Day three...on the road again. So apparently our hospital is about 12 miles away, yet it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there from our compound. I'm not sure where all these people come from, but by 6:30am the streets are full of people. Everywhere. Cooking. Walking. Kids playing in rubble. I don't know what they do all day, but they are there. Just waiting. And watching. It's funny, when you walk by they all stare...all of them. The kids always give us the thumbs up sign, too cute. And I even got a thumbs up from a UN soldier as we passed the UN compound.

The people here are so appreciative...they cannot understand why we all are here to help. They are some of the most humble people I've ever met. You can stick a needle in them 2 or 3 times (hey, my IV start skills are rusty and most of these folks are dehydrated, cut me some slack!!) and they just smile and nod. Either they are sweet and humble or putting some voodoo curse on me (we see LOTS of voodoo stuff around here), so I vote for sweet and humble. And the value these folks put on family! When one comes to the ER, several come. Mostly out of concern...although some show up because, well, there's nothing else to do. The highlight of my day came when I got to take care of a sweet little girl (my area of expertise!!!). She was a head injury patient...a piece of rubble from a neighboring house hit her on the head as she played outside. We took the best care of her we could before transporting her (by way of a lovely Toyota driven by our security manager) to the only other hospital around, a children's hospital. I got to love on her and dry her tears and make her goofy glove balloons. The joy of my day :)

Well...time for lights out...sooooo very tired. The learning curve is huge here, old school nursing all the way. God's brought me here for a reason and His plan unfolds a little more each day. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog...maybe I'll tell you about the goats and cows...and donkeys...and chickens...and random pigs...night!