Sorry for the delay on updates. We run on solar power, and we've been covered by constant (pouring) rain clouds the past...oh...5 days. This may be a bit scattered because I'm having an issue remembering all that happened...bear with me.
The past few days have been a bit more than interesting. Clayton, Dr. Henry, and our cook left on Saturday morning. Henry wanted to visit friends in Jacmel, the cook simply wanted to go home, and Clayton had to pick up 5 people and some tools (he has yet to return). This left the three of us alone in the clinic to be supervised by the principal of the school. On account of the constant monsoon here, no electricity (aka no internet, movies, charged batteries of any sort), no food (other than potatoes and peanut butter...yum). No sanity. We simply sat and read....all day. This was comparable to the Amish...seriously. Our last modern convenience was a movie on a dying computer that got 15 minutes in, set up the plot, sucked us in, and died. We have yet to finish the movie.
Without doctors in the clinic, we had to turn away people with tooth aches and such, but we had an incredibly sick (newborn...as in born-that-morning) baby (seriously, the thing looked like a Caucasian baby, and had a slight tint of purple...and was foaming at the mouth...incredibly sick). We had to make a few phone calls, but eventually we sent the man with 600 goude to the nearest hospital.
Henry...how do I begin to explain Henry. He is a Haitian doctor who simply couldn't make it one night camping. He's basically a pretty boy, but he is so funny and has definitely been a wonderful form of entertainment for us (especially without electricity)...he's been going crazy. We've been amused. Along with his continual singing of "Git Me Baby One More Time," some quotes: "I think I'm gonna have a hernia," "We're taking about American cats or Haitian cats?" "Clayton, you're always talking American to me like I know what you're saying," and my personal favorite, "I will not die here" (in response to the lack of electricity).
So yesterday (day 4 without electricity), we read (go figure) and ate potatoes. That night 4 new people and Kyle came to work on a public health project. They are all really nice, and are adjusting really well...we're having a hard time adjusting to the 3 of us in a room to having 4 more girls with us, but we're getting there. Kyle, he lives here, returned and, knowing the "ins" and "outs" of the place, turned on the generator. What? There was a generator? I mean, it's whatever...we just lost our sanity, no big deal. Needless to say, we were more than thankful that we could check emails, facebook, and charge computers, phones, and, in our case, power tools.
Clayton has yet to return because he had a meeting today about building a new school, but he'll be back tomorrow morning. Since he picked up the other group and the tools, he also grabbed us some more groceries, and, knowing that we were more than likely going crazy (fact), he bought us cookies to send up with all of the necessities. The man is a saint.
Today Jill and I ran.... Wow. There is so little oxygen in the air because of the altitude, and I'm sure that my heart rate was well over 200bpm by the end of the ordeal. Not only is the oxygen sparse, there is no such thing as "flat stretch" here. 3.5 miles of scaling mountains and some ab work really did me in for the day, but we were far from done. After lunch we had to teach English class, which went well, and then soccer for a good 2 hours after the class. Since my balance is a tad off, I fell three times (skinning my hands pretty good) and kicked a rock (idiot).
We've been talking to the women in the English class (because they are also teachers in the school) about building toilets at their houses so that they can use them and teach others how to use them (since we're leaving all of the tools here, people can continue to build them when we leave). So I'm finally getting a chance to sit down, and Brandi comes up to me with a woman in our English class named Dagelia. She wanted us to check out the toilet that they already had to see if they needed a new one. "10 minute walk," she says. Apparently "10 minutes" is a common thing in Haiti because it took a good hour. We saw her toilet; it was good, but more than that we were so blessed by her family. They wanted to teach us Creole, talk with us, give us a chicken (?). They were so precious. Dagelia talked and talked on the walk there and back. She continued to say how happy she was that we were there, that we were beautiful, and that she loved us. Small talk. She put some things into perspective as well. After talking about education, she said, "I pray to Jesus for your education so that you can come back and help us." People are crying for help. They are begging, and yet, we only help ourselves. Humbled.
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