SPRINT-Es & Jacmel Trip

This past week has been pretty busy! On Monday, we started doing SPRINT-E interviews. From our focus groups about the SPRINT-E post traumatic stress disorder questionnaire, we learned that there weren't many changes that needed to be made to the SPRINT-E for Haitians to understand the terms we were using. Thus, on Monday, we headed out to fill our quota of 50 SPRINT-E interviews. We split into two groups and had our translators with us. We ended up going to a nearby UN tent-city. Apparently, the tent city was a lot bigger just months ago, but now there are still about 100 tents. Our group targeted interviewing the people in the tent city from Monday to Wednesday, and each interview took about 20 minutes. We started out by describing the interview and then read the consent form to them in Creole. Then we started by asking them to tell us their "earthquake story." We asked where they were, what they were doing, how they felt, etc. Then we asked the survey questions, which asked about changes in sleeping habits, appetite, hope for the future, stress, etc. We found that the Haitians had kind of a hard time quantifying their answers (using a scale from 1-5), which was required for the interview, but in the end we managed to get the data. It was really hard to hear some of the stories, because they lost so much and we aren't able to do much to help. The last couple of questions asked if they ever had thoughts of hurting themselves or committing suicide, and it was really hard when they answered yes. If they did seem to be having these thoughts, we recommended them to some places where they could talk to a mentor or psychiatrist in Leogane. Even though we were able to talk to them and give them recommendations, it felt weird just walking away afterwards. I also don't like that we can't follow up with these people and make sure they are getting some kind of help. If these people are depressed or have PTSD, it's not likely that suggestions from some students and their translator will motivate them to go and seek help. This aspect of our work has been kind of frustrating, but I guess there isn't much else we can do given Family Health Ministry's current resources in Leogane and the fact that we don't have the education to help these people ourselves. Next week, we'll be starting our research for the nutrition project.

The UN camp we worked in

Last weekend, the graduate student, Fan, got her hair braided by some of the Haitian women that live around our house. My friend, Priscille, braided all my hair, and it took about one hour. I looked really funny!

On Thursday morning, we all headed up to Fondwa, which is a town in the mountains about 45 minutes away from Leogane. We had Ben and Cindy with us, two psychologists who were planning to do a relaxation/stress workshop with some women in Fondwa. The rest of us looked at the school there (which are just temporary shelters right now, because the earthquake destroyed their school). We also went over to the orphanage in Fondwa and spent a lot of time with the kids there. We had a really good time with the kids! The orphanage is right on the edge of a mountain. After lunch, we drove to Jacmel, a town by the ocean. We checked into the Cyvadier Hotel and spent the night there. The next morning, we did some souvenir shopping and then headed back to Leogane!

On the hike down to the orphanage/school

The view

Temporary school

The orphanage

My buddy, Naymi- We spent the morning together. We danced, I was her personal swing, and she spent at least 30 minutes repeatedly taking my watch off my wrist, putting it on her wrist, and putting it back on mine. We had a good time :)

Since the walk back to our van was really steep, we got a moto ride back up. It was fun and kind of scary to be on a motorcycle while going up steep and curvy mountain roads!