Privilege and Shame

Our hosts in the village of Trouin have always laid out the red carpet for visitors from Haitian Hope. They are just that kind of generous loving people. We pay room and board to Georgette and Père Michaud. Georgette owns the house and PM (Père Michaud) rents the second floor. Georgette and Kercia, PM’s wife, do a wonderful job of preparing the house for us and getting help with the meals. They make us feel special in a wonderful way with gracious hospitality.

One of the things on our list of activities was to have a talk with PM about using the power from the Living Waters generator. Living Waters is a water treatment center built by the Episcopal Church so the people of Trouin can have clean drinking water. The guy who runs it also lets people charge their phones for a minimal fee. This is a great service to a village that has no power, no running water, and no sewage. PM has run an extension cord from the Living Waters to Georgette’s house to bring electricity to the guests. It seems that this is not the right thing to do. We do not want to be treated as better than the locals. But the day we arrived, it was late in the afternoon when settled in our rooms. Caroline went straight to bed. All of sudden the overhead light came on and A FAN! What a gift. We accepted and didn’t say a thing. Gail and I were served a lovely dinner on the upstairs porch and as it got dark, PM and Georgette got an orange extension cord to bring a light to the porch.

At the Doctors w/o Borders hospital, Caroline was the only white patient. We did not feel as out of place as we probably looked. All the staff was kind and professional to everyone, but it seemed like every white doctor came by to check on us. We appreciated it, especially because they usually spoke English. When Caroline was moved to a bed, in a room with seven other people, there was a table in the center of the room for the nurses. One of the nurses gave a chair to Gail. No other family member had a chair. People were standing or sitting on boxes or on the floor. Gail was grateful because her ankles were swelling. We accepted the offer. Visitors are not allowed to sit on the edge of the patient beds, yet when I did the nurse did not say a word. So both of us could sit. Georgette was with us and when she sat on the bed they told her to get up. I felt so guilty and I offered her the chair.

There was a nice white tent outside the building – it was the réfectoire – lunch room area for the employees. When Georgette arrived late one night with our food, someone indicated that we should go in and sit at the tables. Every other family was outside. We went in and enjoyed our meal. Later we laid a blanket on the floor and slept there, taking turns caring for Caroline. When I woke up in the morning, the tables were full of people having their breakfast. I just smiled, picked up the blanket and slithered away.

As we were on our way to the next hospital, I spent a lot of time praying for Caroline and for myself and Gail. I felt guilty asking God to care for us, when all the people back at the Drs w/o B hospital did not have the choice to leave. I felt bad for all the people on the mountain that would never think of leaving just because of a fever. And how would they leave? They don’t have cars.

When we registered at the private hospital, I had to choose what type of room to get for Caroline. I thought the cost was $2000 a day and still I signed. PM was with me and I felt so guilty that he is always asking Haitian Hope for more money, and here I am just throwing my charge card in front of him. I missed Georgette and wished she was with us, but then thought that I would feel ashamed that we could afford this kind of care where she probably could not. She had called Gail in the past for help with her sister Eva’s cancer treatment.

We even contacted a Medevac company in desperate hope of getting Caroline home. The estimate of getting her back to Georgiawas about$21,000 which we didn’t even consider, but I wonder if PM was in on this conversation. That’s about half the budget of Haitian Hope each year.