Reporting from Les Cayes, Haiti

January 13

I can’t believe my time here in Haiti is over—but it is. I’m  
writing this from my guesthouse in Port-au-Prince, in preparation for  
my flight home tomorrow.

I would like to thank Senator Frist for forming the Frist Global  
Health Leadership Program, and for allowing me to have come to Haiti  
to work at HIC. I’d also like to thank the many people at Vanderbilt,  
Dartmouth, and HIC who helped me make the needed connections and  
organize the details of my trip. Last but not least, I’d like to give  
a special shout-out to my boyfriend, for supporting and encouraging me  
to leave him—and the U.S.—for three months and go work in Haiti.  
Thank you.

Although there were certainly nights that were incredibly difficult,  
there were many more that were amazing, and I am so very thankful for  
having been able to work at HIC. I was able to learn from so many  
experienced, kind, patient doctors and (mainly) nurses. They opened  
their hospital and the maternity ward to me, and were willing to teach  
me and make me an infinitely better midwife. I know that my time at  
HIC will forever impact how I care for my patients, and how I look  
upon all of the resources available to my moms and babies back in the  
U.S. Additionally, working here has further solidified my desire to  
work internationally, and has given me a clearer idea of what that  
life will be like.

I sincerely hope that if Senator Frist had come to visit HIC that the  
staff and the patients I interacted with would have said I was worthy  
of being a Frist Global Health Leader.

This last picture is of me and an auxiliary nurse (kind of like an  
LPN) named Mrs. Lorcey. Mrs. Lorcey works most nights, and so I worked  
with her more than any other provider during my time at HIC. I was  
always pleased when I'd arrive to work and see Mrs. Lorcey there  
because we worked well together and respected each others skills as  
providers. Although at first Mrs. Lorcey didn't trust me--as she  
shouldn't have--as I slowly proved myself and my skills she let me do  
more and more on my own, and helped guide me through interventions  
that I'd never done/seen before. By the end of my time at HIC I know  
that she believed in my abilities, and let me work as independently as  
I wanted. I worked with Mrs. Lorcey on my last night at the maternity  
and in the morning when it was time to leave she gave me a big hug--
something I didn't see that often in Haiti--and told me she'd miss me.  
I will certainly miss her,  her smile and her quiet, calm  
encouragement when I was stressed or unsure of what I was doing.