Haiti 10/23

Our morning started like all other mornings. I awoke before everyone else. I grabbed the computer and sat at the restaurant to write on the blog. A few minutes later the waiter politely said our coffee was ready (I hadn't even asked for any). So I sat at the table and had a cup of coffee, it's delicious coffee!

Nathan and the girls joined me a few minutes later and we all ate breakfast together. T and I had omelets with no cheese and no ham. Nathan had one more round of french toast! We then took our showers before the power turned off and took a walk down by the beach. We went to an area we hadn't been to before, not sandy, but overlooking the ocean. Of course the haitian vendors flocked to us, most of whom had sold to us for the last 2 days, a couple of new ones too. We are completely out of small change, so that helped a little. Nathan talked to a couple of guys inquiring about shark diving. The younger one said Haitians are terribly afraid of sharks, so he wasn't sure if N8 could find anyone to take him to purposely find sharks. Nate had a good chat with them.

After awhile, we all headed to the room. I got real sick, so N8 took the girls for awhile. he fed Charlene who then fell asleep, so we stayed in the room together resting (I was awake!) while N8 and T ate lunch. After a couple of hours and some medicine, I was feeling a little better and good thing because Vera was on her way to pick us up! I had to be able to make it an hour w/o getting sick again...and I did! I did a lot of praying!

It was a cloudy and eventually rainy day, but not bad weather. Very nice and soothing actually. We were still the only patrons of the resort at that time, but there were about 5-6 visotors when we left. n8 and T checked out the upstairs rooms and he said they are 100xs better than the room we had...wish we would've known that sooner! Ours was okay, but soooo dark. He said the upstairs rooms are bright with white tile and high ceilings.

We left the resort and drove back to Port-au-Prince. We were going to stay at Zack's house, but had a change of plans last minute, so Vera made us reservations at a hotel in the middle of PAP, but then the Visa Lodge finally called her back saying they had a room, so here we are. It's nice. The room is nice. It has a nice a/c, tv, kleenex(!), high ceilings with a ceiling fan. Charlene was instantly in a better mood in that room. We noticed that right away. She hasn't been very happy the last 3 days or so. I was even looking through my pictures and she doesn't have that natural smile like she did at the first hotel. We know it's partly due to teeth coming in, but we think it's because the room is brighter. Lesson learned.

Charlene has been very crabby and has cried A LOT. She wasn't like this last time, but she didn't have teeth last time wither. Her bottom 2 teeth have really come through a lot the last 2-3 days. I've given her Tylenol a couple of times, I know she's hurting. It was fun to see her smiling and happy again this afternoon in this hotel room. We even had a little game going where she'd crawl up the the pillows, plop down at which point I would grab her feet and drag her to the bottom of the bed and tickle her. She'd crawl up again...etc. We did this over and over. It was so fun. She hasn't been that playful since we left the first hotel in PAP.

Vera had to drop off her truck to get fixed, but came back with her friend Margorie (Zack's sister). Margorie fed Charlene and held her. She just loves Charlene. Margorie seems like such a nice gal, wish I could get to know her better. When we met her the first night, she called Charlene "Charleena". I love it. Taylor has started calling her Charlena , too, it's so cute. I asked if that was how it was to be pronounced, but it's not, that's just what she calls her. I asked her if that was a common name in Haiti and she said it was.

Well, the pizza showed up, but Nate and the girls disappeared. N8 wanted to take Charlene back to the room to 'run around', but of course, the pizza showed up 2 minutes later. I may have to dig in, although i hope and pray I don't get sick. If I do, i'll only have to go about 24 hours w/o eating before I'm in the comfort of my own home. No fun being sick away from home :(

~L