By Dr. Katie Wolf

After the earthquake in 2010, we received a very generous gift from Elmbrook Church in Wisconsin of what was fondly called the “Haiti Hut”.  It consisted of all the materials needed to construct a temporary wood shelter.  The church had sent several of these to mission organizations in Port-au-Prince and thought we might be able to use one up at our clinic site.  In the winter of 2012, a construction group from Elmbrook Church came down and constructed the Haiti Hut on a flat area of land next to our present clinic.  At the time they put it up, we weren’t exactly sure how it we would use it.  Over the next few months, though, it was used to house workers at the site, store various construction supplies, and serve as a place for nursing students to conduct interviews with our patients.  As of June it has become home to the masonry team that is doing all the rest of our construction.  There are 4 men sleeping in it at night, with another 3 sleeping in the clinic building next door.  They cook their meals under the trees over by the new clinic, bathe in the creek and get drinking water from the capped water source nearby.  We let them use coconuts and breadfruit (veritab) from the trees on the site and we occasionally bring gifts of mangoes from our yard in Jérémie.  If you’re thinking they have a pretty good deal going, you’re right!

Haiti Hut

The guys keep a pretty neat house!

Residents of the “dormitory”