Today started out with a beautiful sunrise and the sounds of
dogs barking and roosters crowing at an early 5:45 am. Thankfully we had electricity so we were able
to make a fresh pot of coffee to enjoy with our breakfast. Breakfast here is
not your normal breakfast. It usually consists of tomatoes and lettuce paired
with spaghetti. Well plain spaghetti which we put mayonnaise and ketchup on it
if you are brave enough.
After breakfast
and getting ready for the day we all headed up the hill to walk around the
community. The farther we got up the hill the more beautiful the view got. The
view was not the most amazing part though. Walking around the community you meet all kinds of people, but
they all have one thing common and it is impossible not to notice it. They all
have beautiful smiles as you approach to talk to them. Even though there is a
huge language barrier there is no hesitation on their part to walk up and start
a conversation.
While talking
to the people we would ask if they had any medical needs that we could help
them with. One lady wanted us to take her blood pressure and sitting her down
was all it took to tip the iceberg. As
surely as we were done with hers there was already a line of people ready to
have theirs tested as well. After about
20 minutes and many people later all of our nurses had a chance to test someone’s
blood pressure. We continued to walk
around and even the people with some of the worst conditions were just filled
with joy and blessed to be alive.
We eventually
made it down to a community soccer field unfortunately we had no soccer ball. We
did however have a Frisbee. We attempted to teach the kids the concept of Frisbee,
but they thought it would just be more fun to run around with it and play keep
away from us. We were outnumbered 5 to 1 and had no luck at succeeding at the
game of keep away.
We went
to back to base for lunch which consisted of homemade bread to which we made peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches from. We spent the next couple of hours preparing
for the next couple days. We put together all of our hygiene kits to give out
at our Christmas party and at the doctor’s office we will be visiting. We also
divided out all of the school supplies that we brought down to be taken to the Christmas
party as well.
Me and Theodore
(he prefers Ted) went down the street and attempted to keep up with the, locals
in a friendly game of soccer. We started out scoring the first three goals, but
after that the Haitians scored 5 in a row and we called it a game. We walked
back home and showered and prepared for dinner. We learned a new game today
that the Malone group taught us called Dutch Blitz. It is more less the same
thing as nertz but with colors instead of suites. Me and my teammate Savannah
dominated.
Now after having a wonderful dinner consisting of chicken pasta salad two forms of fried plantains and a
local dish called picilis(Haitian coleslaw with a jalapeno vinaigrette) we sit
out on the porch reminiscing of good times and learning about all of our new friends that we are forming down here. With no electricity it is completely dark as
await the ringing in of the New Year, exciting to start of the new year by spreading Gods love mercy and grace with
this wonderful country.
P.S. Some kid named
Cody finally arrived safely with no troubles. J
Feel free to comment or ask questions I am here all week. Well
more like 8 days but you understand.
Lane
(Aka Lame) Salsbury
No comments:
Post a Comment