Patrick's Birthday

Feb 3, 2009

Today Patrick turned another year older. And despite being in a new country, we had some familiar faces and friends to share in the celebration.

Yesterday two friends of ours from Colorado arrived to spend the week with us. Caroline—one of my dear friends and fellow residency grads, and Trish—a friend and former residency attending, left the snowy mountain peaks for the hot heavy air of Port-au-Prince. With them, they brought bags full of medicine and tools of the trade donated from my generous residency family in Colorado. Yesterday, they single-handedly helped me stock our little pharmacy and changed the breadth of conditions we can now treat enormously.

Today I put them to work in CONASPEH clinic. We saw a large number of teenagers and discussed everything from safe sex to nutrition to female problems. I was elated to be working along side my dear friends as we crammed ourselves into the clinic. What a difference it makes to have a colleague an arms length away with which to consult, to laugh, and to dream up new ideas for the health care intervention.

After clinic they helped me with the first “learning lab” for the first year nursing students. Today was vital signs day. With the extra help, we successfully taught taking temperatures, pulse and respiratory rate as well as blood pressures. The students seemed to appreciate a break in the lecture schedule for a little hands-on practice, and I enjoyed having extra hands to help ensure students understood well.

Getting back to the guesthouse, it was time to get ready for a birthday party. Last night, I had snuck into the dining room intending to decorate an area around one of the tables there to surprise Patrick for his birthday. However Veniel, the guesthouse manager, caught me in the act. He was so excited about Patrick’s birthday that he demanded I take all the decorations down, and leave it to him. “We’ll have a surprise party for dinner!” So I handed him the balloons, party hats and streamers, and promised I’d find a way to keep Patrick out of the dining room until all was ready. Tonight after encouraging Patrick to go ahead and do yoga, we dashed into the dining room to help the staff drape the entire place with tons of balloons, banners and pictures.

By the time dinner was ready and Patrick emerged, he was greeted by a dining room full of people—some he knew well, some new to him but excited about a reason to celebrate; all sang him happy birthday. Veniel put a lay around his neck, and candles on a cake were lit. The children of the guesthouse, including Kristanor, were the most excited of all and jumped up and down wishing Patrick a happy birthday. Although I could tell that initially Patrick was more mortified than surprised, it was hard not to soften with the incredible sense of community and love that the guesthouse staff and our friends provided. “Its super,” said Sylvy, tears in her eyes. And it was. Even the groups newly arrived seemed to get caught in the festive atmosphere. And Patrick was celebrity for a day. Veniel and his family were having a ball, and shaking Patrick’s hand heartily. It was one of those moments that was easy to take survey and note that after our 3 months here in the guesthouse, we had created quite the community of friends. We’d been supported by their care and patience, been uplifted by their humor. They have stuck with us as we struggled to build our Creole vocabulary, teased us mercilessly, but always with love. And tonight the aloneness we felt at the beginning of our time here seemed to be a distant memory. Tonight our friends gathered around to celebrate.

We finished the night on the roof, under a sky full of stars with Sylvie, Jerome, Mark, Trish and Caro. We toasted Patrick, dove into conversation and let the darkness around us deepen as the city grew quiet. We toasted another year in the life of Patrick under a blanket of stars.

Happy Day.