Tuesday, Cap-Haitian Haiti

Tuesday, Cap-Haitian Haiti
Each day we cook our own breakfast and pack sandwiches for lunch. The breakfast topic of choice is "how many critter noises kept you up last night?" Roosters, dogs, cats, rare birds, frogs and the human critters playing music up to a mile away....sounds of a crowded city. Bob and Carla have to have coffee, so they make it, Elena, Laura, Linda and Sybil cut fresh fruit, bake oatmeal or french toast or pancakes. My job is to start the generator to pump water and load the truck.

Big news: no flat today! We're all praying the new tires come in this afternoon from P.A.P. I rode the tap-tap, my first time, with the staff, and videotaped the daily opening ceremony, the doctor's prayer, the hymn, the Lord's prayer and a second hymn. A beautiful thing since patients and staff both participate.

Margaret the nurse has labeled all the medical supplies in creole, Laura and Carla painted new shelves for the ceiling and pharmacy. Yves, the gardener and English teacher, invited me to video his class held under a mango tree while he taught two 5-member teams (men and women) how to create a compost area. He's a brilliant, passionate 24-year-old who wants every Haitian to learn how to grow their own food and speak English. His students maintain a garden and nursery on the clinic property.

The solar system was acting up. We couldn't trace the problem so we called Allen Rainey from Son Light Power, our mentor, and began back-checking our work. No luck. Tiling is progressing. Hard work for everyone, it's heavy. They should make it out of aluminum and put it on countertops only, not floors.

We picked up three hitch-hikers. Their tap-tap broke down. "Not speak English," but Laura, Elena and I had a few laughs, and so did they, riding in the back of the pickup.

Elena did devotions. We expect to sleep well.

Wednesday, Cap-Haitian, Haiti
Clinic is closed. But first we must see if the tires came in. Edrick, Bob and I went to Top's Tires and there they were...praise the Lord. While they mounted them, Joe, the owner who is Haitian born but his parents were Italian, gave me a nice video interview and a good deal too.

The two guards, one mason and 20 children welcomed us this morning at the clinic. Today we must get a ton of work done. We paired off. Two tiling teams, a tile cutting team, a layout team and Sybil ran for everyone, and taught the children some songs like "Itsy, bitsy, spider." The sound of those children singing and playing joyfully was uplifting to us all. Bob and I worked on Solar over the phone, but even thought the changes helped one problem persisted. We returned to our teams. Three hours later the solar problem was found after a call by Allen to Dave Barrett, here last week, revealed he had installed a pair of wires that were redundant. Problem solved.

Everyone is spreading the word that Friday is going to be special. Solar and water well dedication, toys for the children, singing and our farewell to a place and people we've come to love.

Spaghetti, fresh avocado, carrot and cabbage slaw, baked militone squash, fresh green beans and banana pudding awaited us at 6:00pm. We'd all like to think we're losing weight. A bright sunny day, but not too hot. No snow here. Linda is doing her daily bookwork. We all miss Dorothy.

It's a bustling place. Horns honking, it seems there couldn't possibly be anyone inside a building as they all appear to be on the street. Everyone seems to be kind and friendly. The only thing we have to be careful of is not to take a photo unless they agree. It's very offensive to some of them. So we always ask. But the kids love it, especially video. The go nuts over that.

We've been too busy to get out for any shopping or souvenirs yet. We all have something we'd like to bring home, we just have to get time to do it. It would be nice to go up to the hotel, get a Coke and show everyone who hasn't been here before.

Speaking of Coke, there's plenty of Coke-a-cola around, but you never see beer. I've only seen two people smoking a cigarette. They can't afford it. They sell bales of clothing, t-shirts and such, that came from the U.S. It was part of a program President Kennedy started. Everyone takes good care of themselves, are well groomed and very proud. We look filthy by the end of the day, on the other hand.