Tuesday, August 28, 2007

So after a very good night of rest, I got up all excited for the plumber to get here and get my glasses for me. While I was waiting for him to show up I managed, with the help of one of my metal hangers (sorry mom), to get the towel out of the drain. So, the plumber was supposed to be here at 8 and by the time Roland and I were done eating breakfast and 10 had rolled around we figured he was in St. Louis doing some work. Not wanting to put off our day any longer, we walked to the tap tap (taxi) station to catch a ride to St. Louis. This was the most interesting taxi ride I had ever taken. Try and envision this: a two door Mazda pick-up truck with a six foot bed. Put planks of wood around the edge of the truck bed (for people to sit on), and then put two men in the front with the driver, a father mother and there toddler in the small backseat those things have, and then 8 women and 10 men in the bed of the truck. This was the way I rode 9 mile to St. Louis today. About have way there we had to stop because the driver wanted to make everyone pay in advance because he was afraid that the young man with him was going to mess something up with everyone getting on and off. It was interesting to see everyone yelling about when they got and how much they owe and what change they need. Once we got to St. Louise we had to walk a bit to the mission because the taxis only go into town not to individual destinations. While we were walking to the mission this guy stopped Roland and asked him if he could bring his children to the mission when one of the surgical teams was in. Apparently, his roof fell on him and his family and killed one of their kids and injured the other two and he wanted them to be looked at. Roland brought him to the mission with us to talk to Maureen about it. I don’t really know what happened with that. We had lunch at the mission and hung out for a good while, I spent most of it chatting with Maureen, Erin, and the interpreters. At like 230, Reno (the local con man) came into the mission to see me because I bought something from him in April when I was here. He tried to tell me that I promised him I was going to bring him a portable DVD player or a portable CD player. I did not promise him that. We straightened everything out. It’s all good. At about 245 Sergo showed up with a load of supplies and what not off the boat. One of the crates was marked truck shop, so Chuck came up to tell them where it goes. At about 4 Roland and I left and walked downtown to St. Louis to go to the docks with Sergo to pick up some more of our stuff. When we got to the docks it was just as crowed as before, but Sergo managed to find a parking spot. So we just had to wait no until we can fit our truck back into the loading zone. While we were waiting Roland and I checked out some of the sites and mingled with some Haitians. It was fun to see what they did during the day when the boats were here, making everything crowded. We stopped at this Disco club, which had not opened yet and chatted with the owner. It looked like it does well when they are open, pretty nice inside. The next thing I got to do stunk real bad. We were watching all the activity and noticed two guys trying to steer a wheel barrel full of sticks and twigs. Well, it did not go over so well, cause over it went. While we were on our way over to help them gather it up some of the sticks fell in a hole designed to filter rain water back out to the ocean. I had the pleasure of getting in this hole to get out the sticks and MAN WHAT A SMELL. So, it is finally our turn to load up and when we got into the loading zone, the amount of stuff they had for us was amazing. It is going to take at least I say four more trips to finish. This time we loaded up 8 palates stacked with baby formula and 3 other little palates of miscellaneous stuff. Once again as soon as people saw all that food they wanted some of it for free. I get kind of scared in that situation because hungry poor people in America equal a mob and a mob can be very dangerous. As quickly as we can we headed out and began our trip home. About half a mile down the road we had to stop because something was wrong with the truck and Sergo wanted to get it serviced by someone he knew was reliable. It took them like an hour and a half to fix it, while the rest of us were just standing around chillin. Finally back at the orphanage, Roland and I ate some dinner, I got some of my laundry back, the rest will be done tomorrow, and I took a shower and went to my room. While I was checking my email and talking to my dad, I found out that at 1230 am on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 my grandfather died and his service is on Thursday. I am really sad that I will not be able to attend but I am very thankful I made time for him before I left. Now I am going to bed. Peace.