Our Typical Day in Haiti...Warning, this is a long boring read

I just realized that I have not really shared much about what Lori and I are doing in Haiti.


A typical day starts at 6:15 in the morning. Unless there is a group of short term missionaries leaving that day, than it starts between 3:15 and 4:15, depending on when they need to catch their flights. We get up and say good bye to them then go back to bed until 6:15. We start by walking Cinnamon. She has been kind enough to decide that the garbage dump is a good place to, well, dump. That way we don’t have to clean up after her.

Morning Devotions are ate 6:45 followed by breakfast at 7:00. 8:00 or so we start our day, but the generators don’t start until 9:00. We have been spending most of our time sorting through supplies for outdated or damaged material. There is a lot of it. We have been blessed for years with many donated medical supplies. Unfortunately, with nobody medical here full time, there has never been a first in first out supply system. Things in the bottom of storage been have been here for years, collecting mold and mildew, or the expiration dates passes while items on top which don’t expire for years are used when short term teams come in to do surgery. My group has done it too. When the short term team I led got here we had one day to get ready for full OR schedules, so when we found something we could use we quit looking for other items that should have been used first. We have been getting a lot of help from short term missionaries (especially when they find out the medical facilities are air conditioned).

Lunch is at 12:00. All are meals are prepared by Haitians employed by the mission. Lunch is my favorite because it’s something Haitian. Beans and rice mostly but they prepare different sauces every day. Today was actually Haitian spaghetti which is spaghetti with little sauce and hotdogs. Not very Haitian, but I like it.

After lunch it is back to sorting through the supply room until 4:00ish. Now I know that SOUNDS boring and tedious, and it really is. It is also necessary, and once we get it done we will be able to maintain a much more efficient system and when the surgical teams come in things should go very smoothly and we won’t have as many supplies that need thrown out.

4:00 we go back to our room to read the bible and catch up on email, blogs etc. 6:00 is diner, which is something American made with canned meat. We actually eat well here considering the supply issues of getting most of it from the states. Chicken we get locally, and we get a lot of that. We are supposed to be setting up a hydroponics plant soon to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. Looking forward to that.

Evening devotions are at 7:00. After that is time with each other or watching a movie with other missionaries, or group bible studies.

Bed by 9:00 or 10:00.

Doesn’t sound like much work for God’s Kingdom. Currently we are sowing seeds for later harvesting. The real work comes when we start seeing surgical teams come in.

Throughout the day we also take care of any staff or short term missionaries that need help. Mostly dehydration or “Montezuma’s Revenge”. Got to keep them healthy because they are out doing VBS or sports camps. There is always people here doing outreach projects, and we keep them going when they get sick.