Retounen

Other than the five-hour delay in the airport in Paris, my return to Cap-Haitian was smooth.  The bus from Port-au-Prince to Okap, actually left pretty much on time, which since the bus going in the other direction three weeks earlier and every flight on the entire journey was delayed this was a welcomed and much-appreciated surprise.  Traveling was a great experience and it is also great to be back!  

When I made the travel arrangements last summer I did not yet know the dates when the children would leave for their family visits or when they would return to the orphanage.  I might have planned a bit differently since as it turned out I left and returned before them.  Actually, it was good to have a day to rest and two days to get organized before the children arrived on Sunday.  I enjoyed being present to welcome them back.  I had missed them.  Most of them seemed to have had a good visit with their relatives. School resumed for the children yesterday, as did my therapy sessions.  

While I was away screens in the windows and a screen door were installed in the playroom as well as in the other rooms in the same building.  This project is thanks to generous donations that we have received recently. I am very appreciative!  I had wanted this for a while believing that it will greatly reduce the number of mosquitoes present during play therapy sessions, and hopefully make it more difficult for rats and tarantulas to enter too.  They also made the step into the playroom higher which should prevent water from entering again if we have heavy rains like we did a couple of months ago.  

I decided to include some pictures from inside the play therapy room too.      

When I returned I was glad to see that the mud had turned to dust and the large puddles that I had to cross to travel from the convent to the orphanage had dried up while I was away.  Then on Sunday night into Monday it rained and was very windy.  It also rained at times during the day yesterday and this morning as well.  I am glad the rain was not heavy. There is mud once again but, nothing like the flooding we experienced in November. Fortunately, it is possible to walk around the puddles as opposed to needing to wade through them.  Yesterday, I went on-line to check out the weather in Cap-Haitian and it looks like we can expect light rain at least at some point every day for nearly a week. Oh well, at least it is not dusty!

Have a great week!  Take care.