So after being in a small plane that was actually not so scary, I am in Les Cayes. It is beautiful here. I am staying in a really nice place. I feel very privileged to have my own room and my own bathroom. No more veganism here. I ate chicken that was killed today in our backyard and they bought it alive 200 meters down the road. Talk about eating Local.

Today was my first day working in the clinic. It totally met my expectations. I was out of my comfort zone but that is what I am looking for. There was no orientation and Brian and I were the only physical therapists in the clinic. We just kept taking patients one after the other. My first patient was new to the clinic and she had lost her leg in the earthquake. She is 22 years old and seemed very sad. I was told to not ask too many questions about the earthquake because they will talk to you about it when they are ready.  I also had a patient that lost her leg 5 days after the earthquake after falling in a hole. She was very weak and was crying a lot.  I had 1 orthopedic patient today which seems straight forward because that is what I usually treat in the US, but this patient was deaf and mute. How do you translate? I acted everything out. Finally I had the brilliant idea to have the translator write in French and then the patient wrote in French and he translated it back to me in English.  It took a long time but then all of a sudden the patient realized I spoke English so he started writing in English. Of course that didn't happen until the end of our therapy session when I was trying to find out when he could come back again.  Everybody in the clinic was shocked that he could understand English. Nobody had ever tried writing with him.

 I had a guy who fractured his leg and they put metal plates on the outside of his leg and I had to do wound care with some bandaids. BANDAIDS. That is not wound care. I felt so out of my comfort zone but I had a doctor look at it and she said it looked fine. I also saw a 2 year old pediatric patient with deformed legs My first response is "I dont see pediatrics" but then I realize I have nobody to tell because they dont speak English and the mom is just looking at me, like please help, so I do my best and it all seems to work out. This is exactly what I was looking for. Doing things not necessarily perfect but just doing them. Letting my obsession with perfection go.Therefore I saw amputees, orthopedic patients, wound care and pediatrics. In addition, the prosthetists are from nicaragua and I also live with them. Carmen, one of the prosthetists, only speaks spanish and I am always bugging her with questions so I speak in spanish with her and my very limited Creole and French with the patients. My brain is exhausted. All in a days work and today is Labor day.

Anyways, the experiences have been amazing and I feel really good. The patients are also so appreciative and nice. I just wish I could communicate better with them. 

Joy: I saw a super scary spider in the kitchen. As big as a tarantual but not a tarantula. It moved so fast. The Haitian lady who was in the kitchen started freaking out about killing it and since she doesn't speak English started acting out biting on her arm. Hmm...I dont know how well I will sleep tonight.