All in a Day's Work

          Tuesday was a busy day.  We started by cleaning the therapy room which is nearly impossible to keep totally clean.  Drives me nuts!  I like things put away in their proper spot.  That rarely happens because so many different people use it.  My plan is to put like toys together and then label the containers (in both English and Kreole).  I have a sneaking suspicion that all will be in order for about two minutes, and then things will look like they typically do.  I may just have to get over my need for order when it comes to the therapy/play room.  That could hurt. 

Healing Haiti helps with washing toys

            A group from Healing Haiti came while we were cleaning, and their help was tremendous.  What would have taken us all morning took only about an hour.  That saved time allowed us all to go out back during recess time and play with the kids.  Healing Haiti groups come 1-2 times each week to help out, and it is a blessing for the kids who then get some much needed attention from adults.

Great group from Healing Haiti

Clean mats!

            I spent the afternoon shopping around town for storage bins.  Abby came with me because I want to make sure that she gets out and around Port-au-Prince while she’s here.  Our first stop was Deli Mart.  They pretty much had nothing we could use.  Frustrating.  Then we had the driver take us to Delmas 2000, which is a department store sorta like K-Mart.  The driver overshot the store, thinking we wanted to go to another Deli Mart, but we eventually ended up at Delmas 2000.  This store has a little bit of everything.  Seriously.  A little bit. Of everything.  We finally located storage bins, picked out what we needed, and headed to check out. 

All the bins we could not buy . . at first

Abby the intern

            Unfortunately, my credit card didn’t go through.  Bless her heart, the cashier tried about six times and brought in managers to help.  Nothing worked (I had forgotten to notify the credit card company that I would be traveling in Haiti, so they blocked the purchase—this was one of the numerous things I forgot in the packing process).  The good news is that they agreed to store the items for me until today (Wednesday) so that I could come back and pay for them.  I don’t why that shocked me, but it did.  So, today I head back to Delmas 2000 to get the bins.  The credit is working again, but I am taking enough cash just in case we run into glitches again!

          Well, I did make it back up to Delmas 2000, and the credit card did not work.  I was not impressed.  I did have the cash to pay for everything, so it turned out okay.  I still had to go across the street to Star 2000, another grocery store, and buy dinner supplies for Gertrude (fixin's for lasagna).  Most of my cash on hand had been depleted at Delmas 2000, so I wasn't sure whether I had enough.  I decided to try the credit card again, and it worked!  I took back all the nasty thoughts about the credit card company.  I guess Delmas 2000 just won't be getting much of my business this trip!