"Those were the first breasts I've seen..."

...chicken breasts. COME ON. It is rare to see CHICKEN breasts in Haiti, its usually all legs and thighs. We got a good laugh from that one this morning... ANYWAYS... I'm alive and doing well in Haiti. Well, minus the bug bite on my face and covering 65% of my body, I am fairing pretty well. How is home?! I trecked over to the university near where we are to find internet. Let me describe my location. It is a large room with cement (dusty) floors, mold on the ceiling tiles, and a pile of broken computers in the corner. The laptop I am using is dating to 1995. Oh, did I mention this is their computer lab? Hey, they HAVE the internet! So, its awesome. The trip started off a little rough. I was super emotional leaving my family (and friends), and packing in St. Louis was a little weepy but by 3am, I still hadn't accepted that I was really leaving. Tim and Christine picked me up at 4am to go to the airport and I finally got hit with the reality. I was excited again. Until...Tim missed our flight to Miami. Tim is our leader of the trip, knows all our plans, our connections, etc. Oh, and he's the only one with a cell phone. So Christine and I were stranded for a bit in Miami (since we didn't have his number) but eventually I heard my glorious name paged over the Miami airport speakers! We got a hold of Tim and we decided to continue on to Haiti (rather than waiting for him in the airport and traveling to Haiti the next day). We were bombarded at the airport and not knowing how to speak Creole did nothing to help us. But finally we made it to the guest house to wait for Tim. I forgot how incredibly beautiful it is here. The mountains are everywhere you look and it really is breath taking. The city of Port Au Prince is in stark contrast to the cities in the North. It is really crowded and dirty, but it does seem like their are some efforts to keep the trash (literal garbage) off the street. They put in some street lights, still no truly defined lanes or other traffic laws, and there are more city garbage bins. It looks like the government is putting in some minimal effort, but not enough to effect any serious changes here (which is the saddest and most frustrating part). We traveled for 9 hours from Port up to Limbe on Saturday. Imagine the road with the most potholes you have ever seen...now multiply that by 20 and that was our 9 hour drive. I (of course) decided to rest my eyes just as we reached Gonaive. Well, their road was destoryed and we drove through dirt, gravel, and boulders for almost 2 hours. (No, that 'nap' did not happen) We stopped there and could really see the devastation. All the mud houses were wiped out from the hurricanes and the entire community was living in a 'tent community' built in a field. We were there just as the sun went down and a barely working generator was able to light up the one light bulb for all 75+ tents. We will be going back to stay there for 4 days on Saturday. We just stopped through on our way here. The clinic in Limbe is amazing for this community. It has helped in so many ways and the people that work there are such a great team. They are invested in the well being of this community because it is their community (okay, i'll stop saying community.) Dr. Manno (whose house we are staying at) is such an inspiring doctor. He works at all hours and goes above and beyond the healthcare we have at home (for obviously, far less pay). He grew up in Limbe (this area) and came back here to make it better, to give back to the people that raised him, to bring change to these people. Now I am working in the clinic, helping to train the lab, and shadowing some of the visiting doctors. There are two other American groups in the house with us (a total of 8 of us) but the couple that was here from Chicago just left this morning. I have to get back to the clinic because I think Christine was having some trouble with the translator. They are my age and are trying to teach me Creole (and laughing at me when I fail horribly). So, Happy New Year to everyone. We will be enjoying cabbage soup here in Haiti (their independence day is the first as well). I'll be celebrating Haitian-style! Whoever is back at home reading, I MISS YOU and look foward to hearing from you. (Oh and to my dad, Bon Fete--Happy Birthday! Love you! --sorry I am a day late. I am on Haitian time, you know...)

LOVE from Haiti!