A little catching up

So, I could hardly believe when I logged on to update my blog and realized I have not blogged since the 5th!!! Sorry!!!

Things have been really busy, more than usual if you can believe it, and sitting and waiting for photos to load onto blogger(which takes FOREVER!!) has not really sounded to exciting at the end of the day!!
We had a bunch of kids get sick at the same time with colds and fevers, and there was a lot to do. Then in the midst of all of that one of the young men that works here came down with what we think is Typhoid, and things were pretty scary for a couple of days! He's on the mend now though, thanks to many prayers and Melinda's know how!! In the midst of all that, there was/is pink eye of sorts going around Haiti, and workers have been missing work due to this, and that always makes things busier, making sure things are being covered!! I even managed to get another weird infection on my leg...me and Amoxycillin are becoming best friends!!
Things seem to be quieting down now though...our group of volunteers is starting to dwindle down now though, and I'm gonna miss a lot of great people(and all their help)!! Two girls left last week, then another this past Tuesday, and Louise and Julian are leaving next week!! That will leave us two long term girls, as well as another girl leaving on the 7th...then my friend Kristy arrives on the 14th!!! I'm really looking forward to that!!

















Joanna, Wilclair and Wiltosso with their "bling"!

Story time!! So, last week Louise and I headed down Goat Mountain(the terribly fun smooth mountain road!!) along with two gals who were leaving. After dropping them off we spent the day running errands that for some reason took way too long that day, and didn't start to leave Port-au-Prince until about 5:30, which means that by the time we actually got out of the city it was 6:15 or so, and we hit the bottom of the mountain by 6:40, which was way too late, but there we were!! I had called Melinda to let her know we were a bit later than usual, and she said if we wanted we could stay in Port, but I said that we'd be fine...silly me!! Tiblan, a guy who drives for us a lot, and is known far and wide by any volunteer that has ever been here as a fast driver was driving that day, and we headed up the mountain fast enough to make my eyes widen(his driving usually doens't bother me too much)!! After a few exclamations by Louise and I as we hit and flew over some bumps rather hard, the other Haitain guy in the truck(my friend Jojo) proceeded to let us know we were going fast because we were in an area where once dark hits bandits like to stop trucks and rob people and other such niceties!! We continued to go quickly!!! After a few more sections of the road being passed at a very fast rate, our progress came to a halt behind a long row of trucks all stuck behind a huge truck stuck up to its wheel wells in mud!! Unbeknownst to us, we would be sitting in that line for the next 6 1/2 hours, thankful for the groceries in the back of the truck, but wishing we had stopped to buy water at the half way point!! There was a good deal of laughter and groaning that went on, as well as some interesting trips to the "bathroom" conveniantly located right beside the truck, with too many spectators to count. The funny thing was, after all of our driving quickly past the not so safe spots, we got stuck in the line up right behind a police truck...interesting, huh...definitely got someone looking out for us!!

The little peanut(Jessica)

I got to go on a mini holiday!!!

All of us volunteers got together and decided to take 30 hours or so and spend some time at Kalico Beach. It's a "resort" by Haitian standards about 3 hours from Mirebalais, where for 2 half days and one night we were able to escape. It was the first real break I'd had since arriving and it was wonderful!! We swam in the ocean, drank cold CocaCola, almost got stung my jellyfish(that was exciting), soaked in the sun(don't worry mom, I put sunscreen on this time!!) and just enjoyed hanging out!

Here's a few pics of our time there...I'll put more on facebook...or maybe try this flickr thing people keep telling me about so they are right here on my blog...we'll see how that works out!

Louise and I...and there was a sunset somewhere back there..good old self portraits!!!

It's hard for me to believe that on the 7th I'll have ben here for 4 months...I have no idea where the time has been going!! A couple arrived here last week that was here this summer and the lady said that she relaly noticed a change in the kids since they were last here...that was really great to hear! It's hard to see changes when you are in the midst of things, so it's really nice to know that the efforts we have been making are becoming noticeable noticable (whatever!) in the kids behaviour!
We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday...a month late or so for us Canadians but the turkey was awesome!! Yes, we managed to get a turkey, and even had all the fixings including pumpkin pie and that kinda nice yet slightly uncomfortable full feeling at the end of it all!! So Happy American Thanksgiving to you all!!
I've been realizing that many of you have no idea what this place looks like, so I'll try and post some pics to give you an idea...
Hopefully you feel a little caught up, cuz as of now my alloted time on the computer is over!