Some people have asked where I am staying. I have the same bedroom I had when I was here in 2014. The school teacher and the white nurse have bedrooms on the yard but not in the house. The building where our bedrooms are also has a school room on one end. The Haitian nurses stay in Keith's house and Jay and his family have a house on the same yard also. We have a garden, a small shop and some beautiful green grass. There is an outhouse and a cistern for each house. Then the whole area is surrounded by a fence. There are some banana trees close by the fence but they do not go all the way around the yard so it is partially private but not completely. 

     Jay and Brianna have four girls- Lydia is 8, Ellie is 6, Joanna is 3, and Adeline is 1. The weather has been absolutely beautiful! It has been getting into the lower 60's at night so a sweater is a must. During the day it usually gets into the 70's. Next weeks' predicted low is 55* and the high is 77* so the weather is gorgeous! 

      As life always does, plans change. Roseline's dad got sick and was in the hospital so she went down to Port-au-Prince Friday to be with her family. She didn't have a ride down first thing in the morning so she came to the clinic and saw a few patients before heading down. So I was on my own on Friday. I thought it went pretty well. When we were finished I asked the girl who works with me if she had a headache from working with me and needing to explain so many things to me and she said she didn't so... We did have a baby who needed oxygen that we kept at the clinic the whole time we were there, then took them to a small house nearby where they could stay for the night as the baby still needed to be on oxygen. Chancela pretty much took care of that and I observed. We checked back in on them just before dark and gave the baby some more medication and a neb treatment. She seemed to be doing pretty well, just needed a little bit of oxygen. I guess they sent her home the next morning, I wasn't there when they checked on her.

     Saturday was my birthday. It is also market day in Foret des Pins (forest of pines). We always went to market on Saturday when I was here before- to get lunch and the "outing" as much as anything. We normally hired someone to take us on moto- on Saturday the road between Foret and Oriani is full of motos carrying people and supplies back and forth. There are always numerous motos waiting on each end of the route. It was always the highlight of the week. The ride there is just beautiful, through the forest of pines most of the way. One interesting tidbit... so the roads here are not good at all. Huge potholes, washed out places from rain, you name it... I had the pedometer turned on on my phone and several times when we have been driving somewhere- either in the machinn or on moto- we have been going slow enough that the pedometer picks up and starts counting steps😆 I did some laundry in the morning. By that time, Chancela had already gone to Foret. I wanted to go but it has been six years since I was there so I didn't really want to go by myself. I was trying to decide if I was brave enough to go alone when someone came to the gate who had been in a moto accident. I guess another moto hit them and this young lady had a large wound on her head  that obviously needed stitching. Jay normally does the night and weekend emergencies but I stood around and tried to help him get this girl ready to be stitched up then gathered a couple of medicines for her while Jay did the stitching. I finally asked Jay and Brianna if Lydia could go with me to Foret and they agreed so we walked into Oriani and hired someone to take us. The "five star" restaurant has moved to the next building over but still had the same good food. They had more options available than I remembered. We chose mayi kole. The mayi part is almost like grits then it also has beans and legim (vegetables) and a chicken leg. Drink options are stashed in an old freezer with some pieces of ice here and there. They aren't cold, but they aren't room temperature either. Of course I chose a Toro. I didn't need to do any shopping so we wandered around the market for a few minutes then headed home. I studied Creole for a while in the afternoon. For supper Jay grilled chicken and Brianna made a lettuce salad, fried rice, and a chocolate cake. It was delicious! A good birthday- with people I have known for one week. 😊 They had even gotten a couple of presents for me- a candle, a pedicure set, (from Lydia) and some money. I told Lydia she is going to have to teach me how to use the pedicure set because I'm not sure how to use all the little instruments.  I think she is looking forward to that!