Tamara Palinka

By Tamara Palinka
Special to the Eagle

It’s been almost a month now in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, but it feels more like a year.

Days run into each other, separated only by abnormal highlights. I have become completely accustomed to the rotating flux of volunteers, making new friends and greeting old ones. Our supplies have dwindled, water and ready-to-eat meals (MRE) are a commodity. I need to learn to hoard!

We have meals delivered twice a day, usually some corn mush with a couple pieces of hot dogs on top, spaghetti with a faint trace of red sauce, or sometimes pieces of chicken and rice. There is never a shortage of rice!

I’m not eating many of the meals though. I think it’s the heat and also the memory of the day I spent in the porta potty. I was so sick I don’t want to take another chance with the food. Instead I stick to cans of tuna, fruit bars, granola bars, fruit when I can get my hands on it and any other goodies offered to me by other volunteers.

The hospital has settled down in the sense that there are not as many ambulances rushing in, and less screams. Many of the quake patients are now in wound care, healing from their amputations and learning how to live with their new bodies.

My day starts about 6 a.m. I wake up sweaty and muggy every morning, looking for a somewhat manageable porta potty then off for a quick rinse.

We have a coffee bar, which I treasure like gold and enjoy thoroughly every morning.

From here I walk through pediatrics to check on my little guy, Sonson (he was referred to as David in last week’s article). He is usually sleeping, but I like to watch him rest.
Sonson has become the centre of my world. We have bonded and he sealed the deal the first time he called me mama.

I have started adoption procedures and pray I can make him my son. It has only taken two weeks for this bond to develop and I treasure every moment with him.

When he first came he was very withdrawn and depressed, but he is becoming such a little character: laughing, running, talking, singing, dancing (he really loves to dance), and bathing.

I get a bath ready for him every few days. I use a laundry bin, filled with water and plop him in. He helps by washing himself and screams with joy. He knows I love him and he lets me take care of him most of the time.

Tamara Palinka gives Sonson (David), who she hopes to adopt, a bath. Photo submitted

He still has moments when he shows me the tough guy he can be and he will let no one in.

I can only imagine what his life was like before he entered mine. I have glimpses of it when I watch him gather and hoard food protectively or when he looks desperate when I leave him in pediatrics.

I know that he has been hungry and alone, and for a 2- or 3-year-old this is too much for me to fathom. I have taken him off the grounds twice now.

The first time he puked all over me in the back of my military vehicle, and the second time was the other night at a nurses home where he made a mess all over the bathroom.

I guess I am quickly being introduced to motherhood. It is exhausting, but adds a whole new level of existing for me — a more meaningful one.

Our hospital faces new problems, the rainy season is upon us and we are camped in a hole.

This means we have to renovate the hospital completely. On top of that, twice a week we receive 100 more new volunteers and more patients daily.

We had hoped that by this time things would flow smoothly, but obviously it’s not the case.

The transient volunteers, the conditions we work in, the need for more staff, more materials, these are only a few of the daily challenges.

With every new flux of volunteers there is one or two that say they are staying longer than one week.

This is exciting because it is exhausting trying to stay on top of communication with new staff. Every so often I stop and look around and realize we have come so far given our circumstances.

It’s becoming more difficult to relate to any other reality than the one here, and I realize I now live where death, hunger, fatigue and thirst are a reality that has become normal to me.

It may be time to take a few days off and try to absorb what has taken place this last month. I am still numb.

Tamara Palinka, a former area resident whose mother, Kate Millar, lives in Cochrane, has been on the ground in Haiti since Jan. 25 with the University of Miami’s Project Medishare and has agreed to send updates on the chaos caused by the 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12 and the following aftershocks.

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One Response to “Thirst, hunger, and fatigue a common side effect in Haiti”

1. Tom Yule says:

   March 22, 2010 at 7:45 pm

   Congratulations and good luck on your adoption! I hope all goes well for you. Your smile from ear to ear tells it all.

   - Tom Yule (Thunder Bay)