Haitian Lunch Box

This morning was normal clinic hours. We did some mandarin sign language performances throughout the morning, but overall it was very peaceful. It was super hot and many people were having heat strokes at the clinic. It was a very hard sight to see, because it is literally one moment the person is fine and talking to you to the next second they are lying on the ground without any warning. Their mouths are opened and signs of wheezing are present. They cannot be woken up and we have to force re-hydration fluids down their throats. It is almost like a surreal moment, seeing how the body shuts down on itself so fast and furiously. We probably had a total of 5 people with heat stroke episodes already in the morning shifts. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. We even had a doctor who had heat stroke, as well. Talk about relating with your patient!

I have wanted to try the local Haitian foods for a while now, but never really had a chance. We are suppose to eat at the compound for all 3 meals each day, but I wanted to experience the Haiti experience in its purest form. So our driver, Peter, took me to one of his favorite take-out places in Port-au-Prince. They were doing take-out boxes when we arrived there. It was a surprise. Haha. Peter stopped the truck right in front of a red double-door and got out of the car alone. I thought that he was going to his house to get something for me, but then he came out like 3 minutes later and told me to get out of the car with him. I stepped passed the double-doors and what do I find????? A whole team of cooks making Haitian lunch boxes. JACK POT! I was so excited. I couldn't contain my excited and literally felt myself jump up and down with joy. Everyone was laughing. So they were making lunch boxes to deliver to people around the town. The lunch box contained: Green veggies/peppers, onions with hot pepper oils, beets/carrots/potato salad, black bean rice, and fried banana. It cost 100 Gouda or $3 USD. It's considered super expensive here, since they make it for the NGOs here, but to me that was priceless to taste that. It was sooooooo sooooo good. yummy. thank you Peter, you always know how to make me smile when I am down. They really love Bananas here, since they have a huge amount of them...same with Mangoes....yum.

During the afternoon, we did a recon with the Brazilian army. We have a distribution tomorrow, so we have to take the army to assess the situation first. It was funny. The army for some reason always asks to take photos with me. "Photo photo me my friend. Photo?" It is quite the experience, but it gives me a lot of souvenirs to keep. The recon was a-go, I cannot wait till the distribution tomorrow. I will be hosting the whole event...singing will be part of my job....so excited...might not be able to sleep.