Art's insights from Haiti-January 30, 2010

I have been in Haiti since Wednesday, Jan 27th. I had no idea what I was going to be doing down here when I left Bellingham, but given the fact I have lived here for 17 of the last 24 months, I have been able to plug in quite easily.
The last two days I have been involved in transporting injured kids that have been operated on at the University of Miami Medishare compound and bringing them back to our orphanage where we have set up the church to do post op care.
We have about 25 now. Lots of burn victims, broken legs, amputees, and head injuries. Most of them are around 10 years of age.
It is very interesting to go through security at the airport and basically go on the runway to get to the hospital. The hospital, if you watched the news is a series of tents. When we go inside the tents it seems like total chaos, but once you find the right person they are really helpful. No one ever seems to be flustered given the circumstances. The doctors and nurses are amazing people. Being white, everyone thinks that I'm a doctor. I have been concurring on a lot of diagnosis. Standing waiting for the kids that I need to transport, I do interpreting for the doctors and nurses and sometimes just talk to patients that are lying on cots. Lots of kids and babies in the hospital. There is no security, I could wander into the operating room and start to operate. The sign above the OR just says to wear caps and shoes. If I had any ambition to try operating on someone, this would be my chance. I would probably pass out though.
Lots of media come through the hospital and do interviews with anyone willing to talk. The Haitian president stopped by today and a Haitian NBA player. Unfortunately, their presence just adds to the confusion in a very congested field hospital.
Things are smoothing out at the orphanage (New Life). We have about 60 relief workers living on the compound. Two the groups provide their own food and camp in tents. We had power issues when I got here, but I've been able to switch things around, charge inverter batteries and keep the water pump going at the same time. It is a challenge because we have to rely totally on the 17 KW generator and I can't get people to turn off the lights and fans when they leave a room.
We have plenty of food for now and our cook is able to go out and find food in the local outdoor markets. Delimart is still not open nor Megamart and of course the Carribean Market was completely destroyed. We did see that the Eagle market is open at the top of Delmas.
If you have been to Haiti during mango season, you know the sound of a mango falling through the trees. The kids recognize this sound and sprint to the location of the sound to try and be the first on the scene of the fallen fruit. There is usually a lot of pushing and shoving to get the prize. Anyway, as the earthquake was happening it shook the mango trees and the mangoes started to drop. Three of our little 8 year old girls, crying from the shock of the earthquake, still ran out and started gathering mangos in the folds of their dresses. The story goes that they were bawling loudly as they picked up every mango that fell. The older kids were too scared to move.
All of our buildings are in good shape. Sam has an engineer friend here that has gone around and certified that any visible cracks are minor and not life threatening. We will need to replace our east and west walls, but they dug down along the foundation and it is solid and won't need to be replaced. So we will be able to build right on top of the old foundation, but with better columns holding up the block walls.
Our kids here at the orphanage are healthy and happy, but I'm sure they are going to get bored really soon since there is no school, and we have no idea if school will even start up again this year. Our kids’ school was not destroyed, but a lot of schools were. And who knows how many of the kids' teachers were killed. The kids are still too scared to sleep indoors and have been on their mattresses outside since the quake.
I haven't been downtown Port au Prince to see where the most severe damage occurred, but I hope to venture down there very soon. My understanding is that the smell is really bad down there with decaying bodies still trapped in fallen buildings.

Reporting from Haiti, Art Berry