Tonight at the guest house we snack on peanut M&Ms and work on Zentangles with Sonya. We all separate tomorrow
to our homes in different states, after working side by side for a week
in the heat and sharing our frustrations and joys together. We talked
about the attachment we feel for the other team members and how we will
miss everyone.
Today on the way to the beach, the bus had a flat tire. We all climbed
out and waited on the side of the road while Alphonse fixed the tire,
with the help of a few passersby. Passing by was what someone called
"the donkey train.". Women on donkeys, with filled baskets of mangoes,
or coal, or palm fronds, or vegetables. This is the sustaining element
of the Haitian economy. Women buy the produce in the mountains and
bring it down into Port au Prince to sell.
Some of the other surprising or funny things we experienced this week
included a sign on a local business that said Ave Maria Dipot Cimint.
Like many of the signs in Haiti, on businesses or painted on tap-taps,
there are religious references. In clinic yesterday Sherye taught us
the sign for "hot flashes" so we could talk with a deaf patient about
menopause.
Tonight
several of us are staying up quite late, I think because we all know
this is our last night. Certainly we are all exhausted. Everyone will
be glad to see loved ones tomorrow
and return to our air-conditioned lives with abundant clean water!
Leaving our Haitian friends and this beautiful country, however, feels
like leaving my family behind.
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