Donna

We went to the clinic this morning and no patients showed up. Turns out May 1st is a national holiday kind of like our Labor Day. You would think someone might have mentioned this to us! No hospital staff, none of our translators, no patients, no one at the guest house said a word. I guess they all assumed we would know somehow? There was no traffic today with the holiday, so that was one nice change. We had a team of 2 PT’s from another volunteer organization join us. Four PT’s and no patients! We had them work with our in-patients and I re-organized the storeroom of donated supplies. It was kind of nice to have a relaxing day with a different pace than usual. Emmanuel one of the translators and I found boxes of new crutches, a bunch of canes which we desperately needed, many new hand and finger splints, shoulder supports and pressure cushion options for the bed- bound patients. I did not know any of that was available before as there are so many boxes just piled up of donations. Emmanuel saw one of the arm slings was of a different design as we were unpacking them. I put it on myself and explained to him how it would be useful for a patient. He smiled and said that one of JoAnn’s out-patients Emil had a problem with his shoulder just like I described and could use that sling. He is learning so much already! I told him he is a true PT in the making. Guibson brought us 6 ripe mangos today and I brought him peanut M&M's. We both thought the trade was terrific.
On the way home the car began to smoke from the engine and stopped in the middle of the road. Luckily it was right in front of a small store with a sign in English that said, “Auto Parts Supply.” The driver, a passerby and 2 men from the store stood over the engine and discussed things. It looked a lot like men in America. It takes a group to discuss engine or tool malfunctions and come to a consensus. It was decided that there was no oil, and this was confirmed when they were able to empty 4 quarts in before it was full. Then they began to add water to the hot radiator which immediately became a geyser spewing the hot liquid. JoAnn and I backed up and commented to each other that at least we knew better than to do that and we are not auto mechanics! Just when we had our doubts that we would ever get home, who pulls up behind us but our new friend Alix who lives at the guest house. He chauffeured us home in his car with AIRCONDITIONING!!!! It was lovely. Once again whatever we need here in Haiti just appears right in front of us.
We spent about an hour playing with a group of 8 boys hanging around the hospital today. They have learned they must stay away from the clinic while we are working during the day, but can come by after the patients have gone. JoAnn gave them a soccer ball and they had such fun playing in the hospital parking lot. None of them spoke English, but somehow we learned that they like the music of 50 Cent, Rhianna, Beyonce, Akon (they could sing his songs in English or Creole) and Michael Jackson (one little guy did an awesome moonwalk!) They like Jackie Chan movies and liked my imitation of his karate moves, James Bond, Spiderman, Batman and Shrek. Most of these boys do not have shoes, food or water but I guess they see American movies somewhere. We shared water with all of them and the kitchen has started feeding them the leftover food this week at lunchtime. They taught me all the body part names in Creole and I taught them the names in English. It seems the boys go out and roam the neighborhoods during the day and I assume the girls stay at home. Two of the boys had on Croc shoes. We see these all over Haiti on adults and children. I think it is because they last so long, but many of these Crocs have seen better days. I have started taking pictures of all the feet I find in them and thought I would send them to the Crocs company to let them know their product lives on even if the market for it in America has slowed significantly. Tomorrow we plan to sleep until noon if we can and just rest! Watch the Extreme Makeover show for us!