We went camping! Everyone thought it'd be fun to "get away" for a night, but at the same time, Sarah and Melinda needed to stay close to the clinic just in case there was a client in need. There's a really beautiful beach, about 15 minutes away, that a bunch of ex-pats use for what they call "church on the beach" on Sunday afternoons. They built a really nice dried-banana-leaf roof over a flat, little, sandy area, and it's right next to the most amazingly gorgeous stretch of Caribbean water I have seen so far. The water is CLEAN super clear, and so, so, SO blue... the sandy beach is also CLEAN (what?? no piles of washed up trash??) and there are some really nice cliffs off to the side. All in all, it's quite a spot.
Ninotte, me, Danaelle
A little group of us went to the church on the beach spot on Saturday with a bunch of tents, a hammock, tarps, chairs, food, lumber, and all kinds of other camping things. We were running a tad behind schedule, so it was just starting to get dark as we pulled up to the gate. Suddenly, it started to rain a bit... by the time we parked, only a minute or two later, it was POURING BUCKETS! We hopped out and were fully soaked almost instantly - we got the firewood under a tarp and unloaded the truck as fast as possible.
It was nice to have a shelter over our heads while we set up the campsite, but as soon as we were done with the tents and turned our backs... big winds started picking them up and rolling them away! It was all very exciting, but we got it sorted out... eventually. During a respite from the rain, we started a huge bonfire burning so that we could use the coals to cook our dinner - homemade "hobo packs" - but it started pouring again just as we threw the food onto the fire! We sent Danaelle and Dada to bed after feeding them the bread and avocado (a standard tasty snack here), and the rest of us settled in to either a) have beers for dinner or b) have beers until the rain stopped and we could cook our real dinner.
We had a grand ol' time! It turns out that pouring rain in Haiti is still not enough to extinguish glowing coals, so it was easy enough to build up the fire a bit more and finish cooking our late-night dinner. And boy, was it worth the wait! If that's how really how hobos eat, they eat WELL! (Don't worry, I'm being ironic.) It was just a matter of throwing potatoes, carrots, onions, chicken, garlic, and barbeque sauce into a foil packet, and then we let them roast. YUM.
Sarah, Melinda, Brian
Alex, me, delicious hobopacks
After the best morning swim anyone could ask for (in the beautiful, cool, clean waves of this lovely beach), we had a feast of a breakfast! All in all, a great success! The only bad moment was Dada wetting the bed... in my tent... before I even got there... Seriously?? ugh. Luckily I had put her on the downhill side of me and Danaelle. But still.
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