Tom and Kitty did in fact get to take that excursion on a local fishing boat yesterday afternoon, with our usual boat crossing captain, Remy. A great day to be on the water…
And in case you all are wondering, we did indeed have one last after hours surgical patient last night…my former beach dance-off opponent, Chadly. He injured his hand and required stitches…the first time I have ever seen this tough kid with tears in his eyes. I decided it was time to give Kitty a break…and it turns out I still know how to suture, but I was sure glad to have her nearby in case I ran into trouble.
In the end he left with a clean, bandaged hand and a “smile”. As if it weren’t already, our return is a certainty. We have too many post-op checks to complete!
As I predicted earlier, our filing and inventory chores were easily completed after dinner, and we have taken over a bit more space in our friend Paulsaint’s storage room. It is a necessity to complete the clinic before we run out of room for all the supplies we require to care for this population.
We had one last surprise last night – a visit from our friend Ailish. She has returned from Ireland on a contract with an Ophthalmology clinic in Les Cayes and caught the last boat over to Ile a Vache. We caught up a bit before dinner and hoped to chat some more at the pub after our chores, but alas, they closed early. We will catch up with her next time…
Turns out it was a beautiful night to be on the roof in conversation with our friends. It was a good opportunity to expand our Creole too. Some of us attempted to stay up until the clock turned to our friend Flito’s birthday, but with an early start and a long day of travel ahead we headed down for the night.
We awoke again to cloud cover but this definitely had a more ominous feel, so we ate breakfast, checked that all was packed, loaded the truck and made our familiar walk down to the beach with our friends and the children. While the boat was being loaded the sky became increasingly threatening and we knew we would need to depart soon to stay ahead of another drenching passage. Despite the sky, the sea was quite calm and we were lucky to stay about 15 minutes ahead of the downpour for the entire crossing…and even better, we had our friends with us for the ride, which took just over 1 hour.
When we arrived we saw several men working to fill countless bags with sand and loading them on a larger boat, which we were informed was the new cargo boat, built to transport construction materials back to Ile a Vache for the Clinic. The construction engineer was there supervising the work and from the looks of the quantity being loaded, it appears there will be additional rapid progress made very soon!
Our van and driver was at the pier to meet us and we unloaded our boat quickly, though the threat of rain seemed to have passed. We got to see our old friends Johnny and Pigeon briefly at the pier and they appear to be doing very well. We also got to meet Boaz’s mother who came to see her son before he returned to Port au Prince with us – it had been 3 months since they last saw one another. Some of the team had a little more money burning a hole in their pockets, so they supported the efforts of the pier-side craftsmen/vendors as we awaited Léon’s return with his car. Then goodbyes were said all around with a promise of our return…these are our friends, our brothers and sisters in this world. We miss them already, so we MUST!
After the last embrace and the final item was purchased, we loaded the van for the familiar ride to Port au Prince. Our van seemed to be equipped with rocket boosters which were used to great effect between the towns along the highway. We made our usual pit stop in Miragoane before pressing on to our destination. We made great progress until Leogane and again when we hit the outskirts of the outskirts of Port au Prince. Then the crush of people and all manner of motor vehicle made the remaining 2 hrs a grueling experience. After 5 hrs on the road we finally arrived and we had all had enough of the van for the day! This was where we had to part with our friend Boaz, but we will stay in touch and see him before year’s end for sure!
We now have 2 hours before supper and a visit from Josi and his family. Until then the roof will serve as a place to relax and recover a bit from the ride. It has already been a long day. We hope to sleep in a bit tomorrow before we brave the airport chaos. My thumbs have now given up, so that is all for today. Last update from the airport tomorrow.
Love to All,
The Team