A quick Update.

This is the first chance I've really had to post on my blog since I've gotten to Bombardopolis in NW Haiti. First things first...it's humid. A shower every night is not just a suggestion, it's a must if you want to feel anywhere close to clean.

Wednesday we left Port-Au-Prince for the 10 hour trip to Bombard. I spent about 3.5 hours in the back of the truck and the rest of the time crammed in the cab with 3 other people. Awesome trip, with things they call "roads" that would hardly pass for anything in the States.

The whole trip from Port to Bombard was done along the coast line, and most of it was dry and barren. Once we got to Bombard, however, it was a lot nicer and greener, primarily because of the elevation. We are up on a mountain, and it makes a huge difference.

Thursday and Friday were spent unloading medical supplies and re-stocking the clinic shelves with them. That was a bit hot, since the stock room is about 11 feet by 5 feet including the shelves that run around the perimeter of the room. It has no ventilation except for the door, and there were three of us in there. Friday afternoon I went with Steve to Beine-de-heine (an hours trip each way) to return home a woman and some of her friends/family from the hospital where she'd been brought two nights before to give birth. The brakes on the ambulance pretty much failed on the way there, so that was exciting. At some point, I think Steve and I are going to bleed the brakes. He is pretty sure that it was just the constant riding of the brakes as we went downhill that caused the brake fluid to not recirculate and get overheated, changing the composition of the fluid and making it ineffective. Hopefully just bleeding them and replacing the old fluid with new fluid will help. :)

I woke up this morning at 4:15, as I have every morning I've been here for some reason. This morning, however, I woke up to a recorded church service being played on some speakers quite loudly from some distance away. I recognized one of the songs "He Loves Me". Unfortunately, upon being woken up, I learned that I had a migraine, I think from tension in my neck. I basically couldn't move, and even then it hurt. I took some tension headache Excedrin and laid back down. I didn't go back to sleep until after breakfast, and even then did not sleep long. I finally got an awesome neck rub, and that relieved enough pressure on my neck that I was able to sleep for a few hours. My neck has been hurting the whole day, although not nearly as bad as it was this morning. I've taken 2 more Excedrin and a total of 1200 mg of Ibuprofen today just to keep the pain down. As long as I don't lean over, I don't black out or have too much pain. :j Hopefully I will feel better soon. Planning on moving to a new bed tonight though, since the one I was sleeping on is really really soft, and I don't think my back liked that. The new bed is quite a bit harder.

As I laid down mid-morning, I put in my earbuds and listened to a sermon by Matt Chandler entitled "The Art of Remembrance". Totally awesome sermon, and a must-listen to. Here is the link to download it if you are interested: http://denton.thevillagechurch.net/sermons?kw=Art+of+Remembrance&type=sermons&match=all.

We are taking care of two preemies right now. They were born yesterday, and are sooo cute! I held one of them for a while today, and it stopped crying immediately. :-D

Okay, now to try to respond to some emails before it's time for my birthday dinner! We are having homemade ravioli, italian creme cake (without the coconut), coke, popcorn, and watching a movie, Spartacus! :) Hopefully it will be a fun night.

Much love,
Josiah