Death in Haiti

From my sister:

One of my neighbours, Abner, caught cholera a few weeks ago. He is the baker and the father of the girls who fetch my water, do my washing and occasionally cook for me.

Anyway he spent a week or so in hospital, was let out, went to someone we would probably call a witch doctor, and then returned home yesterday on a stretcher, no longer able to speak. He died last night, his daughters and wife started wailing at 2am in the morning - the traditional way of expressing grief and letting everyone know that he passed away. Of course, the worse part is that he leaves behind his family of 4 daughters (one of whom has a 4 month old baby) and 2 sons (one 4 years old, the other a teenager). I have no idea how they are going to survive this. I suspect the girls wont be going to school for much longer.

Cholera has returned to my zone, after a brief reprieve... I just wish they’d wash their bloody hands.

Just one person dead, yet it made me feel a lot more sad than "By late January 2011 some 4,131 people have died and 117,312 are hospitalised." (wikipedia) Of course, I already knew it would, but even as someone who has tried to think/feel in large numbers and concepts, to feel worse about a single case than other 4,130, is really pathetic. Truly pathetic. Even more so because the cholera outbreak is a tiny number of people. As far as deaths go, this has only just surpassed the most over-hyped event of the naughties. (Though, to be fair, millions of people had their lives ruined because of it - 1 & 2) Compared with other events, it's not even worth mentioning (and isn't mentioned). It's an order of magnitude less people than the earthquake in January 2010. Not even worth mentioning.

The second thing that affects me is "I just wish they’d wash their bloody hands." I know exactly what my sister means. It seems utterly absurd. A simple, obvious, easy solution. It's as though Haitians are willing themselves to die. Are they simply stupid brown people? I think a lot of people in the West would answer "yes" to that question. I lot of people I know would answer "yes" to that question. The same people who live their lives drowned in their own absurd beliefs and superstitions. This society functions - its modus operandi - is faith and superstition. Just because our beliefs don't have us dying of easily preventable water-born diseases, doesn't mean that our own absurdity doesn't cripple our existence as obese, angry, faithful, TV watching drones.

It's sad, it's strange, but it's perfectly understandable why someone wouldn't think to wash their hands and go to a witch doctor instead of getting proper treatment.

It's a fucked-up world and all I know is that it doesn't actually have to be like this. The solutions exist already - the solutions to cholera, obesity, faithfulness and irrationality all exist. But finding that path out of madness, that's the only difficult problem left to solve.

Cholera in Haiti

There is some more discussion below from my sister (VL), dad (JL) and I (l) about the Cholera outbreak in Haiti. Nuz has a lot more on her blog too.



VL: [cholera is] getting closer. 12 cases 15 mins walk away from my house, 5 deaths. and still no material to start disinfecting houses. although im supposed to be picking up sprayers during my stay here in city

l: wow, that's getting pretty close. how are they getting it? just because other people have it? is the water sorted out in their areas?

JL: are you distributing chlorine solution ok and managing to maintain some form of hygiene [for others and you]?

VL: yeah its just when they go into nearby towns where there already lots of cases... but its surely going to spread like wildfire now. all villages near me have difficult water access (which is why big water dist scheme was started by other program manager - but still not finished). chlorine solution is supposed to be distributed by each leader of each village (they collect it at my neighbours house), but appears they're not doing a very good job. but i think washing hands is more important than treating water anyway

JL: how much can people restrict their own travelling? do they meet people from other villages when collecting water?

VL: village isnt a good word as its all so spread out, but no, each village generally has one or more water sources for itself. people travel a lot to all the different markets - the only way they can make money...dont see them restricting that. at least one guy caught it when accompanying already infected person to hospital too... and idiots in another NGO had 50 chloring sprayers for house disinfection, some of which they were supposed to give to us, but it seems they have just randomly handed them out to community members. doesnt help.

JL: just when they must be particularly careful

VL: the worst is when they are walking people to the hospital. the patient must be vomiting and shitting all the way along the track, no idea what we're supposed to do about that

JL: yes, can't really clean up. now you can see the conflict between letting locals do things for themselves and doing things for them

VL: but again, as long as people wash their hands or any other object before putting them in their mouth, they wont catch it (to respond to your question about maintaining hygiene), its not that hard

l: it's not that hard, but maybe they've never learnt about germs so it doesn't make any sense to them. all the english thought it was from bad air, afterall.

VL: for sure, i meant its not that hard for me. but yeah, we only worked out hygiene about 100 years ago. plus local mayor received 700 boxes of soap to distribute free - meaning about 100 boxes for each local gov leader - the leader nearest to my house received 4 boxes...hmm... one educated guy asked me if haiti was only country that had cholera... prevalent attitude that haiti is cursed... understandable really

JL: so, you could reassure him ... must seem like that. you are having xmas in Port au Prince?

VL: i guess so. 3 of us girls will probably spend it together here (met new girl who works in totally different zone yesterday, shes really nice). plan to meet an aussie here this week too, found her through couchsurfing

JL: is the aussie an aid worker?

VL: yes. if theyre not haitian theyre an aid worker, pretty much. tis a pretty weird world here. we went out for dinner last night at italian restaurant... mostly whites, lots of different languages and accents, surely all aid workers. try to imagine myself sitting down eating that 25 dollar meal in front of people from my village

JL: When you went out for dinner you could have been in any city or not?

VL: well it would have to be a very multicultural city, but yes. eating pizza and pasta and icecream, prices the same as australia, just slower service and juices made from strange tropical fruits

JL: guess some people in your village would never have gone to Port au Prince?

VL: yeah lots of people havent been here. but lots have family here too

On Haiti

Vanessa and I just finished a skype chat. She's living/working in a remote area of Haiti. It had an earthquake earlier this year, is currently experiencing an outbreak of cholera, and there is a cyclone on the way. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.

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l: what u having for lunch? do they have many corporate food places? mcdonalds? subway?

V: i had lunch hours ago

l: oh yeah. it's the evening.

V: squashed fried bananas
V: rice
V: crushed pea sauce
V: and lots of leaves, i think cooked in meat unfortunately
V: wasnt so bad, apart from the meat
V: i havent seen a mcds
V: chains dont seem to exist here
V: not even supermarket chains
V: most of the supermarkets are lebanese owned
V: and there's a few bakeries that also do burgers and McDs type stuff

l: oh right. well, hopefully the aid people will do something about that. might be a good emerging market soon. heh heh.
l: sounds a bit crap there at the moment though. i'm pretty interested to go and see.

V: ha well yeah they've already had an effect on the supermarkets, massive new one opened recently, can get everything there
V: even tofu

l: is the government ok at the moment?

V: elections coming 28 nov
V: seems like its going to be 'stable' though

l: is it two-party?

V: i don't think so
V: there's millions of presidential candidates

l: not a real democracy then

V: ha, but i think the guy who will probably get in is friends with current pres
V: and he's directeur of some massive company i believe

l: so overall it's a good place to be?

V: i like being in the mountains
V: it's pretty quiet and i think i'm going to keep interested in my work so that's good

l: what happened to the guy with cholera?

V: the first guy was fine i think, but there were many more cases up there since
V: been about 300 deaths i think now
V: but i'm told official stats seem a lot lower than reality
V: want to talk to my friend who works in camps in city tonight, see what's happening there, must be crazy

l: yeah, couldn't be good with lots of people living in poverty, all in one place.
l: it isn't overly infectious is it? just health related.

V: what do you mean? pretty infectious i think
V: you don't want to shake hands with someone who has got it
V: but pretty easy to treat
V: it's just that a lot of people don't realise how serious it is and so don't react
V: and it would be pretty hard to walk for several hours to get to nearest clinic if you got it in the mountains

l: oh right. i guess i must have half-known that, but it seemed weird because it is so related to water.

V: well admittedly i don't know how long the bacteria survives outside of water

l: so what do they do up there?

V: just a whole lot of farming
V: corn, beans...
V: rice, bananas, avocados, some root vegies

l: animals too?

V: yeah lots of animals, but they don't seem to eat them very often
V: although supposedly they eat cats and dogs

l: well, nothing wrong with that. in many ways it's a good idea. you don't have to farm them for meat.

V: lots of chickens but the chickens lay their eggs anywhere so not a whole lot of egg collection
V: nothings very organised
V: but lots of mules and horses etc to transport things to markets

l: and just dirt roads?

V: in the mountains its really just walking tracks
V: but they are improving the road leading to Chambo, which is the last town i can drive to
V: it may even be all bitumen to Chambo by the time i leave
V: but suspect they doing it all pre-election and then there may not be much after

l: and then you walk over hills to the village and then on to your hut?

V: its actually pretty flat to get to my house
V: the mountains start a bit further north from my village
V: i walk through the river a couple of times
V: its a pretty nice walk actually
V: and weather is cooling down a lot at the moment so even better

l: many trees near there?

V: not many. i really miss the trees
V: around my village there are some, but surrounding hills are bare
V: have to get into the mountains where i was before to see trees

l: u going to start planting some? or is it not really anything to do with your job?

V: not really... maybe could do it about the water sources
V: but they really need trees
V: but if a program did just start planting them, just like that, they would just be cut down to make charcoal...
V: need to do a few other things at the same time as planting i think