Our Day Off

We had a good day, but it was exhausting! Susan, Nancy and I (along with our interpreter, Guy) went to The Citadel which is a tourist place (though I did not see another white person where we were) so everywhere you go people want to do things for you or sell things to you. It was insane. When we first arrived two guys were walking with us and we realized one was trying to be our guide (which means we would have to pay him). We finally had to be rude and say we were not paying for a guide. He said ok and stayed with us for awhile. Of course we all gave him a few bucks because we felt bad. When the first guy left the second guy tried to smooth his way in. We said absolutely not, we were not paying for a guide. Then you have to go through this locked fence and we wondered if we should have given that guy a tip, especially when we came back down the hill and had to wait a very long time for someone to come back to unlock the gate.

We were told it was a 7 mile walk to the top of the Citadel, we didn't want to ride a horse up (or pay for it) and we didn't want to pay for a motorcycle, so we just walked for about a mile. It was killer. We were followed by the horses and motorcycles for almost a half mile. I'm sure they thought we were some crazy blanco chicks. We kept trying to tell them no, go away (in creole) and that we didn't plan to walk the whole way to the top. They just kept following us, I’m sure they thought we were going to give in and ask them for a ride. But guess who won? I felt so claustrophobic surrounded by all those men and stinky horses walking up that hill in the heat, I was so happy they finally went away.

On the way down some random guy was walking with us and talking to us and then out of nowhere he's carrying these paintings and trying to sell them. He was driving me crazy! I made him my final offer and he wouldn't back off. Then he tried to threaten me that he was going to go back home...haha. I must look like a sucker, because no one would leave me alone.

After coming down the hill we walked a little through the town. It was a quaint little town, the buildings were nice and colorful and the streets were cleaner with sidewalks. We were looking for a place to eat or buy souvenirs, but when I saw a pan of chicken feet I wanted to go into Cap Haitien and find something a little more reliable. Our driver and interpreter didn't know of anyplace in the town so that was not reassuring either. We ended up going to the same restaurant we ate at last week.

After lunch we went to a supermarket downtown. Nearly no fresh fruit or vegetables. Very limited supply of food in general. We wanted to buy some fruit so we were going to go to the outdoor market across the corner but decided not to. It was very intimidating to be in the middle of town surrounded by all those people. And the smell is retched! On our drive home we stopped on the side of the road but all we could find were grapefruit and lime. Nancy bought three coconuts for a dollar.

We dropped off our interpreter to run some errands so I sat in the front seat on the way home. I got a chance to videotape the drive because you really can not believe the way people drive here. The other day we were driving somewhere and we almost had a head on with a huge tanker! Susan said it seemed like I was getting used to the driving. I think I'm getting used to a lot of things around here. I am still in awe of so much, but am aware that my reactions are much less than the first few days I was here.

When we arrived home the students were still doing pediatric clinics. I found out that the little baby I saw last week with severe nutrition deficiency was in the clinic, so I sat in on the rest of her appointment. We saw her last Monday and asked her sister to take her to the hospital and come back on Thursday and we did not see her back until today. I'm glad to see her bring her back, but things are not improving. She is 7 months old and now weighs 10 pounds, having lost 6 more ounces in the last week and a half. The plan for now is to have her return early tomorrow morning and Marie will accompany them to the hospital. We need to have blood work done to find out exactly what is going on.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Haiti. Hard to believe my time is coming to an end. It has been amazing.