Even in a vastly different environment, similar social events occur. For example, many of the girls here get together periodically for a "girl’s night". So, last night we piled into a work pickup truck and went to a nearby town for dinner. It was just fun to giggle and hang out. These women are all involved in extremely important and rewarding projects here ranging from reforestation projects, nutrition, midwifery, and public works projects like rebuilding roads or cleaning out clogged canals so farmers get much needed water to crops. But, we are all still women in need of some time to just be girls.A highlight of the evening was getting to stop by the one grocery store within a few hour radius of the hospital. I am so excited because I bought the fixings for an apple pie and I’m going to make it for our little 4th of July get together on Sunday.
My grandma taught me to make apple pie and many fun afternoons were spent with her rolling out the crust with the little design in the top part, slicing the apples really thin, and waiting patiently as the aroma of the cooking pie filled the kitchen. Those much-honed skills of pie creation will hopefully prove fruitful here in Haiti.
The clinic is running wonderfully and I have an excellent team here! We have one gentleman who runs a fabrication facility for Hanger so he is well versed in all technical areas and is teaching the Haitian technicians lots of useful tricks like neat ways of making their work more efficient and conserving materials by making fewer mistakes. One gentleman is amazing at modification and has been working with the technicians on modifying. The third practitioner is a computer wiz and has made my life so much simpler by teaching me some things that have made sending needed computer files back to the US much easier. We’re having a blast making a difference!
The rotations coming in and out in two-week periods kind of remind me of when I was a camp counselor. You have the pleasure of getting to live and work with some great people, get used to them, and then they leave and you get a new group. Each group has its own strengths and adds so much to the patients’ lives here. I occasionally get to hear from practitioners who came in the past and I don’t know of one that hasn’t been touched by what they’ve done here. The patients capture your heart and their smiles warm your soul.
I cannot put into words how cool it is that right now, this is what I get to do, and this amazing experience has become my day to day life!
PS: Breakfast today= #9
