How many times have I heard that phrase,"it is Haiti". This phrase is applied to a multitude of things. The speed of the government, the bumpy roads, the poverty, the food, the home remedies. It is funny though, the people I have heard this from are generally wealthy Americans who somehow do not see that we have our share of,"well after all, it is America." over the last couple of days I have run across a couple of patients who have reminded me of our own quirkiness in this country. First, I had the young mother with her five month old. The baby had a black rope like string peeking out from under her onesie. I asked the mother what that was. I was expecting to hear it was a medic alert device or some sort of ID tag. She simply looked at me and said,"It is a dime." I didn't follow, so I asked more about it. It turns out she understood if you drilled a hole in a dime and placed it around the child's neck it reduced the discomfort of teething. I had a tactful discussion with her about choking hazards and we discussed the use of anbesol. Nonetheless, I think the child to this day is still wearing the dime.
Today, I had another such incident. This patient was a very nice lady who came in after stepping on a nail 3 days ago. The nail had pierced the whole bottom of her foot. Her husband proudly described the extrication of the nail using a set of pliers. They came today, because the foot was still hurting despite her best efforts of,"doctoring herself at home." she went on to describe the multiple things she had tried. First, there was the application of the raw potato, followed later when it was still red and hurting by the onion dipped in salt, and when that was no better, the husband had made her a bandage soaked in turpentine. He went on to explain that is how they treat the pigs when they castrate them. The couple was sweet and once again, not wanting to be insulting, I explained the good news was that she no longer needed those remedies, just a bandage and some antibiotics. She then asked to return to work as a caregiver.
All of this reminded me that there are quirks everywhere, not just in Haiti. Besides, I think we have some other quirks here that may not be as obvious as the turpentine, that are not in Haiti. We have been studying the blessed life the last few weeks and in it we see the American desire for bigger, better and greater. The desire to be the top of the heap. It is such a hard mold to break out of, as we try to be more generous and helpful to places like Haiti. I do think we hear the phrase,"Only in America..." as it applies to striving toward that top of the heap status. If only the second part of that was,"could we find the resources to help (fill in the blank)". In my world that blank is filled by my babies, who hopefully I will never see a need to drill a hole in a dime for!
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