Monday August 16

Monday: High 38.4 Low 27.4

Today was interesting. I worked on a few different odds and ends, putting electrical wall plates on filling water jugs, (a daily job so patients and staff have drinking water) and a few lights (that’s on going). My roommates and I went on a little excursion out of the compound and down the street to the Grocery Store where I bought a real loaf of brown bread, two tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, laundry soap, beverage flavour crystals, mayo and a box of Corn Flakes which cost me about $20.00. I also bought some little flat buns and some tasty muffin type buns from a street vendor.

This afternoon I was talking with Jeanty, (pronounced Jon-tee), one of our faithful Haitian translators/ social worker/ good will ambassador, about whether he knew of someone who could cut my hair. He said yes he did and would call and see if and when he could do it. A few minutes later he caught me and said, “my friend will be here in ten minutes.” He assured me he could cut straight hair. Bernard the Barber

Bernard arrived a while later with two combs and a razor blade. I asked if he had ever cut straight hair before and he said he had so we found an empty room and went at it. We didn’t have a mirror so Jeanty would take pictures of the progress with his cell phone and show them

to me for my input. He was incredible with that razor blade. I kept thinking he was either going to cut me or himself in the process but neither happened. He even gave me a shave as well with that blade just held in his hand. He only asked $15.00 for it and everyone here seemed to think it was a great cut.

Jeanty, his Fiance and Bernard

Since Jeanty knows most of the people around here and the patients and their conditions and situations, the volunteers quite often rely on him to distribute things that they have brought down here to leave behind for people that need them. I had told him a few days ago that I had a tent for someone if he knew of a need. After the hair cut, Jeanty pulled me aside and told me Bernard needed a tent and that if I wanted to give it to him I should get it and come with him and his girl friend as they were going to travel with Bernard. So I grabbed it and my camera and we left the hospital compound and down the hill two blocks to the main street. Jeanty flagged A Tap Tap (in this case a small old Toyota pickup) with 8 or 9 people already in it, and on we got. Three more people climbed on before we got to our destination. We walked several blocks to where Bernard’s family were camped where he greatfully accepted the tent, then on to Jeanty’s girlfriend’s house where she broke out a watermelon for us. Jeanty then showed me his church and the school that it supports with 8 to 9 hundred students, then back on a Tap Tap to the hospital.

Typical little Tap Tap

When we returned, I got to listen in on the last half of a School Board meeting in Bella Coola by Skype. It was a little choppy and at times hard to hear the members comments but on the whole surprisingly good for the state of our internet lately.