Saturday, October 9, 2010 – Haiti

Susan’s day – Actually this is for both Sam & I today as we were at the same place all day.  Both of us went to the Bel-aire clinic this morning to work.  Nope, Saturday is not a day to play…it is still a day to work.  We saw well over 75 patients today.  Normally all volunteers go to Bel-aire on Saturdays but several of the Leogane people decided to stay at the Maison today.   Katie went with us to help out.  Katie and I did triage today and Sam helped Katie with the initial documentation for each patient. It was quite hot today until afternoon when the rains came.  In fact, the rains were so torrential our interpreter thought that there might be a hurricane close by.  But, after about an hour the rain stopped and the sky cleared up.  Port-au-Prince is very mountainous.  As one drives they are either going up or coming down a hill.  So, with all the rain water racing down the streets it brought along with it lots of debris.  For awhile the streets were like rivers.  After the clinic closed today we rode way up the mountainside streets of the city to one of the artisan street markets.  We just had about half an hour to do some quick shopping.  We were bombarded by people trying to sell us their goods and convince us that what they had was better than what we would find elsewhere, even though it was all the same.  They like to barter…and so do I but we really didn’t buy very much in the way of souvenirs.  I have too much at home anyway. :-)  As soon as we got back to the Maison our host, Josh, walked up the hill with us to the Nazarene Seminary.  It is just about a quarter mile from the Maison.  He showed us around the grounds.  We met the pastor from the Placerville, Calif church who has a Work & Witness team here.  Back to the Maison by supper time, this time downhill!!  Supper was delicious again. Then time to pack and get ready to go home in the morning, but first some time in the pool to cool off.  It’s 10:30 pm and the entire household has gone to bed except for Sam & I.  Guess we should head that way too!! Good night.