Arrival in Port-au-Prince

Written by: Donna Boatwright

We arrived in Santo Domingo Wednesday afternoon with all our luggage except one bag of medical supplies. The only casualty was a bag that had either been torn or cut open and some of the contents were gone. But we picked up a dental x-ray film that wasn’t there when we packed it – have no idea where that came from! And the lost bag did arrive later.

We loaded our team of 17 into a bus for the trip across the city to the Dominican Baptist headquarters where we stayed last night. Our team consists of 2 orthopedic surgeons, 1 Ob-Gyn, 1 dentist, 9 nurses with various specialties, Rod as team coordinator, a chaplain from FBC Jacksonville, a photographer and a journalist.

This morning we left before 7am to start the long trip to Port-au-Prince. Along the way we passed very long convoys of Italian and Canadian military going in the same direction with large earth moving equipment as well as other supply trucks.

The trip took nine hours. Once we crossed the border into Haiti the roads deteriorated and the going was slow and rough. We saw only sporadic earthquake damage outside of Port-au-Prince but once we arrived in the city the damage was more widespread. At times it was difficult to tell if buildings had been destroyed by the quake or if they were just falling down from disrepair. We passed several very large tent cities which seemed to go on and on and on. Some did not even have tents and had made dwellings of cardboard and plastic sheets. At various places in the city we saw UN troops and vehicles as well as military personnel from Canada, Italy, and Korea.

The last hour or so of the trip we traded our nice air-conditioned bus for a “tap-tap”, basically a pick-up with a roof over the bed and benches built along the sides of the bed. It was a very rough ride on cramped, hard seats with little head room but it was adequate transportation and did get us to the Florida Baptist Guest house.

Tomorrow we will begin our work. Our team will be at a hospital that was set up on the grounds of the Presidential Palace by Youth With A Mission. This evening we heard from two doctors from Kentucky who have been working at this hospital for a week. They briefed us on what to expect – lots of wounds, some gaping and deep, some have been dressed and will need dressing changes, others have not been treated yet; lots of upper respiratory problems from all the dust in the air; gastro-intestinal issues from unsanitary conditions, dirty water, and emotional upset; and many people coming in stating “my heart is broken – I’ve lost my family.” That will be the most difficult to deal with.