The Captain and the Boss are back from an exciting trip to St. Marc. I got to drive and of course our armed guard Richard came as well. No cruise control allowed on these roads. You go from swerving to avoid the crazy helmet-less motorcyclists, pedestrians, potholes, massive speed bumps and animals and then accelerate to pass an overloaded truck. The drivers are aggressive and continual use of horns is mandatory. I loved it!!
Our route took us past chaotic traffic jams and markets.
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| Traffic jam and a market |
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| Market area traffic |
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| Keith, you can get us through this |
…….as well as some very lush countryside
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| Overloaded TapTap – public transportation |
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| Countryside between the mission and St. Marc |
The goal of our trip was to take Ti-Fi, 12 years old to the doctor. She was very pleased to be going in the truck on a trip with Mama and without the other kids but was a little nervous too.
Dr. Valery was very nice and we were in and out in no time. Dr. Valery used to work at the local hospital and Karen found him to be a competent, caring pediatrician. He moved to St. Marc a few years ago and has a practice “The Clinic du Sacre Coeur”. Karen finds it more convenient/faster to take the children to see him. Three stops at pharmacies and we had the prescriptions and headed back to the ranch.
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| Ti Fi going to St. Marc to see the doctor |
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| Ti Fi a little nervous waiting to see the doctor |
The rest of the day was filled with odd jobs. I managed to look busy without really accomplishing anything. (I learned that trick from the best – guys like Pearo, Fagner and the master: Heron!)
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| Keith helping anywhere and everywhere |
I’m still working on the blackboard for the boy’s house, repairing some benches and putting together the new songbooks, etc. etc. Karen was trying to cook, I mean balance, the books for last month.
I drafted Moise and JJ to help me move 40 boxes of food for the school kids’ lunches to the storage depot. HATS had a shipment of food supplements donated by Kids against Hunger in the USA. Shipping was paid by a donation from HATS friends, in Africa and Montreal; Dr. Olle and Barbara and Louis. The 40 boxes will last about two weeks and the shipment should last a year and a half.
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| Moise helping Keith with food for school students |
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| Takes work to feed 300 students five days a week |
No rain today so it will be a hot and noisy sleep on the roof.
~Keith
