D-Day

Today is our D-Day. We have arrived in Haiti, in Port Au Prince, and now am at the hospital. Our travel today was largely uneventful other than our bags have not arrived. Thankfully, we were aware that this could happen and packed our necessities in carry ons.

This will be a quick post as it is 9:40 and the roosters start crowing at 3, the sun rises at 5, and rounds start at 6. Tomorrow is Sabbath, a day of rest, so we will have a church service in the morning (in English, I'm told), then do a few cases and then some rest. Sunday starts up full schedule again.

Food here is short. We're told the some of US volunteers are not eating a lot of the one daily provided hot meal to allow the patients to have more food. As some of you heard, the chefs left last Sunday and things have been a bit different. I think they were from China somewhere, possibly with the group Chefs WIthout Borders.

We got a tour tonight from the nurses who arrived this morning. This is true "see one, do one, teach one" apparently! There is plenty of fresh water. I am thirsty and pretty sweaty already. The volunteer breakroom has wireless internet and an A/C unit, so it's somewhat cool and I put on some dry scrubs, so I'm fairly comfortable right now. I hung my mosquito netting around an empty cot and we'll see how sleep goes tonight. This is definitely still disaster relief medicine, but still some luxuries like a room with A/C and clean water in a 5 gallon bottle dispenser. We do have some flush toilets, and some cold showers. We'll see when I decide to brave the cold water, thought it'll probably feel good after working in the heat.

Pray that our bags with all the supplies do arrive tomorrow, and that we get some sleep, stay healthy, and that God provides our strength. I for one know that He is the only way I will get through these next two weeks.

Have a good night. Hopefully there will be some time tomorrow to post some pictures and write more about what we've seen and done so far including the drive through the city and the destruction but also the smiles we can bring to the children just by waving and smiling at them.

Oh, we are on central daylight time for anyone that wants to know what time it is here. At least I think that's what time it is. I think technically they are on Eastern Standard and don't change clocks ahead for the summer like we do in the US.

Thanks for prayers already.