Just a little more of the same...

     This week we didn't see anything too unusual. A lady did come in with a large mass on her back that looked like a cyst though. She said it had been there for 26 years already and didn't really bother her. We asked her if she wanted us to try and drain it and she did. I got out the lidocaine and we numbed it up good and attempted to drain it but were unsuccessful. It seemed to be filled with thick, yellow fat. I've read that that type of cyst grows kind of in a capsule and if you don't get all of the outside capsule out it will grow back again so we just quit. Told her she would need to see a surgeon to have it removed.
    Several days later the man came back that also had a large mass on his back. We had taken him down for surgery because over the course of about 10 days I had drained of over 100 ml of nasty looking fluid. We hadn't heard back from him since he went down. I asked him to take off his shirt so we could see what they had done... And they hadn't done one single thing to help this man. He needs this thing cut open to find out why the fluid keeps accumulating. We aren't even sure that any doctor saw him. They told him they couldn't do anything for him because the doctors that were there right then were eye doctors. I can see why an eye doctor wouldn't want to touch it but we know there is a Haitian doctor who works at that hospital who could have done something. But they didn't so... We are again looking for a general surgeon. When we find one we hope we can convince this man to go down to the hospital for another try.
      The CSI couple from Woche Blanche are leaving on the 26th of  January so this weekend the missionaries from Oriani, Savann Mouton, Jeremie and Woche Blanche got together for a farewell for them. Greg and Paula Goossen from Saskatchewan are here to take their place. Paula and I were together in Window Rock, Arizona also.
     April and I came down to Port with Trev and Mirlene on Friday and we were planning to go fabric shopping and buy medication for the clinic. But, the machine got us to Ganthier where Mirlene's folks live and quit. Actually it barely made it there. So we sat around and waited while Trevor tried to figure out what the problem was. He called Keith about what was going on and then we found out that there are going to be riots in Port this weekend. The American Embassy or someone had emailed him and were advising all "whites" to stay out of Port all weekend. So that crashed our original plans of fabric shopping down by the iron market while Trevor bought meds. Trevor thought he had it figured out what was the matter with the machine so Todd was going to bring him the parts he needed later that afternoon. Mirlene, April and I were getting pretty bored so we decided to take taptap and do some fabric shopping in Croix-des-Bouquet market. We walked down the street a ways to where the taptaps stop but weren't having any luck finding one with even close to enough room for three more people so we hired a moto to take us further up the road to the next stop. Here too everything seemed to be full or was going the opposite direction. Finally a truck stopped that was empty and the driver hollered that he was headed to Croix-des-Bouquet so we jumped in. It was an eventful ride with several people attempting to balance themselves on stools that were not attached to the truck bed. We got there though and got several pieces of fabric each. The ride back was in a minivan type machine with LOUD music. Then this morning after Trev got the machine fixed we were gonna try to at least go to a smaller pharmacy and get a few meds but alas, we were only about a mile down the road and the machine is making a bad noise again. This time Trevor says there are bigger problems and so we can't even drive the machine at all until it is fixed. Were we ever glad then that we had taken the chance yesterday and got some fabric. We will have to catch rides back up to Oriani but that shouldn't be a problem. I guess Trev will have to come down someday next week for meds.
     Keith got a ticket for me the other day to return to the U.S.  on February 11th. I'm happy and sad about it. We still haven't been able to find someone to take my place. Any volunteers?