Oops- one more post before I leave. Here's a photo of me and some Haitian kids at the Fort Liberte´clinic last year.

To the airport!

I've finished packing. My girlfriend Jane is giving me a ride to the airport in one hour. I will overnight in Ft. Lauderdale. I have to be back at the airport at 4am tomorrow morning for my flight to Haiti. I arrive in Cap Haitien at 8:45 am. My next post will be from Milot, God willing.

Fortunately there wasn't too much to do at the hospital today. I am on call this weekend. I attended the dedication service at the 1st Presbyterian Church of South Charleston, then a last minute planning meeting. I am flying in two days ahead of my usual group, and will be down the road in Milot instead of Fort Liberte´. We plan to keep in touch by cell phone so we can refer patients back and forth. They may come for a visit to tour the hospital and see the Citadele, the fortress built by king Henri Christophe in the early 19th C. Tonight I'm doing some packing. I'll leave Tuesday afternoon, fly to Ft. Lauderdale where I'll spend the night and get to the airport at 4am to catch the flight to Cap Haitien. My godson Emmanuelo will meet me there. I'll spend a few hours with him and his family and plan to be at Sacre Coeur by 3pm. I'm a little nervous about not knowing anyone there; I'll miss the cameraderie of the Fort Liberte´ group.

Preparations continue. My "skeeter defeater" arrived in the mail today. It's a free standing mosquito net. I've ordered my malaria prophylaxis mediation, stocked up on power bars... Six more days till I leave!

First post

I leave for Cap Haitian in eight days. This will be my sixth medical trip to Haiti, but the first since the earthquake. I spent Thanksgiving in Thimonde with my daughter Lydia and some of her Emory Medical school classmates. We flew out from Port-au-Prine just five weeks before the quake hit. Although I'm technically going with the Friends of Fort Liberte´, they have farmed me out to the L'hopital Sacre Coeur in Milot, just a few miles south of Cap Haitien. I'm looking forward to seeing a new part of Haiti, but a little nervous about what my role will be. The earthquake has changed everything. I had planned to spend two days with my Haitian godson Emmanuele Alexandre, but will have to cut the socializing short and head for Milot the day I arrive. I do hope to at least meet his parents and siblings.