Monday March 31

It is 5:15 AM and I am up. Our unfriendly neighborhood rooster decided at 5 AM that it was time to announce the day to the world. I did not sleep very soundly last night. I went to bed at 8:30 PM and that is not a typographical error. I awoke at 11 PM and decided to try to post to the internet. Renee was still awake and on the laptop and had made a connection. I was not so lucky. Liz, her room mate was still awake and reading. I tried for an hour to get out but with no success, even on the main computer. A little while later, I light a mosquito coil for the girls in the other upstairs bedroom as they were getting bitten as they slept. Morning is coming as I hear Diedudone whistling outside the clinic. He rides his bike from Jacmel to the clinic and is always the first to arrive. Back to my night, when I returned to bed I laid awake for a long time. Some time later, I heard John awake and got up to help him. He managed to twist his ankle yesterday and it is painful. David, my other room mate was also up several times overnight.
The weather today is stormy. There was thunder and lightning all night long and a great downpour is occurring outside. At some point overnight the electricity from EDH stopped and my fan no longer gave me comfort. When Papa Dick awakens he will turn on the generator. We have been giving it an extreme workout and it is wearing out. We could sure use about $ 30,000.00 USD to purchase a new one. The breeze from this storm is cool and coming from the south. I am sitting on the third floor near the computers and enjoying the cool breeze and it is really raining hard. As I type this, I am praying for our patients who are outside the compound waiting to be seen. They must be huddled under the tarp that we have placed there as a temporary shelter. I am sure they are wet and cold and maybe a little scared. With all of this thunder and lightening I wonder how we will hold a clinic today. If we do manage to hold one we will track lots of mud and sand on to the slick tile floor and have an accident waiting to happen. Barb just woke up and passed by. The sky is getting lighter in the south and east so maybe the rain will stop, the sun will come out, and the internet will up and running. Papa Dick is awake and soon I’ll hear the generator running. Jeremy, who sleeps on the third floor balcony and not on the roof, must have been awakened by the rain that had to be blowing on him.
I failed to mention, yesterday, that Diana attended a Haitian church service at the time we were having our prayer service. She hated to miss our group and had stayed up till 11:30 PM the night before and written a note to each team member and placed them on a kitchen table in the form of a cross. She shared later that she sat with Suzette, one of our Haitian pill packers and they shared a song book. Diana was invited to sing a solo and I imagine, with her beautiful voice, that it was very moving. Diana reminds me so much of my young friends in Peoria who are involved in the Teens Encounter Christ program that I have worked with over the past several years.I hope Dick gets the power on soon so I can make the coffee. Ha! Diesel fuel for the generator costs over $ 5.00 per gallon here. I am sorry that I cannot report how many gallons per hour that the generator consumes but I know this is exceeding our budget. Ah, we have lights and I hear the sound so I am off to make the coffee