Promise for Haiti

February 6, 2012

Bonswa (good evening),

Saturday before breakfast part of the team climbed Mt
. Pignon. They looked pretty hot when they got back but
all said they enjoyed the hike. No major casualties! After
breakfast, off to the market for some shopping and to give the
“newbees” a new experience. Mike bought a cow at the auction for the
noon lunch feeding program at the hospital. I think it was one of the items
on his “bucket list”. They took it back to the hospital maintenance area. T
hey plan to butcher it on Wednesday. Zeke bought food and gave the cow its
last meal today. Not quite sure why since it was going to be butchered tomorrow!
The team spent the rest of the day working on the benches and
delivering rice/beans to houses scattered around town.

Jesula and Thompson stopped by in the evening. It was good to finally
meet him. He doesn’t speak much English so Jesula translated!!!! He is a nic
e looking man, employed, and by the time the evening was over had loosened
up a bit and tried out more of his English on us. They are coming back
on Sunday morning to go to church with us.

On Sunday most of the team went to UCI to worship with the Mompremiers.
Paula, Sharon and I stayed in Pignon and went to worship at Zeke’s church.
It’s a large Baptist church with great music. The service was two hours long
and the message was about loving your neighbor. A bit long, but OK! Had
lunch at our place and when the team got back from UCI Zeke and Babi
treated us to cassava smoothies. Cassava is a tuber similar to a potato
that they boiled then ran it through a blender with water, milk, sugar and
ice. The mixture ended up tasting like tapioca which is
actually made from cassava. Later, I froze some of it and had it with chocolate
chips. This was very close to ice cream!

Monday most of the team was at the family life conference. I think
they had about two hundred attend again. I worked on the cabinets for the
prosthesis dorm and Paula did some varnishing. In the afternoon I drove
over to UCI for a board meeting. Three other board members from the US
were here so we thought it would be a good opportunity to get together.
Jesula came tonight to say goodbye. She is heading back to PAP in the
morning to look for work at hospitals in the PAP area. She would like to
continue her anesthesia training but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
First she needs to find a job! Thompson is in the PAP area so at least she
has some company. No news on a wedding date.

Not much change at the zoo. A hen hatched out a batch of chicks in the
garbage pit today so we’ll see how many survive the night. With all the
hungry dogs around I’m amazed any of them make it to adult hood. I’ve
been driving the truck more lately around town and out to UCI. It took a
some time to get use to a straight stick on the floor. When I get back home
I’ll probably try to shove my left foot through the floor. The kids say I’m
getting pretty good at missing the giant holes and rough spots in the road.
I usually take a couple along for translating in case I get in trouble. They also
think it’s pretty macho to roll down the window and holler at their friends
riding in a truck with a blanc (white person). The donkeys, horses, goats
and people are starting to recognize my horn toot and slowly head to the edge
of the road!

The month has gone fast, four days left in Haiti, but we are anxious
to get back home to see family, friends, eat fast food, TV and spend
some serious time on the couch!

Bondye Beni Ou,

Dean