We flew back to Haiti on Sunday, June 22nd, leaving behind most of our own clothes and personal belongings, so that we could bring back medications and supplies for the clinic, clothes and shoes for Madam Gerard and her family, who live with us, personal gifts for other Haitian friends and co-workers here, and construction materials for our house in Jeremie. We flew out to Jeremie on Monday morning and spent the day cleaning the house, unpacking our suitcases and packing up medications and supplies for clinic on Tuesday. We woke up that morning to bright sunny skies and were pleasantly surprised to see that the government road crews had been working on the rocky road up to our clinic. They had passed through with a road grader and had improved some of the worst areas. We’re hoping they’ll eventually cement over some of these areas, but consider even this amount of progress to be nothing short of a miracle!
As we made our way higher into the mountains, we began to hear personal greetings from our friends along the way, instead of the phrase, “Give me a ride”, that we heard so frequently down below. As we crossed a small stream, I heard a man say, “Oh, we’re saved! The doctor and nurse are back!” And back we were, with thirty patients waiting on the benches outside the clinic doors. We had a lively discussion with them, as we brought greetings from our families, friends and churches in the US and shared with them some of the highlights of our time away. And, as the day wore on and the rain came down in buckets outside, our tiny little “house clinic” seemed very cozy – just like home!