Camera Roll

Looking over the past few months on the pictures on my phone, I wanted to share some of them and what we've been doing in everyday life.  So here is our "camera roll" of events and non-events :)

Before Lee and Desma left, they had all the hospital employees up to their house for suppers, divided into several groups.  Our family was invited the nights that they had the yard and garage guys (who David works with) and the surgery ladies (who I work with).  They were both nights of lots of good food and fun games!

Hot potato!

Surgery, sterilization, and lab ladies and families.

We built a swing set in our yard, and it is much to Orrin's delight.  He looooves swinging!

Just a bedtime story....or 32!

We have lots of kids that come play in our yard...small groups like this are good, but when it gets to about 30+ it gets a little too stressful for me....

Baseball!  Orrin's newest favorite sport...and he's not half bad!

We got our gates and porch painted this summer and Orrin was pretty intrigued.  He spent several hours out watching and talking, and then pretty soon took up a spare brush and joined in.

He spent days out there, and made a new friend!

The surgeon is doing a skin graft on an amputation here.  The patient was an elderly woman who had a diabetic wound requiring a below-knee amputation and a several month hospital stay.  She had a successful skin graft and was discharged a few weeks later.  It was a pretty neat surgery!

Our rock climber.  Totally not afraid of anything :)

Poolside chicken.  Crazy girl.

Orrin's first job started out kind of by accident.  One evening a young girl came by with "senk gourd" and wanted to buy ice.  The next night she came back, and the next.  I know a few other community people with electricity sell ice, so they must not be keeping up with the demand now that it's hot out.  So Orrin got a job filling bags of ice and refilling ice trays, taking money and giving bags of ice at the door.  And every once in a while he can go to the little market up by the hospital and get a sucker!

MSPP (Haiti's ministry of Health) came and built this building and incinerator around the time we moved to Haiti.  Unfortunately, before it was totally completed, the man who was involved in the project was killed in an accident.  So we've spent this time not using the incinerator because we didn't think we had all the parts.  We finally did more research on it, and found out we were probably good to go.  So one day I skipped out on surgery with a full box of sharps, and David and I tried it out.  It worked good, and so hopefully we can get a system down to get the sharps disposed of correctly...because it has been a problem area!

Watching dad working on the roads with the tractor!

Just a nap in the summer air.

Orrin was going up to the basketball court with David one afternoon, but didn't want to wait.  David caught up with him about at the top of the hill...and Orrin carried his bike all the way up by himself!!!

We had Roselyn and Vania come visit again for a week.  We took them to the beach one Saturday, and ended up taking a spontaneous adventure...a boat ride to an island with an old French fort, two sunken ships, and beautiful water!

The island we went to for the day....they brought us all our water, food, and then caught us lobster, and cooked it for us to eat too!

 One of the old sunken ships...a great place to snorkel!

 The fort...a good place to come and explore!

 It turned pretty cold and started raining.  We were slightly freezing by the time we left!

 The boat we traveled in :)

There was even a playground (on the mainland) that Orrin wanted to play on before we left.  In the background is a huge soccer field with bleachers!

Cassia's first Haitian braids :)

David and I have a few classes we have to keep up on to keep our Paramedic license (in addition to testing every other year).  We went to Port in July for an Advanced Cardiac Life Support renewal course at Haiti Air Ambulance.  While we were there, they mentioned they had a defibrillator that someone had donated to them and it needed a home.  We very happily took it home with us and after some training, it is now in our OR!

We were invited for supper one evening to "Plattop Grill" :)  It was a great evening with *amazing* grilled pizzas, company, and games!

Looking back, we've had lots of fun times these past few months!  We also have had other good times with locals...eating out, having a Father's Day celebration with some local dad's....but no pics :)  I would love to post pictures of all the things we do with the people of Haiti, but I have to choose very carefully what pictures to put out there.  To us, these are our friends.  These are our neighbors.  I know they want their privacy respected, and I need to respect that privacy as we seek to build relationships.  So unfortunately, if I have doubts, we will not always have documentation of all the good times :(  We are thankful for all the good memories, and also thankful for a safe trip back to the States for our furlough!