate what our culture and environment is all about, but consider this odd world we have entered: where many women have spent their adult lives bearing 20, 30 even 40 pound loads on their heads and necks—doing that while bearing 5, 6 or 8 children from their wombs. This is a place where men have toiled 8, 10 even 12 hours a day in farm fields, only to realize that even then the mouths had not been fed. They have lived in a world where pain is pain and hunger is hunger and one more day is all one asks of his life and the lives of the children.
These are people who possess great, sweet dignity and intellect. It is easy to underestimate them. You will take a great deal more from having been in Haiti than it will take from you. The more times you go, the more you will have each time that you return.
Recently I had a conversation with Dr. Randle who started HHH 12 years ago. He came here on his LDS mission and then later returned to begin providing rehabilitation. He too has seen a lot of changes - history - in Haiti, though I must say right now, he is not old. He is happy that HHH has survived and grown though its a bit unnerving to think of all of the effort and resources to continue the growth and the support needed to continue to meet the tremendous needs of the people in Haiti. Certainly, since the earthquake, there are many more resources and people and organizations that lesson some of that burden. He says he still doesn't understand the country any better. Thats understandable and not surprising. I'm here everyday trying to do this on so many levels - if I equate that on a school level maybe I've reached the 3rd grade.
Yesterday the construction crew arrived on site to begin the first phase of the building project. This involved cutting down the trees that sit inside the perameters of the clinic. Listening to the chainsaws and the chopping- no one called out timber- was kind of sad. The property is lush with trees that are very beautiful and some were very old and have their own kind of history. But as I said to the architect, we are building something in their place that will have a history of its own. I'm excited to be part of that history. Perhaps we will treat some of those women that carry the heavy loads on their head and shoulders. For sure its true, that I will gain much more from my experience here in Haiti than I will ever be able to repay to these people with sweet dignity and the resilience of the great mahogany tree that was cut down yesterday.
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