Typical Day in Haiti

   What a day in Haiti...We've been asked what our days and food are like so I have chosen to share this with you.
   We started with a breakfast of pancakes, pineapples. bananas, and of course coffee...good energy food for a full day.  The line at the clinic was long and waiting for us so we jumped right in.  I continued as autofractor girl/dilating drops and sometimes pressure check (when the tonopen would work).  Scott worked with Dr. Marcellus and as a team we took care of 60+ patients in one chair in the clinic today.  At lunch we broke away for a quick lunch of spam sandwiches (yes, for real, we ate spam!)  and bottles of water over at the orphanage. 
  We worked until 5:30 seeing patients and closed the place down.  We had to catch a ride back to the guest house along with the other hospital workers.  Nancy Smith and I rode in the back of the pick-up truck with some of the staff while Scott squished in the "back seat" with three others.  It was like riding on the homecoming float for the big parade.  Nancy was waving and smiling at everyone along the way as the homecoming queen and I was her page!  They were smiling, waving, and running along behind us...pretty fun even if it was really dirty! 
   We drove through Jeremie taking in the refugee tents, the very spare housing of scavenged boards and tin with dirt floors, cement block housing partially finished and yet definitely in use.  Many had their laundry drying as lay on the roof.  The roads are a combination of gravel and brick pavers.  Many places have large sections of pavers missing causing large divets in the road.  The streets are narrow and I'm pretty sure the right-of-way is determined by who is bigger.  The communication system between drivers is the constant use of horns saying "I'm coming, get out of my way." We pass a section of the beach which is a garbage dump complete with goats and wild pigs rummaging for the good stuff.
   Quick clean up then dinner.  We enjoyed our goat stew, red beans and rice, fried plantains, green beans and carrots!  A delicious dessert of some kind of pudding preceded our nightly review of special moments as a team.  This was followed be a good bye to Dr.Marcellus who will return to Port Au Prince tomorrow morning to spend the national holiday of remembrance of the earthquake with his family.  We will have to brave the clinic tomorrow without him as we have chosen to be open and continue to serve despite the holiday.  We ended with devotions tonight led by Deana Ralston.
   That's a typical day for the clinic workers!  hope that helped you get a taste of what we are up to!!!
Jill Wilkinson