Hey Everyone,
I was asked to write a little something about my experience for Peace Corps, and this is what came of it; even if youre not a PCV, my real point is that there are opportunities for everyone to volunteer and work on the relief effort, if they find a reliable, responsible organization to do it through.
My Experience:
Over the course of the nine days I worked at the Buen Samaritano Hospital (Good Samaritan Hospital) which was providing medical care for Haitian earthquake victims, the other PCVs and I that were sent were assigned or took on a wide variety of jobs. Throughout the day any one of us could be found translating, registering volunteers, handing out food, organizing a patient tracking system, reporting to Public Health officials, finding the appropriate medical staff for the day, providing social services to families, and advocating for the patients. There were between two and six PCVs at the hospital every day and we all had more than enough work (most of us were working 18-20 hour days).
We were told by several administrators at the hospital that they couldn’t have done their job without the support of Peace Corps; we seemed to become the go-tos for patients, doctors and administrators when they had a question and didn’t know where to go. In the end, the PCVs became the link between volunteers and patients; Americans and Haitians; doctors and administration. I believe that being a Peace Corps volunteer in this country prepared us especially for this kind of work, and has made us valuable to the organizations that came into the country to provide relief.
Though many of us volunteers are used to the slow pace of Dominican country life, we were all prepared to work long hours at the hospital. Perhaps this is simply a characteristic of Peace Corps volunteers in general who are always willing to help, especially when their help is so solicited and necessary. Living in the Dominican countryside or pueblo has taught us the importance of being flexible and how to deal with the frustrating stops and gos of the Dominican administrative system at all levels. In a disaster relief area, this flexibility is necessary; no one knows what will happen the next day, who might show up, what patient might take a turn for the worse, or what organization might decide to help or not help. In the end, you must be ready for everything and change your plans and job description from one minute to the next; something that PCVs are accustomed to doing.
PCVs also come into situations like this with the flexibility in living standards that we have found necessary in our day to day lives here in country. While the lack of reliable water or comfortable beds may have discouraged some volunteers from working at the hospital, us volunteers were willing to sleep anywhere (frequently on couches) and were thrilled if there was water coming out of the shower spout! The daily meal of rice and beans didn’t phase us, and we never once thought about the money we were losing because we were giving up precious time to volunteer (we’ve committed to two years of no earnings!)
The last and most important reason that PCVs are so integral to relief efforts in their own countries or neighboring countries is their vast knowledge and experience of local culture and customs. The people at Buen Samaritano Hospital were working very hard to provide quality patient care, treat the volunteer doctors and nurses well, and make sure the hospital was running smoothly. At the same time, they were still accountable to Dominican officials and had to interact frequently with Dominicans. Unfortunately, there were very few administrators who spoke Spanish, and fewer who had lived in the country for as long as we volunteers had. For this reason, we volunteers often became the go-betweens between the American administration and the Dominicans who were working with us. We helped negotiate the meals being provided by the Dominican Civil Defense, as well as talk to and translate for public health officials and communicate with the military guards that the government was providing for us. Understanding the Dominican culture and language helped us communicate with the host country in a way that most of the administration could not.
Living on the same island as Haitians and interacting frequently with migrants in the DR also gave us valuable insight into the Haitian culture and allowed us to communicate and empathize with the patients. While there were few volunteers who spoke Dominican Spanish, there were even fewer who spoke Kreyol. With that in mind, even the little knowledge of Kreyol that we volunteers had helped us communicate with the patients and their families. It was Peace Corps volunteers and a few translators who were often the first volunteers in the hospital to learn of problems amongst the patients and families and help them look for solutions, trying to fill the void where social services should have existed in a normal hospital.
I am in no way saying that the work of one volunteer at the hospital was more or less valuable than another; no PCV who was at the hospital could perform surgery, serve as an ICU nurse, or had extensive knowledge of hospital administration. What is important to recognize is that in a disaster such as the Haitian earthquake, different kinds of knowledge and experience (especially cultural) is needed to help the relief effort. I believe that at the Buen Samaritano Hospital and in the various relief efforts across the island, Peace Corps volunteers fit a certain integral niche.
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