Lodging

My new friends with the Cure organization had made arrangement to stay in a hotel near the hospital; the LeAuberge du Quebec.  They invited me to join them.  There were no available additional rooms, but they generously offered to shift around bunk mates and made room for me. 

The grounds are beautiful and a stark contrast to the tents and  shacks just outside the gate. I’m living in luxury compared to the volunteers who are staying on cots under mosquito nets in the hospital.  My room has it’s own (cold only) shower and toilet. The rain drip through the uninsulated corrugated roof isn’t over the bed, and the holes in the screens that let in the little malaria vectors were easily patched with medical tape.  The ceiling fan is only a little noisy.  The reading light would likely work if it had a bulb. The power has only gone off twice while I write this.

The roosters out back awaken everyone about 5am, then the neighbors begin loud discourse in Creole. But I have fresh sheets every day, a nice restaurant if I had time to go there and a lovely swimming pool that I found blessedly refreshing  at the end of this long hot day.  …yes, in spite of packing extremely light, I always bring a bathing suit.

We get back and forth to the hospital via tap-tap.  This is John, a general surgeon from Pa, Emily, a nurse who's been working here for months, Mark, an Ausie EMT, and Beverly Frankeny, an excellent orthopedic nurse.