This is going to be a very long post about an incredible weekend...I took way too many pictures so I'll just put up the best ones!
Friday we went to clinic just for the morning session. I only saw 2 patients, but I also helped make my first ever hand splints out of a couple old wrist braces and some velcro...pretty cool! We came back to the guest house around noon, packed our bags, and then waited for our driver to pick us up so we could head to Club Indigo. It's only about 50 miles from where we are in Port-Au-Prince, but it took almost 3 hours to drive there because of bad road conditions & traffic from manifestations.
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| "night club" on our way...haha |
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| the saddest, skinniest cows i've ever seen |
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| normal driving in Haiti |
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| gorgeous mountains on the way |
We made it to Indigo around 4:30 and checked in, then went right down to the beach. It was absolute paradise!! Made me feel incredibly guilty though, after seeing all the poor villages we drove through on the way and the kids on the side of the road with no shoes trying to sell us water and fruit...ugh. Here are some pictures of the grounds...
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| wooo made it! |
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| my room at club indigo! |
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| view from my window |
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| more of the view |
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| beautiful mountains! |
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| :) |
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| snack bar on the beach |
We walked along the beach for a while collecting shells & just taking it all in. Jessica (the OT from Boston) & I got some delicious tropical drinks & we all just swam and relaxed on the beach until sunset.
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| beautiful bar by the pool |
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| yummy tropical drinks! |
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| where we parked ourselves for the evening! |
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| :) |
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| we had the beach all to ourselves! |
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| view from the water |
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| gorgeous sunset!! |
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That night we had delicious dinner and sat around talking about the best & worst parts of our trip, since they were leaving this weekend. I said the worst part has been being here and seeing how much of a need there is, and just feeling like I'm not doing enough. Jan, the woman who has been coming to Haiti for 15 years, said that it always feels like that, and you just have to focus on what you're doing in the moment and know that it's appreciated. That helped my attitude a bit! After that, we hung out in the bar and listened to some live Haitian music - so good!! As we were looking around, we noticed at least 10+ armed guards with huge guns - turns out President Martelly was there! I didn't take any pictures of the guards, since they didn't look too happy to begin with...
The next morning we got up early and had a huge breakfast, then spent the morning on the beach swimming and looking for shells! I even got a coconut from one of the workers :)
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| YUM |
We left the resort around 1pm and drove about 15 minutes away to an orphanage that Kathleen has been supporting for the past few years. I can't even explain how amazing these children were! Supposedly there were between 10-20 orphans, but there must have been 30 kids there! They were so polite and sweet - every single one came up to greet us and introduce themselves. The orphanage itself was tiny and sparse, but it was full of beautiful paintings that all of the kids had done! We spent 2 hours there playing with them, taking pictures, and just talking to them. It broke my heart to leave, knowing that this is how they spend their days. We don't know how lucky we are at home - these kids share 1 or 2 mattresses and didn't go to school this week because they don't have any shoes. Really gives you some perspective...
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| these 3 LOVED to pose for pictures! |
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| the boys were shy |
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| the "kitchen" |
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| Xavier & I with his paintings! |
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| loved these kids... |
We left the orphanage around 3pm and started our 2 hour drive home. As we passed through the villages along the way home, we realized it was market day! There were so many donkeys carrying people and food, and everyone carries huge baskets on their heads. I managed to get a few pictures from the car window...
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| carrying FURNITURE on her head! |
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| wheelbarrow of sugarcane |
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| so many plantains! |
We also saw a bunch more tent cities, and some typical Haitian driving...
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| this one wasn't even that full!! |
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| crazy. |
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| still so many people without real homes... |
Today we spent the day watching football, drinking beer, and having bratwurst!! We projected the games onto the living room wall from our laptops haha.
Phew! Sorry for the ridiculously long post. Thank you to everyone that has been reading this!! It makes me happy that I can share everything with all of you :)
xo
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