The Naturopath International team left this morning, except for Decker, who just arrived yesterday.  He was already out in the field today (Sunday) and treated around 100 people by himself.

We’ve spent the last few days working at a small-ish camp here in Belvil, continuing to treat in all our various modalities.  There is a woman who heads up a local ngo overseeing this and other camps, and she has taken us under her wing, helping us to network, transport, and arrange.  Through her we have finalized our training plans for this week. It sounds as if we will have doctors, nurses, and community “animators” participating, and possibly over 20 trainees.  It’s curious to work with so many unknowns, as we have to stay very flexible and follow all possibilities until things lock in.

To this end, Beth and I took a motorcycle taxi across town on Friday to attend a meeting of the animators at Haiti Response Coalition.  In retrospect, this was probably the most foolhardy thing we’ve done so far, as moto taxis are notoriously dangerous.  My inner adolescent was thrilled at the many near death experiences, however, and the exhilaration and the views were amazing.  I think my ribs may still be bruised from where Beth was holding on to me, and we both thought this form of transportation would put the thigh-master exercise tool out of business.

On our return from that meeting our driver took an alternate route to avoid afternoon traffic and we ended up rising into the hills and riding along the rims of the hills around Port-au-Prince for views that were both beautiful and horrifying.  We saw a lot more destruction of homes in all kinds of areas, from tenements to fancy skyline neighborhoods, but there were also incredible views of green hillsides staggering away into the distance.

Last night our new patroness picked up our little team in a convoy of Hummers and SUVs, and drove us out to a fancy hotel for a buffet meal, to thank us for the work we’ve been doing in her foundation’s camps.  Haiti continues to impress me with its dichotomous nature and unpredictability.

I was able to reach the Acupuncturists Without Borders team this afternoon (they arrived in Haiti yesterday), though we were talking on cell phones through a thunderstorm and it sounded like Sally, my contact, was standing in traffic, so it was still challenging to actually communicate.  We’re hoping to meet up with them on Friday or Saturday, as it would be nice to tag team with some other acupuncturists.

I’m hoping to post these last two entries tomorrow morning, but I’ve been forestalled in my efforts to post from Haiti so far.  Today we walked up to a restaurant to wait for the cyber café to open (it being Sunday it opens late), had grilled chicken, rice &  beans, fried plantains, and what Beth calls ‘hot slaw’ which is very like cole slaw but has super spicy peppers in it.  While we ate we watched the Latin dance lessons being given in the little restaurant, and when we finally got back to the – now open – cyber café, they had sent someone to get gas for the generator and didn’t know when they’d actually have computers or connections available.  So we came home and watched lightning streak across the sky, putting buckets under the eaves to catch the rain.