Day 5: We started clinic around 0830 today. I think we saw about 150 peoploe in medical. Dental did over 100 extractions. Karen cleaned about 90 children's teeth. The number system didn't work so well today, I don't think it ever will. Justin did maintenance on the van today so we can make our trip to Kenscoff tomorrow. He changed spark plugs, aligned wheels etc. I am so glad that he has been able to find something to do. He even fixed 2 pianos. Yesterday we had house church. I liked that better than big church, less loud. Today I probably treated about 75 people. I took a suture out, dressed a wound from a motorcycle exhaust pipe burn. There were many people with ear infections. Everyone has serious wax issues here.
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| Karen cleaning teeth |
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| Justin and Son with the van |
Day 6: Today we slept in late 0645. We all packed lightly for a trip to Kenscoff. I think Justin performmed a shrinking miracle because he put all the belongings for 18 people and atleast 7 suitcases/hardcases, a dental chair, and a chaise lounge in the bed of a toyota pickup. Kenscoff is about 20 miles away from Port-au-Prince about 7000ft in elevation. We left about noon. We traveled past Petionville, where a lot of the rich people in Haiti live, and stopped for lunch at the Baptist Mission. It is a self-help mission based on 1 Thessalonians 4: 11-12 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your own hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” We ate at a restaurant that was on a cliff face.
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| View from Restaurant |
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| Marlene's Home |
About 20 minutes of travel later and we were in Kenscoff. The roads were single lane and quite hilly. We had to walk up a driveway that our van could not drive up with all of our belongings. We put our medical equiptment in the mayor of Kenscoff's office, a long narrow room, with a few bookcases. Ms. Marlene was our hostess. Tim met her at the airport a few years ago and she asked him to come help Kenscoff, and in return she would host us. She has a beautiful home. It is stick built with some concrete walls. She had hot water! She has beautiful grounds; peach trees, bromiliads, amaryllis. She has a black chow that had a ferocious bark when we entered the property, but she is sweet.
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| View from Marlene's Home |
It is Ra Ra season in Haiti now. Rara is a Voodoo Holiday that coincides with Easter. I'm still unsure about what exactly it is but mostly just parades with odd music. Sometimes the parades get a little out of hand. There was a parade of probably about 25 people near the house the night we arrived with VERY loud music. We could see the parade from Marlene's because she is on a hill. Eventually the police came and broke it up, I'm unsure why. I wasn't going to complain though. The first night we came to Haiti there was Rara music until about 3am. Thankfully I brought my earplugs.
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