Since I seem to have gone into writing hibernation (due to obsessive focus with the plantar fasciitis I’ve developed in my right foot three weeks before Ironman Arizona), I’m going to present a guest column from my wife Cheryl. She’s in Haiti for three weeks, photographing midwives there and the women they are caring for and training. It’s her life’s work now, following on the prison photography project on incarcerated women and their babies, and her trip to Mongolia last year.
Hello everyone!
I haven’t had internet access until tonight. It’s actually been both liberating and frustrating. BTW, I started out just writing this to the family but decided to extend the list since I need to conserve time and don’t have much time for connecting.
Well, I’m sitting on a balcony with a Brother Bill who generously shares his internet. He is with the orphanage next door (Down the street). I will be living here my last week in Hinche since the Midwives for Haiti are moving to larger digs while I’m here.
I went to the orphanage this morning to contribute to an English language class. There were 29 Haitian men and 4 women. They learned I had been a midwife and wanted to know ALL KINDS of things… like, is it good to breastfeed a baby right away or are you supposed to wait? What are the worse things you have seen? Why did you want to be a midwife? What good does a midwife do? Are breech babies dangerous? It was such a surprising thing to talk to all these VERY BLACK MEN about childbirth. I mean, they REALLY WANTED TO KNOW! SOOOO wanting to learn about it!!! Later, I spent time asking some of these men what they wanted to do for Haiti and themselves. They each have big, honest, visionary dreams… an architect, several agronomists, lawyers, doctors, a nurse, a policeman, but they have very little opportunity. I was completely impressed by the intelligence and thoughtfulness of these intelligent men. It was touching and makes me wonder if any of them have a real chance. One of them made his statement with “God willing…”
One of them approached me after class and wants me to come to his village where he is a leader of development there. He has been in touch with Midwives for Haiti because he says there are about 20 traditional birth attendants around his village who need education and encouragement. I told him I didn’t do clinical midwifery anymore, just did photography of midwife-related issues… he was ok with that. I told him I would need to find a taxi, etc., he said for me to call him and he will get me. He knows the head of M4H and the American midwife here (Reina)… so I will check it out. Reina vouches for him… says he is a good man.
Then, this afternoon, one of the 16 yo boys in the orphanage (who has parents that visit) accompanied me to the St Theresa feeding center where I spent an hour and a half in a room with 20 starving babies who live there and get fed until they are well enough to leave. Oh, and there are about FOUR rooms of them. I mean starving. Starving. And I thought I was starving because lunch didn’t happen until 1:45 pm today. I was not starving, I was a little hungry. I’ve seen photos but have not really seen starvation. I learned something new, that starvation has two different looks: one is bone thin and the other is very edematous. One crying baby had blistered skin from bloat. Another little girl was crying so I picked her up and sat with her, just holding her, and offered her a bottle. She calmed down immediately as I held her and she pushed the bottle away. The English speaking nun from ? So America? short and plump, and she said maybe she just needed to be held. So, I cradled her until another worker gave me a mushy bowl of rice and bean gruel which the baby finally ate. She was between 1.5-2 years old and her bone thin wrist was as round as the circle I can make when I put the tip of my index finger in the web between that finger and my thumb. (I thought about Anita, Kirsten, Annie, and Shaine… feeding babies, and all). Then I played kitchy-koo with another two babies who managed to giggle, then went over to another crying baby and picked that one up. He/she just wanted to be held, too. After a while, I was able to get that baby to drink water. When I put her/him down, the baby cried and GRABBED me with the strongest, skinniest arms ever. I just had to pick the baby up again for awhile. I thought cats could be clingy! what did I know about starving babies, anyway? This child did not let me go easily. Finally, when I needed to leave and put the baby down, she/he cried. And, those were only a few of the babies. There were dozens more. I don’t know why there aren’t more hands there helping out.
Then as I was leaving, the nuns were busy getting preschool age children dressed to the max: girls in their ruffled, pouffy dresses, lacy socks and black Mary-Janes, corn-rowed hair with ribbons and barrettes… boys in uniform short-sleeved shirts. All clamored around me pulling at my backpack, my watch, my high school ring. It was a swarm of little children all ready for “church”. I could barely get away… kind of like they were the flypaper and I was the fly!
Haiti is similar to how I imagined it to be. Povery. Color. Living in full view. Little boys peeing in a row off a front porch. Donkeys carrying baskets of food. Women with head scarves carrying live chickens upside down from the market, hundreds of small stalls selling any kind of little thing, Black-Black faces with shining eyes and milky white toothy smiles, women with huge loads balanced on their heads, the caccaphony of motorcycles hurtling down rocky roads carrying FOUR passengers, men hanging out in groups playing cards or working or laughing together, teams of oxen doing whatever teams of oxen do as they amble down the road.
What I have not seen is obesity.
This would be a picture paradise if I had the courage to pull my Nikon out and just push the shutter. As it is, I just have to remember.
Interestingly, I met a photojournalist/bridge-builder here staying at the orphanage who had the equipment to charge my almost-dead battery. So now I have 3 full batteries to last until my charger comes. (He left this afternoon.) Thanks Al and Jennifer for that. I feel so idiotic. I mean, I have TWO at least of everything and I forgot my most essential battery charger for the camera. I almost wanted to cry but I had just witnessed a pregnant woman being CARRIED into the hospital ward by her family while she was in the midst of eclamptic seizures… oh, and I had taken photos of a woman who had delivered a still born recently. So, I decided that leaving the battery charger at home just wasn’t worth crying about. But, thanks to Global Express and a bunch of postage money, I will gladly receive it this week. Thanks again!!
Please pass this email on to whoever may be interested. My email address book doesn’t work so I have to type out each address each time I write an email. It’s a nuisance. So, if you think anyone may be interested in reading this… send it on (Pennye, CAID, Quincy, Dana, Elizabeth, Janice S-O, Silla, Kirsten, Katie G, Jenny F, Nika???, Katarina, Simone, Gloria, etcetera!)
More later, I’m sure!
Love, C
[Editor’s note, from Al: She included some photos which are going to require some additional technical maneuvers to get into the blog, and it’s too late at night to get that done. So this post will be continued tomorrow, with the photos.]