Haiti Day 8

Day 8
March 21, 2013

How do you get two women to jump out of bed?  You put a burro outside the door of the guest house.  The women will jump out of bed and scramble for cameras only to find that the burro was passing by or the sound travels.  This may or not have happened to Dee and me.

Today was the last day at the clinic.  We saw a total of 278 people this week.  Thankfully, no one was critically ill.  Rodney feels like he has a better grasp of the common ailments and medicines needed.  Most of the children he saw had a cough.  It is most likely environmental.  The kids breathe the smoke from the charcoal and the charcoal is often used in cooking fires inside their homes.  One woman came in with an extremely high blood pressure.  She had a friend die last week who was taking medication for high blood pressure.  The woman who came in thought the blood pressure medicine caused her friend's death, so she quit taking hers.

We didn't do a formal VBS today, but we went down to the shelter and played with the children.  We brought soccer balls and frisbees.  They were both a big hit.  We collected them when we were finished and they will stay with the local pastors as community property.

We went to the school this morning.  The children were taking exams, so I didn't want to intrude too much. 

This is the principal's house.  It is next door to our guest house and the back of the school is in front of our building.

As we walked out of the school, I noticed the number of school aged children who weren't in school.  Their parents can't afford to send them.  That took me a while to process.  I will be praying that the Lord will show me how to help in this area or that He will send someone who can.  There is a vicious cycle of poverty here.  The children need to learn basic reading and writing skills.

We walked up behind the kitchen and took pictures of the big cacti. 

 

Then we took a path that loops around the back of the village.  There is a well surrounded by thick black mud and a little brackish water.  This is where the livestock are watered.

 

 

After our hike, we hired Captain Jackson for another short boat ride to swim.  This is another opportunity to encourage the locals to work and use their marketable skills. 

 

This boat was smaller than the last.  If this pattern continues, we will be paddling back to Petit Goave in a canoe tomorrow.

 

 

This boat didn't have a motor.  It worked on manpower alone.

 

 

The boat was so small we had to make two trips to get everyone out in the water.  We unloaded and went back to shore for the rest.  We did the entire thing in reverse at the end.

 

Dinner was some type of pasta salad with lobster meat, rice and beans, fried sweet potatoes, french fries, green beans and mangos.  Yummy (except the lobster part).

We have to head down to the dock at 3:30 in the morning for our 4:00 a.m. departure time.