We got off to an early start I actually made it to the dining room dressed in scrubs at 6:30AM, motivated to start the day. People normally start days really early in Haiti, I have a hard time adjusting to the hours. We had breakfast with fresh fruit, toast and coffee. A morning devotion was the perfect way we started the day with a prayer focusing on letting Jesus serve us through others. We then loaded up in 3 tap taps and headed out to clinic in Croix Des Bouquet about an hour away from Port au Prince driving through dusty and bumpy roads. There’s never a dull moment on the streets of PAP. Lots of stimulation with the sites, sounds, people, activity, animals and whatever random things pop up whether it’s the UN big armed trucks, misc accidents from lack of traffic regulation, buses turned over on the side of the road and vendors running up to cars hustling everything from fresh fruit to shampoo and medications, it’s always a thrill. After awhile , we arrived to a hidden gem, a pleasant surprise next to the grounds of a seminary, a clinic run by Haiti Medical Missions of Memphis. I had previously read about this organization and was interested in working with them before so was very excited to make this connection. It was a very large Catholic based clinic with many services and speciality care called the Clinque Saint E’Sprit (Holy Spirit Clinic). There were even prosthetics, occupational & physical therapy, a large kitchen, guest house a gym and very nice clean facilities with private patient rooms. Volunteers were welcome. I noticed Sisters were present as well. I somehow ended up in the pediatrician/ midwife section so by default was mostly seeing children with ailments through the day, occasionally I’d treat women with genitourinary problems and children has mostly GI and derm issues. It was sad to see such advanced manifestations of simple ear infections that went untreated. We were served a tasty meal for lunch, chicken for those who like it, a bean sauce w rice & beans and fruit. It was comical that we were told to wash our own plates after eating considering there was a tiny kitchen with a sink and like 3 tables of us. This was a custom we’d never heard of, fortunately some folks did it for us so we could keep seeing patients. I bought some souvenirs before leaving (flags, paintings and a necklace) from a man on the translator team and bargained for a good deal. We took group pictures before leaving for the day. We were stuck with a flat tire and after it was changed, stopped by a store called DeliMart in PAP to stock up on goodies like Rebo coffee and other treats.

We spent the evening at the guest house hanging out. I fell asleep early after being tired from a long day and was awakened around 9pm with my bed shaking from an earthquake. I quickly sat up and was on the verge of going right back to sleep til I though about being in Haiti- I ran out of the tent so quick I was the first one out of the guesthouse. Recalling that people had perished in the same guesthouse just two yeats prior from the quake and knowing that I was sleeping under slabs of concrete was unsettling. I was shocked to see people straggling out 10 minutes latter carrying personal belongings. I could see how priorities misplaced could lead to such tragedies in catastrophic events. Poor Haitians I could see standing on the roofs of their houses, who could blame them considering the history. It was a restless night, I went back in but came running out when I’d hear loud sounds fearing aftershocks. I later learned it was around a 4.6 earthquake , but thinking on the damage done from the large one of around 7.0 in 2010 with ~200,000 people perished that was not comforting. I heard there wasn’t damage from this nights quake though.