Life in Passe Catabois, take 3!

Sunday March 14, 2010

Jumping right back into work here in Passe Catabois. It almost feels as though I hadn't left at all. Everything so familiar. We landed in Passe Catabois quicker than I ever thought possible after only an hour wait in the airport in Port-au-Prince, a very bumpy ride to Port de Paix (I was fearing for my life as usual), and being delivered via personal tap-tap over the dirt roads that seem more bumpy and slow-going every time. After we arrived at the house and the car drove away, the essense of the countryside started to permeate. It was so quiet! So green! So beautiful! Such a slow way of life, but the same Passe Catabois I know and love. Sort of an odd feeling after the bustle of Port-au-Prince.

It has been business as usual here the past week. After a quick greeting from Jacques and Isabelle, we ran down to the clinic to find Anne-Marie deep to her elbows in surgery, as usual. She stopped to greet both Sara and I with giant bear hugs though; such a good feeling after so long! Two weeks ago, she returned to Passe Catabois in order to bring the new German doctor, Michael, and his wife, Esther, who is an operating room nurse, here to stay for one year. They have been busy! Emanette, one of the assistants here and our dear friend, planned seven surgeries almost everyday while Anne-Marie was here! Anne-Marie pretended to be mad, but the joy she gets from her work and her love for the Haitian people is too evident to hide.

And so highlights of this week:
-meeting and spending time with Michael and Esther (they are so ready to jump in)
-cokes with Anne-Marie everyday after clinic (and yelling jokes to all the people who come and go on tap-taps)
-sitting at the bakery...and um, eating loads of fresh bread
-getting used to the amount of spiders we live among here and the mouse who decided his home is in our bathroom now
-the way Madam Jal danced when she saw us arriving in Passe Catabois and the giant hug from Frer Jal
-the abscess on the neck of an old man we thought had swallowed a piece of meat that Anne-Marie popped (needless to say we won't be eating vanilla pudding any time soon...sick me out).
-seeing friends I haven't seen in so long: faces that have changed, faces that are the same, kids who are taller, and new babies!

Sara and I agreed to take over the rounds at the hospital from Emanette until we go again in a few months. Emanette has been holding down the fort here for several months, so a rest will be nice for her. Just being in the hospital here again is a pretty sweet feeling. It feels a little like home (and is crazy beautiful now that Lynn has finished all the tiling!). We already have a three year old with Kwashiorkor malnutrition that came in this week who is kicking our butts. His whole body is swollen and he will not take the malnutrition milk. (yes business as usual in PC!) And so, down went the NG. We are only on the third tube in two days, but the milk has been going down. He is kind of teetering on the edge right now...we are not sure what will happen in the next few days.

Anne-Marie left this morning to go back to the Netherlands until the adoption papers for the girls will be finalized. And so it is Dr. Michael, Esther, Sara, and I holding down the fort. Pray everything will go well!