We Made it Safe and Sound

Hi,  

I'm sure most of you are wondering if we all made it to Haiti and how the trip went.  Well, we all made it mostly intact with only a few pieces of luggage missing.  We have been assured that they will arrive Monday morning! Flying into Haiti is eye opening just to see the differences in infrastructure and security.  There are multiple porters vying for the opportunity to assist you with your bags (confusion is a good word).  The trip from the airport really gave us a taste of what Haiti is like two years post earthquake.  There were piles of rubble, partially destroyed buildings and garbage everywhere.  The sights and smells were almost overwhelming.  It was extreme sensory overload with all of the street vendors and the traffic (sure glad they had a Haitian driver).  It took us just over 2 hours to go the 45km to Grand Goave.  We arrived at the center just after noon on Saturday, had lunch and a tour of the facility.  After the tour, the medical team started unpacking all of the 28 bags of equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals, much of which was purchased with donation dollars.  We were then told about the forty some Rubbermaid totes that had been donated earlier that also needed unpacking! We worked at moving things into the new medical clinic that had just been finished until nearly 6 pm (it gets dark at 6).  We had supper and then went back to work for a couple of hours.  Most of us were pretty beat after all the travel and very little sleep the night before in Miami. Sunday was wonderful after a good nights WARM sleep!!! Had a relaxed breakfast and then church!  Church was great music and a very warm welcome!  After lunch was back to work to get the clinic set up and ready for Monday morning. I am happy to announce that as of 5:30 we are more or less ready to start the clinic!!! It is interesting coming from Canada in the winter to Haiti in the Caribbean. It's kind of difficult to focus and work when it's 30+C with high humidity! We don't seem to be suffering too much with the transition however.  Nice to be warm in March!!!   

 Doug