Dear lovely
readers,
This summer I am
in Haiti. I am doing a public health and nutrition internship with the Haitian
American Caucus- Haiti. I am working with several other interns to complete a
preliminary needs assessment for the town we are in, Croix des Bouquets. We
don’t know where this will lead or what needs will come out of the woodwork,
but I’m sure I will have some confused yet passionate feelings about it, so
this is my outlet.
This week
involved two visits from a traveling health team, Explorers Without Boarders. The
women’s health clinic catered to female patients in their reproductive years. Long
term untreated infections and limited access to medication dominated the
discourse. I hope saying this will not damage my feminist credibility, but I
never want to see a vagina again! Vaginas are complicated enough when we have
the privilege to take good care of them. Home births, limited birth control,
poor sexual health practices, gender roles that make it difficult to address
these poor sexual health practices…you get the idea. Healthy vaginal habits are
nothing to scoff at.
This week we
also focused on nutrition and nutritional deficiencies in the area. I have
noticed the negative effects of local nutrition in just 1 week. Everything is
cooked in oil! Refined carbohydrates are the staple of every meal. I have the
good fortune to eat 3 times a day, but many Haitians in the area eat 1 mega
meal that is loaded with nutrient poor, often-U.S.-subsidized refined
carbohydrates. The importance of local agriculture has never been clearer to
me. My body is negatively responding to the affects of neoliberal economic
policies, in a food market dominated by imports. This shit is personal and I
have only been here a week.
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