In the Time of Cholera

I am sitting in a hotel with twenty seven other Peace Corps volunteers waiting for hurricane Tomás. Even with the internet, TV shows, hot water and flush toilets uncharacteristic of our daily living conditions, we complain about feeling stir crazy without permission to even leave the building. My mom had to cancel her visit, a week planned to start tomorrow for which I have been deliriously excited and well-packed. I have forced myself to overcome my pity party for not getting the quality time with her with the gravity of the situation on this island.

About two weeks ago, a cholera epidemic was declared in Haiti. The disease has now infected thousands and killed hundreds. Although it has not yet been declared in the Dominican Republic, it is almost a matter of time because the countries share the contaminated water sources. Public health efforts in the Dominican Republic have been both strong and sad. Cholera is a waterborne bacteria that can be avoided using appropriate hygiene and water treatment practices. Posters, fliers and radio announcements have flooded the country reminding people to wash their hands and boil or bleach all water and produce. In my community, I went house to house with a group of kids handing out fliers and giving little presentations about the disease and prevention.

The sad part of the efforts is the migration control. The border, delineated by a river and an international highway (actually a barely functioning dirt road), is now officially closed. Haitians who live in the DR, including migrant workers, home owners and kids, are dropped off at the river with their possessions and told to cross. Violence and discrimination has been prevalent and only intensified by the ignorant belief that cholera is a Haitian illness. The market in my border town no longer sells anything and people who have lived here for years are being sent somewhere that is no longer their home.

You would hope this is bad enough. An immense natural disaster, cholera, deportation and a total halt on international trading is bad enough. Over a million remain displaced from the earthquake in January. Right now, this extremely vulnerable population is waiting for a hurricane. Unlike myself, they are waiting in tents in refugee camps or in badly constructed wood or earth homes for this tremendous storm. No one knows what will happen but this is not likely to be small. Beyond the inevitable structural damage, flooding can only exasperate the cholera epidemic. So, we all sit in varying levels of comfort passing the time as it starts to rain. I will soon get back to watching Top Chef with my friends, thinking about my mom not coming, and maybe blow an eyelash for the people in Haiti. Knowing nothing about meteorology, I am also wishing for some sort of large unexpected gust of wind to change the trajectory of that terrible Tomás.