Clinic day 1

I kissed a hundred girls "good morning" and then "good recess" and then "good bye" yesterday. OK, it was only 30 girls, but it felt like a hundred. They are absolutely mortified that I would leave them 2 days after arriving. How dare I? Merline Guillaume made me promise to come get her from her classroom when I left at 1:30pm so that she could say good bye to me properly. Fortunately, Haitian teachers are a bit more lax about maintaining order so neither of us got scolded.

Mr. Zach picked me up from PAP in the mid-afternoon and drove me out to Grace Health Center in Cazale. We arrived in the early evening, so I spent the next few hours just playing with the adorable children in the Rescue Center and with Licia's kids. I'll post photos of all of them when I get back to HFC. Speaking of which, just before I left HFC yesterday I discovered that my laptop was working again. Apparently the problem was not my laptop but the bad electrical outlet I had it plugged into...A very direct and swift answer to prayer.

Today I did paperwork for Lori, the head nurse and shoveled pills into little plastic baggies. The clinic gives people enough meds for a month to prevent them from taking extra meds and selling them on the street. So that means that every day, 3 or 4 pharmacists sit in the back room and separate pills into individual month-long doses. It's kind of therapeutic, actually. I also got to help out with the bandages of 2 foot amputations - I wish I could have seen them pre-amputation. I am told that they were the grossest, smelliest, nastiest feet ever! I assisted with the drainage of a blocked lymph node and with the examination of a knee that has been mysteriously swollen for 2 years. And then I helped Carole, the general consult nurse, with her final 2 hours worth of patients. I really enjoy working with her because it's a great learning experience both for my Creole and my medical knowledge.

It is delightfully cool in Haiti right now. I have hardly broken a sweat all day and I have slept with a sheet every night so far. The kids tell me that it was even cooler in January, but we all agree that this is pretty much perfect.

Well, little Amos is playing with my chair again. He has been itching for me to come play with him for a while. So I guess I'll call it a day and go wrestle small children until bedtime. Domi byen tout moun!