The Different Screams.....

One of the things I never expected while in Haiti was the night time screams. I also never expected such variety.
Early in our stay we were awakened at 2am with a blood curdling scream of pain. We all sat up trying to figure out what the reason was. Then it was quiet..... a few minutes later, a louder scream, from the same female. Then again quiet.After 5 screams, followed by quiet we realized the woman was in labor. I laid there, thankful for my c section, thinking I could never go through that. Then we heard another scream, a wail. A cry of newborn life. We all giggled and fell back to sleep. Later we found out the doctor told her "Sh! Be quiet. There are Americans trying to sleep upstairs!" Can you imagine being told that during labor?! I would have screamed my loudest for the "Americans!"
The next night around 2 or 3 am we heard a truck pull up, then commotion. Then we heard a slow sorrowful moan that erupted into an explosion of grief, the type of scream your heart makes when there is the death of a loved one. Apparently a woman put her sister on a tap tap and rushed to the clinic. The doc went out and pronounced the sister dead in the taxi and they drove off with her body. It was such a sad scream. All we could do is lay there and pray. We didn't have all the info until the next morning, but knew that cry. We had been nurses too long to not know that cry. I think all of our hearts have made that cry/scream at the loss of a loved one.
By this part of the week we were ready for a good night sleep . We had run a few clinics and were excited to get to pass out rice the next day. We had spent some time this afternoon bagging the rice, we were excited to distribute it. There were 6 of us to a room, some were on mats on the floor, some had beds. It was 3am, when Pam, our most experienced mission team member let out a high pitch scream. I slept with a flash light (an old habit from being a Camp Nurse), I shined the light on Pam. Apparently a mouse ran across her chest, as she slept on her mat. We had been warned that the mice will follow the rice, but didn't expect that. It was quite startling for Pam!
Anyway ~ We got a lesson in the variety of screams. Be it life or death or fear, we can scream. I am in awe of screams now. Since returning to the ER I have only heard an additional scream of anger, or a coworker scream with laughter. I am becoming a fan of this human response and am glad Haiti taught me the varieties of the scream.