Yup, it’s Keith; I’m back at the HATS Hilton for some much needed relaxation and sun after the -25C and snowy weather in Montreal over Christmas. Joan gave me a one way ticket to Haiti for my Christmas gift and hopefully in about 5 weeks with good behavior, I’ll get the return portion.
Karen, Luckner and Daniel met me in Port au Prince and first stop was to see Vladimy. He has been in hospital since mid-December in the city, see blogs for Dec 18th, 2013.
He is doing better and is obviously missing his Mama and the other kids. The doctors are still adjusting his medications and that needs to be stabilized before he returns to HATS. Karen said he is eating well but very anxious. The hospital is privately run with good doctors but not really up to Canadian standards for care and cleanliness. Karen was given a prescription for him which the hospital pharmacy couldn’t fill. So off we go to find a drugstore for the meds and then return with them to the hospital for Vladimy.
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| Vladimy’s Hospital in Port au Prince |
Port au Prince is a thriving, chaotic, traffic snarled, busy and polluted city. It is still showing the effects of the 2010 earthquake including the Presidential Palace which is now just a pile of rubble. It was destroyed by the quake and had to be pan-caked to the ground and demolished with no immediate plans to rebuild.
The traffic is horrendous at best. We had to negotiate around a truck which lost its drive-shaft in the middle of the road which didn’t help progress. The driver and 2 other men were under the truck trying to fix it as we passed. Where’s CAA? All the markets are set up on the sidewalks so pedestrians have walk in the street and dodge the trucks and motorcycles.
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| Truck |
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| Traffic |
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| Market |
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| Houses |
A couple of stops on the way north got us a fruit plate for lunch and some mangoes for breakfast.
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| Mango stall |
The kids were delighted to see me, lots of hugs and my bags were delivered to my room. The staff were also pleased that I was back and Germaine (the cook) had a fresh mango smoothie waiting for me. Life is good.
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| Keith’s back |
Gotta go, the boss lady has some jobs for me to do…. So much for my vacation!!
~Keith
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