By Richard Edward Hale
It’s hard to be prepared or know what to expect when you visit Haiti for
the first time. My advice: if you’re
planning a trip to Haiti, by all means take a guide. We had three: Dr. Malivert (Mario), and his
wife Garlene, and our driver “Wooby”. We
were part of a small group that, like many others, traveled to Haiti to
“help”. I’m not sure that any of us knew
what this really meant, but we were going to provide what services we could to
support the medical clinics being run by Mario and Garlene. Three of us are medical professionals (a
doctor, a nurse, and a nurse practitioner), and I am an engineer. Their purpose was fairly clear and their task
specific. People were sick and dying,
and they could help save lives. I was
going presumably to help work on a database that would support the clinics. So,
I was going to help Haiti by software programming. That didn't sound as impressive as saving
lives.
When you arrive in Haiti, you expect to see evidence of destruction and
devastation, which you do. The numbers
are staggering. Wikipedia lists Haiti’s
2010 earthquake as the second worst earthquake by death toll in history
(Wikipedia estimate: 316,000 lives lost).
It ranks as the 7th worst natural disaster in history. You also expect
to see abject poverty; there’s plenty of that.
Haiti is listed by some accounts as the poorest country in the western
hemisphere. It has one of the highest
poverty rates in the world, at 77%, with unemployment somewhere between 40% and
80% (and by my observation, closer to 80%).
These numbers don’t lie. You’ll
see things in Haiti you shouldn’t see.
And you’ll get numb to many of them.
I’m telling you that right now.
Our eyes and ears on this trip was our guide “Wooby”. Wooby’s real name is Joseph Robertson. But, “Wooby” is so much more fun to say, and it just feels right. He spent a week driving us everywhere, from clinic to tent city, from orphanage to market. And everywhere we went, he is known, respected, and liked by all. Wooby told us, “I will show you everything, so that you can see.” There is a beautiful symbolism and simplicity to that.
If Wooby was our eyes and ears on this journey, Dr. Mario Malivert and
his wife Garlene were our heart and soul.
They’re both native Haitians who’ve spent their adult lives and raised
their family in Boston. By all who know
them, the’re called by their first names, not their titles. They’re that rarest of breeds, doctors without
ego. Leaving their comfortable
lifestyle and grown children behind, they’ve gone back, giving of themselves
quietly and unassumingly to make it right.
There is a quote from the book “Brother I’m Dying” written by Edwidge
Danticat about Haitian émigré’s, “It's not easy to start over in a new place,'
he said. 'Exile is not for everyone. Someone has to stay behind, to receive the
letters and greet family members when they come back.” They’re rarer than the Haitian exile,
they’re the Haitian exile returned. They
have left and come back; returned to run two medical clinics in Port Au
Prince. There are over 18,000 patients
that visit these clinics, not to mention the many thousands more in the tent
cities they serve. Mario has big dreams, but not for a bigger house or a
membership in a country club. Besides
being a physician, he has a degree in public health policy. Expanding these clinics to provide needed
services for Port Au Prince and framing it within improved medical
infrastructure and policy for Haiti is his goal. Wow! Thank goodness he didn’t
ask me what my goals were. Garlene is no less impressive. While we were there, Garlene worked in the
clinics and the tent cities, helping patient after patient, all the while
suffering with a kidney stone herself.
For the two of them, this is medicine, not as career, but as calling. This is the stuff of movies or novels. And it’s not just their compassion; it’s
compassion in the face of hardship and danger.
Haiti is not the safest place, especially for Haitians –even more for
successful Haitians. Haiti has an
incredibly high rate of kidnapping, not for political reasons, but for
money. If you’re wealthy, or perceived
to be wealthy in Haiti, you’re at risk.
As doctors, this makes them targets.
In fact Garlene was in the house of a friend, when her friend was
kidnapped from the home. So, there’s
real danger for them in Haiti. And yet,
they stay. Through it all, there’s a
steadiness to their purpose, amidst the chaos and despite the overwhelming odds
and dangers. They don’t ask for anything
themselves, and they give what all they have.
If you look up hero in the dictionary, that’s pretty much it. In a world of hyperbole, I think that says it
all. What motivates someone for such
self-sacrifice? There are many
motivations, I’m sure, but I suspect one is knowing that, in the end, over 200
years since its independence, Haiti won’t be saved by the world. Haiti will be saved by Haitians. One Wooby, Mario, and Garlene at a time…one
patient, one clinic, one school, one tent city, one soul at a time. The million
minor victories that make up the miracle.
I was there a week, and needed to go home. There’s only so much you can see at one time.
The senses overload, the heart hardens and softens simultaneously, and the mind
recoils. I’m back in my bed now, back
with my family, back driving my car down smooth roads to my comfortable
office. I’m more thankful and
appreciative of all that I've been blessed with. I’m humbled by meeting my betters and mindful
that I must find a way to help those who sacrifice so much for so many.
Richard Edward
Hale
Engineer
Knoxville, TN
Knoxville, TN
