Wednesday update January 2008

Tuesday morning January 22

Back again at the computer in the quiet of another morning dawn’s light. I had a restful night’s sleep as I went to bed just after 9 PM for a change. I was very tired after a very busy day here at the clinic.

Fist of all, I can report that my wife had her eye surgery yesterday and it went very well. Papa Dick allowed me to use the cell phone and I was able to call her just as she got back from the hospital. That surprised her very much and relieved my worries here. It seems strange that a cell phone call is the least expensive way to call.

After a great coffee cake breakfast by Larry Shank we began to tackle the task of setting up the clinic. Dr Raj and Sharon Doran helped me at the start and after lunch the rest of the team pitched in to help. We were able to package almost all of the drugs that are pre-packaged as our fast movers by 3:30 PM. In the seven or eight times tat I have been here, I have never been as ready to open as I am this morning. However, we are missing the six cases of product that I shipped out on December 26, 2007 and we will try to contact Lynx Air this morning to see what the problem is. I am very concerned about that.
Many of the team members went to the beach yesterday afternoon for a swim. As usual, I stayed behind to finish up and clean up from our set up. My goodness, that was a lot of up’s. Ha! Later in the afternoon some of the group of us who stayed behind walked up to Son-Son’s bar for an outing. For those of you who have been here before will know that is a rare thing for me to go to Son-Son’s. On my first visit to Haiti and my first trip to Son Son’s I lost the bridge to my glasses in the dirt and never did find it. So I resorted to try to make do by putting a band-aid on my nose so the wire bracket would not hurt as much. I was rescued by a local eye doctor who had come for a visit. He took my glasses back to his office and repaired them for me. So going to Son-Son’s is not among my favorite experiences. This time, we were met by the group who had gone to the beach and we had a nice time. A pick up truck pulled up to the bar, with a load of blancs. Blanc is the name we are given by the Haitians as a team of respect because they do not know your name. The driver of the truck was Michelle. She runs the orphanage nearby and has adopted the child named Cristala Belle. Christala Belle was the baby born in the latrine last July when we were here and we cared for the baby. Michelle will be bringing the baby in for a check up and I am vey happy about that.

Last night’s dinner was chicken pot pie and I managed to wolf down two helpings. I must have been hungry. I realize I forgot to tell you that our supper on Monday was one of my favorites. I enjoy the rice and beans and the tomato-onion sauce that is put over it. We finished up the left-over’s at lunch on Monday. Can you tell that I have not been down to breakfast?

This is quite an experienced team. There are only three people here for their first visit. Dr Wendy, Dr Raj, and Carla, our student nurse are the rookies. However, they have jumped right in to the mix and I know that they will do well. There are no strangers here. Only friends that can take the teasing. With that in mind, I must report that Jodie Moody was the recipient of the “Monkey Butt” award. This was given in recognition of her very bad rash that she acquired in May 2006.

It is time to eat breakfast and get to work. The internet satellite is down so I will not be able to transmit this until later. Darn, we can’t call the cable company to complain because we can’t get a dial tone to an outside line..

Here I am, back at you at noon. The satellite is still not working so that we can get out onto the internet. The lunch time gossip is that we have already let over 200 people through the gate so we will have a big day. The other news report is that there was an accident on the road between Port-Au-Prince and Jacmel last night and three people were killed and an unknown number are injured. As you know, that is the road that we were on the night before. We rode, in fear of such an event the entire route. We are still suffering from the absence of the six cases of medications that I shipped out on December 26 and delivered to Lynx Air in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 2, 2008. We are attempting to contact the people of Lynx Air to get our shipment here. It contains medications for surgery, baby vitamins, and some other very important items. It breaks our hearts to tell the people today that we do not have what they need on hand-especially on the very first day of clinic. We MUST look for other ways to get the medications here in time.

It is humid, warm, and sunny here as I take a lunchtime break. We called back to the November team leader this morning and she was busy shoveling snow off of her driveway. I am very pleased to report that the team is working very well and adjusting to the work load. It is always a little rough on the first day of clinic. The internet is still not up so I’ll get back to my post and publish this later.

Hello again. It is now early Wednesday morning and the internet connection is back. I will catch up with the blog later today but I’ll publish this now. What’s with this snow and cold in Peoria???