Life in Haiti is simple but not always easy...

This was the group that went to the beach...so fun!
This was us piling on the boat!!
This was the beautiful view of the beach as we were coming up on it.
Our boat that we took is on the right....I, of course, would have much rather had the one on the left! : )
I feel like there are just not words for this pic....expect just plain cool! Many of the staffers have these hammocks and they are awesome! SO getting one!
This is our crazy jimmy-rigged tent for our clinic today...praise the Lord we made it work!
This is an amazing view from where we had clinic today-Papa Tombre (same place we went last Monday)
This is our room (our room also holds the stock of meds)...at the end of every day we have to go through and re-stock all of our meds in our totes that we bring out to clinic. This involves counting pills and writing their names on little plastic bags. I, at one point in my life, had wanted to become a pharmacist....after this experience, let's just say that counting pills is not my thing!!


The title of this post is a quote from one of the staff girls as we got off our boat yesterday...our time at the beach was amazing and relaxing but the boat ride to and from it was quite the adventure!! We had a boat that was supposed to seat about 10 people but here in Haiti, things are not as they are supposed to be...let's just say they like to cram as many on their boats as they do their "tap-taps" (their main mode of transportation). Instead of 10 people we crammed on 25!!! And then of course they couldn't get the boat started and then once they did we couldn't even get a good enough speed to get any airflow going!! : ) ( I can't imagine why-I am sure it had nothing to do with the amount of weight that was on it!

Well once we finally got there it was breathtaking...clear water and palm trees and white sand! Despite the beauty you still had the reality of Haitian life....may kids running around with barely any clothes on or some not at all. Its amazing to see the physical beauty of the mountains, ocean, etc and yet still see devastation and destruction and tent cities everywhere. We spent the whole day at the beach and I definitely got some sun...everyone at dinner that night kept asking me if I wanted to borrow aloe! : ) The ride home in the boat was a bit more exciting because the they decided to add 3 more people...I mean, why not, right? Once you have totally gone overboard (no pun intended!) then why not just go all the way! And yes, of course it took us even longer this time to get it started and when it finally did, we had to breathe in a lot of smoky fumes!! Praise the Lord we finally got back!

We had a great dinner and then the Sunday night devo/discussion time...we sang a couple worship songs, talked about James and then broke up into smaller groups to discuss James 1:19-27. It was good discussion and the big point that seemed to keep repeating itself was having a constant attitude of humility and meekness.

Today was the first day that I was on my own in Pharmacy...I certainly prayed a lot and asked for many back home to pray. And I am thankful that I could feel those prayers! Our tent that was supposed to be already set up was NOT set up so we gad to take the time to do that which involved moving some heavy stones. We were exhausted before we even began!! We then saw around 60 patients or so and even got back a little earlier than expected! And praise the Lord, as hot as it was, the Lord still provided some breeze! Unfortunately, our drivers, interpreter and dr all had to sit around for over 2 hours and wait for our medical leader to get back so she could pay them. And Dr Bourdes drives every day 2.5 hrs to come help us and then has to drive home 2.5 hrs in the same day...not to mention he sees patients at his home AND sometimes has to be at the hospital.

I am truly so blessed to get to work with Charles, one of our interpreters...please pray for him. He is asking lots of questions and trying to understand the Lord in many ways....He is enabling us to have great conversations.

I have spent a lot of time this evening counting meds and trying to reorganize some things...I hope all this made sense because I am really tired. Another blessing of the day was going to dinner and seeing the beautiful sunset on the beach with a nice breeze! And then it was weird, right after dinner I went to take a shower and it seemed like it was really muggy again and not as nice as it was for dinner. The Lord blessed us with an amazing dinner experience!

I was reminded of this chapter in Isaiah during our time together on Sun evening...and then there was a great verse that carried me through today....

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:11)