Storm warnings

The thunder rolls, the lightening flashes and the wind kicks up...here comes the rain.

We’ve only had about one day this week without rain at some point...yesterday. It certainly cools things down but its not worth the down side for the people in the tents. The tents fill up and the possibilities for mud/ land slides increases considerably. Some people have been moved from some areas of the worst danger to flat land filled with mosquitos. Quite the trade off- risk mudslides in the city or malaria in the flatlands. Live in the city to be close to possible job opportunities or an hour or more of bus/ tap taps to return to city. Its still a tent either way. Live in the city and get free medical care, water and food ~ or stand in line for a tent shower only to find out, there is no water. Tough call to make isn't it?

Speaking of tents, ours fell down on Tuesday a week ago now. Not completely down but one end collapsed and I thought it was time to close it down. But the guys put it back up and said "its better than ever" so to my disappointment we continued for another week. Wednesday the therapists came up and said its too hard to work down there- the ground it saturated and muddy. At the same time the demolition company was breaking down the cement gate surround- a huge concrete bridge like thing across the top of gate necessary to get the big trucks in to continue removing rubble from another level. Its just too unsafe to have patients entering and leaving with trucks coming and going and the muddy roads so now its really time. They will spend the rest of the week letting patients know that the tent is closed and that we well make radio announcements when the new clinic is open for business.

I've pretty much figured out that the small frustrations that I tackle on a daily basis are the basis of the big picture of Haiti's infrastructure. But I also know given the chance and opportunity, Haiti can move forward to building something better. Take garbage for instance. I bought ~finally~ 2 very expensive garbage cans. One is for 'wet' garbage for composting and the other is for paper/ plastic burnables. I do spot checks every couple mornings and have to remind the cooks of the rules and they are getting it. Now I will have to get the compost area set up and get the boys to comprehend the difference. Now that I write this, a couple of things occur to me...one is that any compost pile we start is going to be dinner for the pigs. and the rats. and the chicken. and maybe even the kids looking for something edible. So how do I solve this problem? Most likely it will end up in the river bed for the pigs, goats, chickens and rats. But I hope not the kids.

We ran out of water yesterday afternoon...apparently a water pipe up by the neighbor has broken and its one of two feeding city water to our cistern. I don't know what happened to the secondary pipe- most likely the same fate. The point is some one knew but waited until we ran out to let me know what was going on. So a day and a half without water and 20 some people here is a little frustration. We bought one truck load of expensive water and then found some less expensive water- its all good now. But a little foresight knowing the pipes was broken and not likely to be fixed soon, we could have bought and filled the tank before it became dry as a bone. Using some type of metal pipe would probably help prevent another problem but I doubt that will be the case. On the bright side, we had enough rain water in the pool to pull buckets of water to flush the toilets this morning.

Let the thunder roll...