Wednesday July 23, 2008

There is no intent yet. The modem was not working, as I suspected. The repair man came and installed the new modem but he did not have the authority to contact Direct way to initialize the new modem, so the team is still frustrated.

The FOTCOH Pharmacy closed at 2:20 PM today after 196 patients were seen. I took off with Boyer into town to visit the Payless pharmacy in Jacmel. BTW, the stop light at Ambians was working and most of the people obeyed it. Yes, I did say most of the people and I did not get to witness a wreck. The pharmacy is located near the police station and right across from the cannon. With those landmarks, you should not be able to miss finding that hole in the well of a store. The clerk on duty told us we had to talk with the owner and he was upstairs past the guard. So up the stairs we cautiously climbed. I was not sure what I had gotten myself into. Surprisingly, Boyer did not seem to know the guard nor the owner so they talked for quite awhile as Boyer explained who this crazy Blanc was who had entered the inner sanctum of his office. The Gentleman spoke just a little English and told Boyer that I would be welcome to look around at his downstairs inventory. He even provided paper and pen so I could write down names. The front of the pharmacy is a door where the counter (a small board) blocks the customer at the door sill. The medications are in cabinets with sliding glass doors and arranged alphabetically by disease state. He had a surprisingly deep inventory of all of the major categories. I look ate the boxes and they wee almost all from the Dominican Republic. So it is likely he is purchasing his medications from that drug wholesaler who called on me here at the FOTCOH clinic back in March of this year. I wanted to go there so that I could advise Dick where to get some items for patients that we might not have here at the clinic but could be purchased in town. Drex from the Christala Bell story is who told me about Payless Pharmacy. It is always interesting to ride with Boyer as you never know where he will take you, who he will be meeting, or what will happen next. We picked up a lady at the FOTCOH patient staging area and dropped her off in downtown Jacmel. We drove down one street and stopped. A young girl came up to Boyer’s window and he handed her money and we left. No, I have no idea what the money was for. Then we went to the pharmacy. After the pharmacy, we drove around Jacmel until we came to an intersection that was piled with garbage and the workers were cleaning the gutters of the street and adding the garbage to the pile in the middle of the intersection. Also, at that intersection was a 5 foot square hole on one side of the intersection so we had to navigate between the mound of garbage and the very edge of the hole. I love Haitian roads. Ha. Next we drove up a road that resembles the rocky path from the main road back to the clinic except this as in the middle of the town. We drove to the top of the hill , turned around and drove ½ way back down the hill before we stopped at a non descript shop where three men were seated. Boyer rolled down the window and handed the man several Haitian large denomination bills which the man counted. Boyer’s cell phone rang and he talked for awhile then spoke to the man who handed back the money. Something was going on but this Blanc has no clue. Next door to the non descript shop was a building that looked like a hotel and several young ladies emerged in rather seductive clothes. I wonder what that was all about. Next we traveled on several narrow back streets, not bothering with stop signs, and just a toot of the horn to warn anyone who might be at the intersection that we intended to take the right of way. After I became totally lost we stopped at a house and Boyer called on his cell phone to someone. Soon a young lady appeared at his window. She had very large breasts that were scantily covered so I chose to be a good boy and watch the workers at a construction project across the street. I’ll stop at that point. Soon we were on our way back to the clinic or so I thought. We still had one more stop to make on the main road. We stopped at some store, climbed the curb with the truck and a young man took the empty case of soda bottles out of our truck and replaced it with a full case of Pepsi & Seven Up. This time no money changed hands. That still baffles me.

When we got back to the clinic they were all closed up and it was time for the beach for some and almost time for a shower for me. Grant and I packed up Lisa’s treasures but we failed to pack her walking sticks so I told her to open the case and put them in. I also helped Gary pack his treasures in a box. We will place the box in a bag as checked luggage as there is an embargo by American Airlines on boxes and tubs for the month of July. So we put the boxes in canvas bags as they take them that way. It is all very strange here most of the time.