You know the feeling you get when you first meet someone that you have been emailing, texting and talking to over the phone? When you meet someone you haven’t seen, but you’ve heard their voice, imagined what they would look like? After which, once you finally meet them you kindly say “Nice to finally get a chance to put the name to the face!” This is what happened to me today. After a week of inputting data for the Health Care center of Tienne, I finally got the opportunity to visit and see where all of the action takes place. Although Tienne is just an estimated 45-minute drive from Deschapelles, it was tough getting there! Tienne’s location is up in the mountains. Traveling to Tienne proved to be a difficult task because it was really up in the mountains! However, without a shadow of a doubt, our driver was determined together. Despite the unpaved roads, rock paths, and sharp turns, we made to the Tienne. Along the way, I began to witness the beauty of what it would be like to live in the mountains: the peace, the serenity, and the calm. However, for these residents, these benefits come at the extreme cost of not being able to have access to jobs in the city or access to adequate healthcare.
On our way up the mountain, we saw families coming from all angles up the mountain to check in for their monthly nutrition check-ins. Although today, Wednesday, was considered as “Market-Day,” the slowest day for the Health-Care center, they were busy!
There were a lot of people seated and waiting to be helped regardless of the wait time. Traveling up the mountain, I saw families with new-born coming back from their monthly weigh-ins. What a beautiful sight: mother and father, regardless of the strenuous travel up the mountain, they came to get the necessary post-natal treatment to ensure the health of their child. This is the true definition of sacrifice. A sacrifice is making sure that regardless of the circumstance and hurdles; one must do whatever is necessary to obtain one’s desire. This is a reoccurring theme that I am hearing around the hospitals and health-care centers. This is a reoccurring theme that I am hearing amongst those that work day-in and day-out to assist those in need. When referred to HAS (the only Hospital in the area that can treat diagnoses that can not be treated by the Health-Care centers), an overnight stay is an automatic sacrifice. Family members of the ill know that they most pack clothes, food, snacks, water, and etc. to sustain them throughout their stay with their loved ones. Even in the truck, as we travelled the rocky road, I feared for my life because I felt like the truck could tip over at any moment. All I could do was hold on to the edge of my seat for my life.
Once we made it half way, there was a beautiful sight of the valley and the entirety of the mountains. It was there that I truly catch my breath.
This health care center, in my opinion, is the center of the community. Deaths, births, sicknesses, and diseases are reported here. Tienne is the light of the community.
