Tracking Ed Monroe as he travels to Haiti and other exotic(?) places

Thursday, July 09, 2009

This is Thursday-I think

Dave Coleman gave me permission last night to drink a total of 7 beers plus my wine. Who believes that I did that? Funniest thing is I never once got up over night. Do you think I have not been hydrating enough? My black t-shirt seems to have white streaks from the salt I have been sweating out. I have a 1.5 liter water bottle that I refilled twice a day and still not hydrating enough. I wonder what it will be like during full clinic.
Shocking development today but I am restrained from giving details until Monday morning. Strict orders from big boss so I must honor the request.
We enjoyed another rain free day in spite of thunder rumblings in mid afternoon. Today we saw 20 of the expected 30 patients so I am 2/3 rd’s pleased. We had two patients show up. One was to come on July 22. It was explained to me by Roger that she is illiterate and did not know when she was to be at clinic. Her “reactive airway disease” was in crisis mode so I asked Dr Nelson to see her. Come to find out that he was not fully aware of our guidelines and she had not been treated in May with the guidelines. It gave me a chance to work with Dr Nelson and he appreciated the help. Belloni showed up to work today and is mad at me because I sent him home. The mean old treasurer is watching the money again. We did not need him and I was told he was a problem for the May team. The mean old treasurer will only need the pill packers for one more half day tomorrow as he has 4 helpers scheduled for the pharmacy.
The other non scheduled patient today was one of Esperidon’s (many call him Asparagus) children or grandchildren. We never know which!. He had a bad cut on her finger and expected us to stitch it up. I made her wait until Dr Nelson showed. I do not do stitches-period.
In other news, Boyer, our main man, has a bed infection on his forearm and he will not let Dr Nelson work on it. Nelson and I are having a good time teasing him even though it is very painful. We have asked Neva and Andreta, our Haitian housekeepers, to clean off the ceiling fans for the team. It may take several days as they are only able to one floor of the clinic per day. You always have to remember you are in Haiti. They do not think or act as we would in the USA with regards to dirt, work, or finding things to do. You must always direct them and I have a hard time with that. Oh Well!
We are having fun with the local power company, EDH. They seem to switch the power off and on at random times instead of the expected 2 PM to 2 AM. So we are constantly switching from EDH to generator and back and forth. Again that is very Haitian.
Not much else to report to you. Thanks to my son & grandson for the comments.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ed i just randomly thought a number and 7 was it! lol Hope you had one for me tho!

Dave

Anonymous said...

you're welcome, dad! Cam's watching Slumdog with mom today and it is raining again (of course). lots of great stuff going on at work and Claire Rupert stopped in today. She couldn't say enough great things about FOTCOH.

Chris

Rebecca said...

You and Bill Clinton haven't crossed paths have you? I just read an article that he is in the country and promises to "work to speed up funding" for Haiti.

Ms. P. said...

Thursday sounds like it was quite an adventure...I love reading your posts about what unexpected events befall you in a day's time...the fans...the patients...the power, etc.
I didn't know that folks had appointments to come to the clinic. Do you have many walk-ins?
You are not missing much in P-town...weather is similar...rainy, humid, kinda gross to be honest...LOL. Keep your spirit of adventure & generosity alive!

Take Care!

Ms. P. said...

Thursday sounds like it was quite an adventure...I love reading your posts about what unexpected events befall you in a day's time...the fans...the patients...the power, etc.
I didn't know that folks had appointments to come to the clinic. Do you have many walk-ins?
You are not missing much in P-town...weather is similar...rainy, humid, kinda gross to be honest...LOL. Keep your spirit of adventure & generosity alive!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ed. Been thinkin' about you and FOTCOH lately. Sounds like you're having the usual Haitian adventure. Now that you've done it a couple times, do you think the pre-clinic refill program is worth it, and is this something FOTCOH would implement routinely in the future? Just wondering. I wouldn't mind spending a little extra time there on some future mission. Jess S