Right next door....yet, a world away.

Yesterday morning, I boarded a short 1 hour and 15 minute flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This is not much longer than the flight from Cedar Rapids to Chicago, but the change in the reality of the world, in these two remarkably close locations, is unbelievable.

Today, in Miami, the city that spends the most on healthcare per capita in the country, 3 out of 5 people will die in ICUs at the cost of about $10,000 a day. This morning, at breakfast, we were discussing the need for advance directives with a few of our Haitian co-workers. The idea of needing to direct when to end care and allow death to take its course is foreign, in a land, where 1 in 9 children die before the age of 5, most commonly due to a diarrheal disease.

Leaving healthcare behind, let’s move to the differences in life, I take for granted at home. Turning on the tap and getting safe water and always having a toilet to use that is connected to a safe sanitation system. If we let the sequestration affect clean water and sanitation for one day, I’m certain Congress could find a speedy solution to the federal budget. Here in Haiti, unfortunately there is no speedy solution to the water and sanitation problems. Prior to the earthquake in 2010, only 55% of Haitians had access to an improved drinking water source. Additionally, 49% had little to no access to any type of sanitation system. The combination of lacking sanitation and water infrastructure means ample water-borne diseases including rotavirus, E.coli, salmonella, shigela, campylobacter, and as of October 2010, cholera. To meet my water needs in this environment, about 3 liters per day, yesterday I brought two liters from Miami, bought one sealed safe bottle on the street and bought a gallon from a water truck. The water truck drives around like an ice cream truck, with music and all. They use a reverse filtration system and claim that the water is safe, though tests of truck water are frequently positive for fecal coliforms. So after buying the gallon, we treated it with the Gayden Dlo system to guarantee its safety. This is much more laborious than walking to the facet and complaining about the taste of water in Coralville. For people living on as little as $1 a day this isn’t just an inconvenience, it is a large expense.   

I can tell you two giant advantages to Haitian life, thus far, the gorgeous view off our balcony and fresh coconuts in our yard. I will be trying my hardest not to take these for granted like I do water and sanitation in the U.S.