beach day.

Thank God for Sabbath. For those of you who haven't heard the hospital I am working at is Adventist, so they take their Sabbath on Saturdays. Very little, if anything, goes on at the hospital on this day and while it proves frustrating for patients and family members awaiting surgery, it is a blessing to be able to have a break.

Yesterday following the church service I went along with about six other volunteers to a beach about two hours from us. Two hours being Haitian time, and after our drive out of the way to the Project Hope compound and a flat tire change we were at the beach for about two and a half hours. It was well worth the wait. I've heard tales of muddy beaches and rocky shores in Haiti, but this place was amazing. It was clearly a resort for white people costing $15 US for entry.

The water was clear and beautiful and for the first time I felt as though I was in the Caribbean.

The went swimming, ate hamburgers and enjoyed getting to know each other, although sadly, most of those volunteers left this morning.

I am now beginning to realize Brooke's exhaustion with re-orienting a new doctor every week. Dr Pat and his Ortho team seemed to just have everything under control when their time came to an end. Dr Rich rounded with just me this morning (the crew dropped from about seven people to two in one day) and he seems flexible and ready to go.

Please pray that the Haitian anesthesiologists are open to working hard this week so that we can get some of the 16 surgeries on the list finished. We only got six accomplished last week.

As far as figuring out what my role is going to be here it seems to all be falling into place. I am working directly with the Surgeon volunteers making sure that their patients are ready in pre-op (labs, xrays, EKGs) and moving towards discharge in post-op. I am helping them schedule surgeries and will be working with the Haitian nurses and OR coordinator to make sure they get done. I also update the hospital census daily, right now we only have about 45 inpatients.

All in all life in Haiti has been going well. I am beginning to establish some routine and feel as though things are are being accomplished.