"Bugs bad where you were?", the U.S. Immigration Officer inquired.
"What. . .why do you ask?", Nancy replied
"I smell a lot of different things in this job and now I smell bug repellent!"
. . .ergo, Eau de Pest! A week's worth of DEET-laced sprays are beginning to leech out of our skin, apparently. . .there are more disagreeable smells I suppose he might have noticed, but was way too polite to do so!
We had quite a week. . .long, full days, sometimes given to improvisation. . .like the flouride treatment material behaving like Gorilla Glue, or discovering inoperative showers/sinks/toilets at Good Sam, or dealing with TB and goiter, or an uncooperative cataract. But we did what we came to do, and then some, deepened friendships, brightened the given day for young and old alike and for folks otherwise not likely to ever see a doctor.
We even saw a waterspout out at sea while fetching a few supplies at the souks-like market on the Jeremie wharf. . .not sure how to characterize that except to say it was every bit as exceptional and unusual as everything else in Haiti.
The new, 2-room school building is well underway in Chiraque; nearly 20 Haitians received treatments for cataracts and glaucoma, and a couple hundred others consultations leading to eye-related relief in some other form; over 300 Haitian girls have a brightly-colored pillow dress thanks to the FUMC seamstresses, and over 200 Haitian boys received a shirt to add to their non-existent wardrobes; flouride treatments were done with a limited amount of a different material we happened to bring along; the old folks at Good Sam have working toilets, sinks, showers, new curtains, new clothes, and unending smiles and choruses of "The Lord Provides All".
He does, and he doesn't mind a little help from his friends in dispensing same. We feel good about the week, we feel good about all of you who have supported and supplied the trip in one way or another.
I'll close with a last selection of pictures, and a simple "thanks".
John Smith
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