Thursday

Where do I begin. It must be Haiti. The power went back off at 6:00 this morning so I was the flashlight boy for the breakfast line so they could see what they were dishing up. Maybe I should have left it off :-) So they powered the little generator for the hospital. We went up around 7:30 for 1/2 hr with the Haitians again singing and reading in St John about Christ being the Good Shepherd and giving his life for the sheep. As we headed up the rocky road (it's about 1/4 mile hilly hike to the medical buildings) the venders were already laying their wares out on tarps along our path. Sheila told them 12:00, which means 5 hrs prior to that in Haiti. After all, you wouldn't want to miss out on a potential sales lead!

I'm going to short hand our team into 3 groups; the California crew, the midwest girls & me, for ease. As I type in the dim light, I have to swat off a pesky mosquito every few minutes (I guess not enough lizards!)

This morning seems like a week ago. The rest headed off to their respective medical tasks as usual and I started the work day with my usual routine of seeing where everyone settles in and taking a few photos. This morning I spent some time swapping out some retired equipment (wheel chairs, transport chairs, walkers & crutches). I repaired some and pulled some new ones out of storage. Of course in the process I had to do some wheel chair riding with my little friend Gene, a young boy who hurt his ankle playing soccer. In the mean time, I also checked out the "depot". Nothing like the Home Depot or Office Depot. It's the storage shed for all the non drug supplies...actually fairly well packed in shelves of totes. By the way, don't bother buying the rubbermaid "recycled plastic" 18 gallon totes. I didn't realize the difference and mine had 3 cracks in it before it even reached the airport baggage handlers. There is a difference in plastics and recycled apparently isn't good.