One message was from Miami. Then I tried a short one from Haiti. Yes, we are in Haiti! You have to see it to believe it, as anyone that has been here before can attest to. We couldn’t check our bags all the way through so had to take all 36 pieces into our rooms on Friday night. Eric our team leader was the last one in at about 11 pm, just about 2 hours late. We were glad for a nights restl The next morning we met in the lobby at 6:45 to board the shuttle to the airport with all the luggage. We were taken through to check-in as a group by a porter (originally from Haiti). It went pretty fast, but for each extra suitcase we had to pay $30.00.
The breakfast at the hotel only started serving at 7 so we missed that, we got something to eat at the airport before we boarded the plane for Haiti. Then, what a hassle to get through customs and pick up all the luggage and find our driver. Another big tip for all those suitcases! The Van was very small for 11 of us. We crowded in and drove for 4 hours out to meet another vehicle. It rained hard a few times as we drove with only an old tarp on part of the luggage, some got wet and it ruined some of the things inside. Of course setting 2 days before we could get it unpacked didn’t help the situation. Talk about mold! Ants seem to be a problem here, too!
Sheila Moser and 2 of the Reinhard girls met us in Cavaillon. We transferred all of the luggage to the top of that vehicle. Then 4 of the girls rode on the top as we jiggled our way up the hill to Hospital Lumiere.
Mona the cook had a nice meal for us to enjoy. Then we went up to the hospital to take a tour. We met Dr. Rudy R. and made some rounds of the patients. There were lots of fractures and many diabetics all in need of dressing changes. There were 2 patients that I recognized from when I was here in April.
I had wanted to post to the blog, but the internet service was down. Phillip came to reset it after the storms or rain. I still am having trouble getting on the blog, so am typing this into “Word” and hope I can paste it onto the blog site.
Our Sunday was busy. We went to church, they had a full house. The children were sitting in the cross benches across from us. There were about 25 girls all dressed up and had their hair done up with braids & bows! We tried to sing Creole songs from the books Sheila brought along, that didn’t go so well for me. After church we climbed the hill behind the hospital. Now that was a lot of steps!! We sang at the hospital in 2 areas, then made rounds on about 9 patients and stopped for lunch. There were about 30 of us, including Tim & Joan & family and some from Bluffton, IN, Belvidere, IL, San Diego, CA as well as a German Family. The Waibel girls went back to Les Cayes with the Reinhard’s, leaving 9 from our team to work this week at the hospital. For those that aren’t aware, the Reinhard’s from the Peoria area have been in Haiti a number of years and have girls that are friends of the Waibel’s.
After our lunch we decided not to go to the beach since we had about 3 hours of rounds yet to make and the beach was an hour away over the rough road. So we visited awhile, then made some rounds and got a nights rest before our full week was to start.
I am going to close this blog and hope to post about our Monday.
Submitted by Dorothy
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