Storms on Horizen?

The team from Chicago left this morning and the final team member from the Vancouver, British Columbia team also left. The Chicago team split into two groups, one group of 4 went to the southern peninsula area of Fond des Blanc and Les Cayes while the other 3 stayed in Port au Prince to work. All had a pretty successful week.

With the announcement that Wyclef Jean would not be allowed to run for president, word was out among the NGO's that their might be manifestations however nothing materialized. Maybe they will wait until Monday or tuesday to make their 'statement' fas a fas to the government during the busiest time of day; blocking traffic and disrupting morning commutes is surely going to get them noticed and the attention of the electoral commission. The list of candidates came out very late Friday night and there is just 15 or so names on the list. Michael 'Sweet Mickey" is one of them. This is about half the nubbier that ran in 2006. There is at least one woman but since I haven't seen the list, I can't say more than that. Our hip hop duo candidates are down to a hip now.

We had a pretty decent storm on Tuesday late afternoon. Thunder, lightning, wind and rain...I'd rate it about a 4 out of 10, mostly because it only lasted about an hour Still I had dirt and water deposited in my office. I took a video of it for 2 minutes. If it will load, I will post it. There as been a few rain showers through the week but nothing nearly worth mention. But with hurricane season, you can't look beyond the horizon - we still have to be vigilant to all kinds of storms.. whether its by mother nature or in the hands of the people in the way of manifestations. Stay tuned.

a view from my desk which is a little messy this morning but I have a goal of decreasing the clutter today. It sometimes appears as if a cyclone hit it!

The view from my office..
The collection corner- everything collects here including a map of PaP, files, first aid kits, crayons, an umbrella, bungi cords, my computer bag, pills someone left, printer paper, mosquito coils, licorice, artwork, duct tape.....another storm ravaged area. Really it looks like the tide rolled in a left a deposit.
across from my desk in another corner is a collection of wheelchairs, boxes of kitchen sets for discharged patients from SCI unit, A large wrapped bags of 200 mosquito nets, and miscellaneous other items stuck there. I can't blame a storm on this corner.
Gracie is almost 6 months old. She comes into my office to nap or see what is going on...she is a happy puppy, likes to play and chew and unfortunately nip your ankles when you walk. She knows better than to bite me but still in the puppy stage, she forgets quickly, unfortunately for my ankles. or my heels. or my fingers....Deb calls her shark. She likes to hang out in the kitchen, hoping one of the staff will drop some treats for her.
Playground on Delmas 33, somedays its full of happy children and a joy to watch them having some playtime. It always makes me smile.
Hmmm, who thinks Body Perfect is the gym to join?
On Saturday we took a drive to Croix des Bouquets area to buy some plants for the pool patio area. Unfortunately, on Saturdays they close at noon. the man in charge was kind enough to give us a tour of the farm although I certainly didn't ask enough questions. It is quite a large beautiful farm and very unexpected. They have all sorts of plants and trees and its called Great Harvest I think. Quite like something you would see in the states.
They have a tilapia and koi 'farm' as well with about 6 tanks filled with fish. Obviously filled as this picture indicates... They also have chickens-hundreds of them. The babies fill one shed and the hens another. They aren't very good looking and I tried not to think about this too much. I'm not ready to give up eating poultry or eggs. For this reason, I'm not posting any pictures of them. Again, I'm pretty sure it is no different than a poultry factory in the US.

Its been a quiet day although I did make an airport run to pick up Fiona, a nurse from England that has been in Haiti since January as well. She first worked in Port au Prince for a number of weeks, then moved to Cap Haitian where she has helped put the SCI unit of Haiti Hospital Appeal in good working order with Haitian staff (with the help of many HHH/ TCHH volunteers) . They have done a fabulous job of caring for the more than 25 SCI patients they've cared for over the months, half of whom have been discharged mostly to the PaP area. The spinal cord injury patients are living and surviving in tents just as all of the uninjured persons of Haiti continue to do more than 7 months after the earthquake.

I've got just one more stack of papers to search through and file and I'll be ready for the week ahead.