St. Patrick's Day in Haiti

By this morning, with or for lack of the luck of the Irish, the rest of the team from Leogane came down with the gastroenteritis that Matt had yesterday. So, no report on Port au Prince clinic from me except that the local team reported a steady day without as many terribly sick babies as the day before.
Trish and I tried to speed our recoveries by sleep, immodium, oral rehydration, phenergan and a little Cipro.
We felt a lot better by evening when the team came home.
Evening meeting, lots pre packaging for tomorrow's clinic, and then a knock at the front door:  the pastor from the seminary next door where we stayed previously came by the house with his daughter, who Doc Bruce ended up seeing in the living room. Luckily, she was not seriously ill, so no major meds required (all our meds are stored off the living compound).

Trish, Cyndy and Viv head home early in the morning. I will miss them! At least I get to see them again when I return home. The rest of the people I've met here, not so simple. But I think we will likely all see each other again somewhere.

Since I was home sick today, I got to know our cooks a little bit when I would go down for water.
Anne Marie, Edele, and Kresna.One middle aged and two twenty something Haitian women, who are so cute. When I introduced myself as 'Jennifer', one asked jokingly 'Jennifer Lopez?'. They thought it was so funny, so I wagged my rear at them. Even funnier. They are trying to converse with me in Creole, and I am not too good today, but it is fun anyway. They were astounded that I am not married, have never been married, and do not have any kids. "Pour quoi? Pour quoi? Pour quoi? I don't know! ;)
Different culture, but not so different.

I am a little envious of the guys (Docs Fred Fox and Robert Ullom) that took our place in Leogane, as they are headed up to Fondwa in the mountains tomorrow for a clinic. This is the place I described in another note, that I went on a more social mission to see Saturday, but haven't actually worked at yet. Should be a very rewarding and fun --and less hot--day for them. I think they will like it a lot.

On an evening scouting trip Monday, we found more orphanges and communities out Darbonne road that were asking for medical attention to come to them. I made some connections thanks to our translator George, and hopefully in the next week the incoming team will be able to set up a mobile clinic day in these spots. I imagine they will have very busy days when they do so.

So, sort of a slow day as things go here for me, but it beat being sick in a 100 degree clinic with no way home. I'll try to use my remaining awake time to add pictures to some of the older notes. More tomorrow!

Jen