Friday July 18

Hello from Haiti. I did not take the time to write last night. When I thought about it, Amanda was using my computer and that was okay with me. I grabbed a Prestige and went up on the roof to get a moon tan. Today is reported to be the day for the full moon but last night’s moon was extremely bright in the Eastern sky. The moon light helps me to not trip over the obstacles on the roof such as the rebar and the wires that hold down the water tanks and satellite dishes. I think I spent over an hour there with Chris, Lisa, Jim, Becky and others. There was also a slight breeze. This morning there is a nice breeze here on the third floor porch. We have not managed to bring down the temperature in the room that Gary and I share here in third. We have fans but they seem to blow hot air. As a consequence, I have not been sleeping as deeply as I usually do and awaken several times over night bathed in sweat. There is an industrial fan in the pharmacy that I may drag upstairs tonight.

Yesterday was baby day. One of the most wonderful aspects of the Friends of the Children Of Haiti is the sponsor child program. For a donation of $ 25.00 per month, a child gets the money for food and education. It is administered by Barb Hammond and our man in Haiti, Boyer Gilles. The families sign for the money so we keep records to let you know that the money is going to the babies and is used as it was intended to be used. I hope to see my sponsored child this mission. I was very busy in March-April when he came for a visit. With Gary here on this trip, I should be able to spend a little more time with the little red head. So please understand that when I tell you that Kelly had a baby in Haiti, I mean that she found one in need of a sponsor and it was a beautiful sight to see the baby in her arms. Grant and Mary Therese got to see the child that their family sponsors. Lisa has some pictures which I hope to download to this blog later.

I do have to report that I spent the better part of two hours yesterday morning cleaning up Papa Dick’s main computer. Somehow we caught something and I found 1 windows open on the desktop on Wednesday night. So I had the luxury of leaving Gary in the pharmacy and working through the available programs on the desktop to clean off what ever we caught. The anti-virus had not been run since late May, so that was the first step.
Then I had to clean out all of the temporary internet files, the history files, and even the cache. For safety I reran the anti-virus scan, rebooted the internet surfboard, and rebooted the system. I managed to gain a little speed on the system and all of that took a lot longer than I hand planned but, again, I had the luxury of being only interrupted twice during that time. On that same thought, having Grant and Carol working in the pharmacy and Gary and I supervising I am having a less stress filled clinic. I do not have to calculate every dose, answer every question, and put out every fire. I could almost call this my clinic vacation time. Ha! Time for breakfast- I’ll be back!

It is now 3:30 PM and we are finished with patients, cleaned up, and sitting outside in a very strong cool breeze. The wind is from the east and the surf is pounding against the rocks. The sea is a different color with a dark blue far our and a light green near the shore. I do not recall ever seeing that before. The internet is out at the present due to the string wind whipping the dish on the roof. I am rushing to write this as I have promised to walk with Jamie out to the rocks behind the clinic and here she is so I’ll stop and pick this up later. I do have some news to report instead of the &%$##^ I have been reporting.

That was a blast. I mean a blast of water from a 6 to 10 foot wake that broke over the tocks as Jamie, Chris and Jim were looking into it. They came away quite soaked, from the blow hole that they were looking into as the water began shooting out. I told Jamie thanks for the wet “t” shirt contest. Jan and Jon were also out there with Carol and Patrick, one of the Haitian children of Esperidon ( Asparagus as we refer to him, he is the caretaker with how many children (?) we can only guess). All made it back safe but some are a little wet.

Dinner last night was enchiladas which some call the Mexican bomb for their effect on a person’s bowels. I know too much information. However, I do want you to know we are dining well and I have heard no complaints and everyone is healthy and we have administered NO iv injections to any team members yet.

I promised to not talk about Jon and Jan in the shower together so please do not tell them that I said it is an every day event. Enough of that information for you, but we do enjoy teasing them, and they enjoy teasing us.

And then there are 4 people in the pharmacy. From previous missions you may know that 16 is way too many for the pharmacy but 6 on a busy day is a nice number. So far we have operated well with Roger, our Haitian. Carol our experienced helper, Grant our student that I am trying to talk into a career in pharmacy, and Gary, our newbie pharmacist. Four is good so I sit back and turn more and more over to Gary. My wife tells me I should come home tomorrow. My pharmacy team is doing excellent work.

The last patients today were a family of 9 children and two adults. Sara urged family planning and passed out Trojans to Dad. Four of the children are sponsored so if you have any interest we have 5 more to go, This family lives in Cap Rouge which is a mountain village that is 8 hours walk from our clinic and 4 hours walk if you try to drive a car in that direction it. They were here last year. They live, and I am not joking, under a tree up on that mountain.

I will close this as it is past time for a shower and dinner. My face is still looking very bad from the razor nicks I made when I shaved so I just may have to live with the scruffy look till I get back home. Even I think I look terrible and I have been hiding whenever a camera is in sight.
Thank you to all who are sending the comments. I promise to publish them. Speaking of that, I have posted some of Lisa’s pictures at:http://picasaweb.google.com/edmonroe316/LisaSHaiti2008 However, you may need to make a Google account to view them. I have to put some captions under them so you will know who and what you are looking at. I HOPE to do that yet tonight.

Attention Lynn Garber & Chris Monroe: I am too lazy to proof read this so I expect that you will do it for me.
It is time for this guy to jump in the shower, eat dinner, sit through the meeting, hook up the strong fan, and maybe get some sleep. I need to wish a belated Happy Birthday to Sharon Doran. Sorry I forgot to send a card.
Love from Haiti.
Ed