This week was filled with a variety of activity.  I spent Monday at Kay St. Anne after I learned that there was no school, (which was after I showed up at the school.)  It had been canceled because they had taken down the tents that are used for classroom in anticipation of the hurricane that occurred the end of the previous week, and needed the day to resurrect the tents. This week, I started doing play therapy with one of the children who attends the school and lives in the orphanage; I felt that went well.  Yesterday, I went shopping with a child who needed underwear and watned to buy a birthday gift for the couple that works at Kay St. Anne.

We now have electricity and running water and even a working air conditioner in our house.  Much appreciated luxuries!  Another volunteer, a speech therapist from Luxembourg has moved into our house the other day.  I must say I do meet a variety of kind people who come here to work.  This week there was a group from Ohio who came to do medical care, who I enjoyed meeting as well.

The Cholera problem has come closer.  If I go on the roof of the building where I am sitting, I can see what is now referred to as the cholera tents.  It was decided to create a separate area for cholera victims rather than put them in the pediatric or adult hospitals here; to prevent contaminating other patients.  Yesterday morning, when I arrived for daily mass at the chapel, there were a few bodies of cholera victims in body bags and in small card board coffins on the floor of the chapel.  The daily liturgy was actually, a funeral mass for a few individuals of various ages, who probably arrived at a hospital when it was too late to help them, perhaps after making long journeys.  If people get IV fluids and immediate treatment, then they recover fully and quickly, sometimes within a few hours. 

Often from my little house, I can hear the cries of women in labor since my house is behind the maternity wing of the hospital.  This morning I heard such cries, and then later as I sat praying I was facing a nearby field.  On the other side of the field is a crematorium.  I watched as a truck pulled up to the crematorium, as a bag containing a body was removed, and a few minutes later a gentle almost clear smoke came from the chimney.  As I sat, a butterfly came close, and I became aware of the full cycle of life which surrounds me and all of us everyday.

Well, hopefully you are doing well.  Please continue to keep the people of Haiti in your prayers.
Take care,
Kathleen