Clean Team, Dirty Team

To recap last night when we signed off with us going to nightly devotions.  As usual, Liz lead an inspirational devotional with many thought-provoking questions including, "Why Haiti?  Why now?"  This provided many of the veterans (Paul, Greer, Jim, Sarah) and our new-comers (Marilyn and Tish) an opportunity to share their perspectives.  Following devotionals, most people passed out from exhaustion, while Poker-Face Yvette took the rest of us to the cleaners in a rousing game of "On My Honor."  Some of us think Mark made it up on the spot.  (high probability)

This morning started with 6:00 a.m. stretching lead by Tish and joined by Tom "Stretch" DeMik, Paul, Greer, and Marilyn.  Fueled by an awesome breakfast by Bert, we made our sandwiches for lunch (they even had grapefruit jelly)!  We stole the title of today's blog from Roberta who remarked as we left for the Health Clinic, "there goes the clean team; we look forward to seeing the dirty team when you return."  And she was right!

As we got closer to the Village of Hope on National Route 1, the Health Clinic became visible in the distance.  As we drove up to the Health Clinic, exclamations of shock and awe were heard from all.  After a tour of the Health Clinic, lead by Bert, we quickly formed teams to perform the following tasks: sanding, cleaning, painting, taping, mopping, vacuuming, scraping, and singing (who let the dogs out? Jim, Tish, and Mark!).  While the building was cool, the work was hard, and needless to say, it was a good thing we bounced our way home in an open-air truck.  The quote of the day from Paul after inquiring if we were staying hydrated was, "It's better to have to pee, than not."  Go figure!  While we got a lot accomplished, there is still more to do.  The target opening day is early April.  We are so excited that we are contributing to the completion of the  Health Center so it can open as scheduled.  More of the same is scheduled for tomorrow.

While some of you are enjoying pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, we enjoyed a fantastic meal of Haitian beef stew, potat (Haitian potato), acra (taro root ground up with spices and then fried) and salad.  Some of those on the trip are outside their culinary comfort zone but are enjoying it nonetheless.

We are off to another devotional, this time lead by Sarah (no pressure) followed by a vigorous game of spoons!  Tish has warned us that there is no mercy when she's involved in this game.

Good night!