Haitian Lullabies

Rooftop sunrise in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

I was in Haiti for 2.5 weeks this summer volunteering with Project Medicare in Port-Au-Prince.When I first returned home and people asked, "How was it?" I wasn't sure how to respond. It took me a far longer time than usual to process the experience. What I've come up with is "initially really emotionally challenging, but an overall good experience."

Really? That's what I came up with? I know, I know. But it's the most succinct way I can describe the rollercoaster of emotions, thoughts, experiences, and questions. And let's face it - though people are well-meaning when they ask about volunteer trips, most simply want a positive one-liner, maybe look at a few pictures, and then they've moved on.

My one-liner, however, is totally inept in describing how meaningful this experience was to me. So I'm going to tell you the story about one of my patients, Benchley.

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Benchley was having headaches and visions changes for a few weeks. The cause wasn't found until it was too late - he had a cranial mass that was pressing on his optic nerve (responsible for relaying messages between the eyes and brain). The location of the mass caused him to go blind in both eyes. Benchey had the mass removed at the hospital prior to my trip but remained inpatient for the duration of my time there because he had persistent fevers that weren't responding to antibiotics.

One afternoon I was sitting at the desk charting. I looked up and witnessed one of the most poignant moments I experienced on the trip. Benchley's mom was sitting on a chair and he was standing in front of her. They were face-to-face, foreheads resting on one another. They were singing a Haitian song to each other, swaying back and forth to the rhythm. Their smiles were radiant. It was the most animated and free I had seen Benchley up to that point.

In the midst of poverty and illness, they were fully immersed in their own joyous moment. It is one of the purest expressions of happiness and love I've ever witnessed.

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I'm honored to be a nurse. I have the privilege of caring for families and patients when they are at their most vulnerable. Though I'm technically the one doing the "caring," they are the ones who are doing the teaching; whose stories and smiles are indelibly a part of me; and whose Haitian lullabies remind me of what's truly important.