Monday morning, January 28, 2008

Hello from Haiti.

It was nice to have a restful day yesterday; I know we all needed it. I spent some time on Saturday night up on the roof. The moon was late in rising and several of us just stretched out as star gazed. It was beautiful. I have got to bring back that star chart so we can tell what we are looking at. I did the same last night, but only for ½ hour.

Up early Sunday morning and we had a nice prayer service on the terrace. Some great readings, some words on the reading by Papa Dick, some great sharing by team members and an agape sharing of wine/water and some bread. After that, we enjoyed a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Yum! After that, it was just relaxing. Some team members wandered over to the beach. I took some time and read one of the books that I brought along and I think I even caught a bit of a nap.

Around 2 PM we took to the road and headed for the Cap Lamondue hotel. It was filled with police, probably from Port-Au-Prince who were in town for Carnival. There were also several Haitian families at the pool. The view was as beautiful as ever. For those of you who have been here before, the ship that is stuck on the sand bar and has been there for as long as I can remember has been cannibalized even further and may soon be nothing but a memory. Dinner was typical Haitian. The manager told us that the 7 orders for goat were burned so 7 of us had to make another choice. The food arrived in shifts and most of the entries were cold. My conch ended up to be garlic shrimp. Oh well, It so Haitian!!!

Jacmel was packed with people and we had to divert from our planned route home due to the crowds. I have been riding in the front seat of Son-Son’s tap-tap. It is quite a treat to watch how careful he is with his driving. You would not believe it until you have seen it. People seem to jump out in front of you, cars and motorbikes pass you with a blare of horns in an area where there are on coming cars and trucks. On coming traffic is frequently on your side of the road. There are no lane markings so the road is fare game and not for the faint of heart.

We are expecting that many of our Haitian employees will be hung over today... Boyer stayed out late on Saturday night and was a bit under the weather yesterday. I wonder how he will be today. We have yet to have rain. It got cloudy yesterday while we were at the pool. I know my wife will be thinking that it is always cloudy on the day we go to the pool!

I spent some time talking with Carla on Sunday. She told me she had read my comment about her on this blog. She is a vey caring person with long red hair and her face got red when she told me about the comment. I’ll have to look back to see just what I said. There is more about her to tell. She has had to drop out of the last semester of her nursing school in order to take care of her mother who has been sick. Carla’s family is taking care of her mother in her absence. Carla comes from a small family but very many of her relatives live nearby. Carla’s family runs a printing business in Indiana. She even volunteered to come back on the March trip until I told her the current price for the air fare. I would love to have her along as she is a very big help to me in the pharmacy all the while keeping the lab going, giving the shots, and filing the dossiers for Barb. Unfortunately, she was given a rhum punch drink instead of a fruit punch drink at the hotel and wisely refused it. And Carla did not swim in the ocean or in the pool. I do not want to get her in trouble with her family by reporting otherwise. But it is tempting! Ha.

Today is Beth Kramer’s birthday so there may be another cake for tonight’s meal. Our internet connection is very slow again today. It was like that last night. It starts out fast and then you wait as if it were a dial up connection. It is almost time for breakfast. I have to get Garron’s meds for his surgical patients ready. So, I will close this for another time and try to post it for you.