Sorry it has been a while since I have blogged. Lori and I took a quick trip to the states. We had a meeting with the Surgery Committee from NWHCM in Atlanta last weekend and spent a couple days in Myrtle Beach with friends relaxing. We were not planning on going to the meeting because we didn’t want to spend the money, but we eventually decided it was necessary. Turned out we really needed a break too. Of course it turned out travel wise to be one of the longest transits. We were supposed to be in Atlanta by 9:00PM but got to our hotel around 3:00AM Saturday and had the meeting all day Saturday starting at 8:00 (we didn’t get there until 9:00). Coming back into Haiti we were supposed to be in Port au Prince Friday by 10:00 AM local. After waiting in the Miami airport until 3:00PM we rebooked for the Saturday 6:55 flight. Our original flight canceled an hour later and everybody started scrambling for flights, but we already had ours. In Port au Prince the next morning we waited 5 hours for someone from the mission to pick us up, but they didn’t know we were coming (we are buying a cell phone today that will work here in Haiti so we can call for help when we need). We finally ran into someone from the airport that helps the mission a lot, and he got us booked on Tortuga Air to Port au Paix and someone there got us to the mission after calling one of the Haitians in charge of the mission (we were the only Americans there until Sunday, and nobody knew we were coming in).
Other than the travel problems the trip was very relaxing and much needed. Sorry we couldn’t visit everyone, just wasn’t time. We will be out November 20(ish) for at least 6 weeks and we will try to get around to see everyone.
Since we have been back we have grown by one family member. Duke is a black lab who lives here. I have said several times down here about Courtney that the cat Peter IS HERS, even though she denies her (yes, Peter is a girl), because she houses and feeds her. I am declaring here and now that Duke is not ours even though he has decided to sleep in our apartment while nobody else is here. There was a thunderstorm the first night we were back and big Duke is a chicken. He pushed our door open, we threw him out, he pushed our door open again, and I caved. He slept in our shower and ate Cinnamon’s food. He has slept there every night since too. But HE IS NOT OURS!!!!!
I’ve also had my first driving experience here. No one hurt or killed. No damage to the truck. We were flagged down after leaving by one of the mission employees. He chased us down on a motorcycle to tell us there was no brake fluid in the truck. We misunderstood him to say there was no oil. We checked the oil while he went back to the mission to get, we thought oil. There was very little oil in the truck. When he came back with brake fluid we had a laugh, filled the brake fluid, bought oil from a road side vender, and went about our tasks with no incidents. Lori says I did fine driving, but thought I might have been going too fast at times. Judging from the number of people that passed me, I think she is wrong about that!
So I have learned to drive a forklift here, and driven on the “roads” without any problems. Starting to feel at home!!!
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