Friday, October 8, 2010 – Haiti Trip – Part 2

Sam’s Day: Up at 5 am and got around in time for a breakfast of pancakes before getting in the truck to go to Leogane. Saw lots of earthquake damage and a number of tent cities along the way. Once we got to Leogane we picked up the nurses who were staying there and headed up into the mountains. Oh, my,  beautiful scenery, but such winding roads. I’ve never been one to get motion sickness, but I have also never rode on winding mountain roads in the back of a truck either. By the time we reached the clinic in Fondwa, which is high in the mountains I was a little nauseated. What a beautiful location! Looking out over the side of the mountain we could see numerous home sites scattered throughout the landscape. The mountains and the views reminded me of the Andes in Ecuador. I started out helping by weighing the patients. Although we were up in the mountains it was still very hot. We took a break for lunch and drove over to the next mountain to an orphanage run by nuns. They had invited the team over for lunch. After lunch we headed back to the clinic to see the rest of the patients. One of the doctors who had been seeing patients in the morning had to leave so the afternoon session took longer than normal. A total of 92 patients were seen in the clinic. We left Fondwa to head back to Leogane at 5 pm, instead of the expected 3 pm. We did make it out of the mountains before dark, for which we were very thankful. We left Leogane at 6:30pm, after dark, to head back to Petionville where we are staying. Travelling after dark is not recommended due to the traffic and the fact that headlights are optional. Once we got into the outskirts of Port au Prince the traffic was at a standstill, so our driver took a side road to get around the traffic. But, the side road was backed up also and it took us almost an hour and a half to go about 3-4 blocks. During this time the sky opened up and we had quite a downpour. We were in a covered truck bed so we didn’t get totally soaked, but did get wet since the sides of the truck were open. Finally we were able to get past the traffic jam and get on our way. We eventually made it back to the Maison around 10 pm. Whew, what a long day!