A day at Paradise

Yesterday Nick, Amy, Jamies Mom, Mika (Jamie and Jenny's oldest), and I went to Paradise Beach for the day!  The 3 of us really needed the day off.  It had been a busy month and we were all starting to get worn out.  Nick and I both had colds and Amy was tired as well.  We were all so excited to get away for a few hours!

We drove for 1.5 hours and then took a 20 minute water taxi to the secluded beach.  There were a few people from the UN there but not many.  The entire day was such an adventure!  The boat we took to get there was, well we will just say "very Haitian."  It looked like the builder just grabbed a bunch of random wood and nailed it together.  There was water in the bottom of the boat, which I realize all boats have water in the bottom, but normally there is a floor so you cant see it.  The beach was small but really nice and remote.  There is a lot of coral there and we snorkeled for a bit, but the water was kind of cloudy for some reason so we couldn't see much. We think maybe the tides were off because of the hurricane that is off our shores.

As I was snorkeling, I poked my head up from under the water and heard Amy scream a little and say Jelly fish.  Her and Nick started swimming towards shore, so I decided to as well.  We don't know if the ones here sting or not, but decided we would stay away from that area for the rest of the day.  It was really nice to hang out with Amy for a while and get to know her better.  No Amy, I'm not just saying that because I know you read our blog, it really was nice to hang out with you!  We love our kids so much that during our day off, we talked about how next time we should bring some of the kids with us.  We then talked about which children would be cute at the beach and why!

We left the beach early to go out and eat at La Kay, our favorite restaurant in town.  We say that loosely as there are only really 2 restaurants that I know of and I have never eaten at the other.  We got there at 4 and they were closed until 6 but said they would let us in at 5.  As we were standing outside the gate, we saw two tourist of all things.  Tourist are VERY uncommon here, and they were from Seattle of all places.  We started talking to them and they were really cool.  We decided to put them in the back of our truck and go down the road to some old ruins.  Unfortunately the tide was in and we couldn't walk to where they were.  When we got back to La Kay, they wouldn't let us in early, so we went over to the Christof, which is a bit more expensive but still good.  I was really looking forward to getting ice cream, but our food took forever to come so we couldn't order any as it was already dark out and we needed to get home.

The 3 of us have jobs to do at 7, and we got home at 7:05.  Amy ran to the pharmacy to start drawing up meds and we ran to the depot to give out supplies as soon as we got back.  We were busy working for the next 4 hours.  After all of our normal stuff, we attempted to put an IV in one of our children, but weren't able to get it in.  Instead we put an NG tube in her.  I have watched this happen a lot, but haven't done it yet.  Amy gave me a more hands on roll this time because she wants me to be able to do them on my own.  I even got to use her stethoscope and everything!!  Next one is all mine!!  I'm really excited to do one on my own.  Tonight Amy is teaching me how to give shots!  I'm a little more nervous for this as I don't really like needles myself.  I have helped hold kids several times for vaccines and IV's and being around the needles always makes my stomach a little weak.  It'll be interesting to see how I do on my own, I'll have to update you on that!!

Anyways, going out is always an adventure here.  We never know what to expect as everyday is a new day in Haiti and we always see new things!  It was AMAZING to have the day off and we were all so much more rested after that!  Hopefully it will help keep us going for a while!!