Day 3

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Sundays are a free day of rest for volunteers & there are no clinics. The Union group invited us misfit Canadians to join them on an excursion to a beach on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince.

The destruction from the earthquake in Port-Au-Prince on the way to the beach.

This is what you see everywhere in & around the city

The beach was beautiful, but we decided not to go into the water for fear of parasites from sewage run off. The possibility of contracting anything is probably quite small, but just before we left Naples we had watched an episode of Monsters Inside Me that had left us just slightly paranoid. We didn't want to take any chances of getting sick. The students seemed to enjoy it though. And we didn't mind it one bit when one of the pre-med students, Alan Cupino, made fun of us hydrophobic Canadians as we sat on the shore. We were quite content just where we were, thank you very much! ;)

The kids in the water!

Chastity with a starfish

John-Mark with a sea urchin

Alan in the sewage water with a sea cucumber

Carissa, Me, sea cucumber spitting out water, & Dr. Abbey

John-Mark, Ali, & Lilly

Sitting on the shore

Carissa on bus ride back

Heather & Dr. Abbey

This is the sewage by the water... where Alan was swimming ;)

In the last few days leading to this one, we had spoken with Dr. Don Abbey, professor of biology at Union College, as well as John Thomas, the administrative director of their amazing International Rescue & Relief program, of which most of the students were a part of. That evening it was discussed with the Union group that we would be joining them on a three day mobile clinic, in association with Operation Hope for the Children of Haiti. The plan was to drive all the way north to Cap Haitien on Monday, then to Limbe on Tuesday, then finally to Plaisance on Wednesday before heading back to camp. A clinic would be set up at each location for the day. We were told that these places do not have much access, if any, to medical care. Extremely excited for getting the chance to participate, we got ready that night, as it would be an early day tomorrow.

Finally, we started to feel like we were a part of something. The Union group had adopted the three of us! And from that moment on, we were affectionately (& collectively) referred to as "Canada".