Well we where up early this morning for church then off we went to explore the area.. Our first stop was at a school run by nuns. ( sister Clarice and sister Marthe) they are doing a good job expanding the school, they had breakfast ready for us and we had a tour of the facility. They then joined us on our tour… We did a quick stop at a local church, wow beautiful… full of local people all well dressed, such lovely colorful clothing, the choir was amazing, it was something to see…

We then drove on to the village of Abomey.. The poverty seen on the way and in the village is something I can’t explain.. As Louis said in his blog OMG!!!! The bikes the roads, the driving… I think I squeezed his hand all the way…It’s a historic village of Kings and the way they lived.. I’m not great with all that history mumbo jumbo so Louis explains it better.. I flunked history so let that be said my story on the kings wouldn’t be great..lol

We got back around 6pm all dirty and tired from our adventure to come back to our living quarters to find out…WE Have NO water!!!!!! Thank god for wet wipes….. I knew they would be useful… We finally got water later in the evening so a cold shower was ahh nice and refreshing..

Sitting at the table with the priest, administration and nurses to try and figure out how we improve things for them here at the hospital without over stepping our boundaries, not an easy task… This will be a process, baby steps and we can get it done… I think we were expecting to get it all going perfectly on the first visit.. I don’t know who we were kidding???? This is a project that we knew we were going to have to commit to long term but now officially have the proof…Lots of work to be done…..I just hope we made somewhat of a difference on this trip.

Tonight is our last night, tomorrow we are back in the hospital for surgeries and some consults.. Our flight home is late tomorrow evening. In the mean time we are trying to get the Brazilian’s organized for the week.. The language barrier is something to be said.. very hard.. We need more English and especially French speaking people because we are translating from Fo to French to English to Portuguese and back… Irma Monique looks exhausted tonight…

I am also starting to feel like crap… feels like a cold,, sore throat, cough and tired.. Is it because of the weather, the germs or the first time of air conditioning in 10 days ( our rented bus)… who knows.. Louis and I are craving home cooked food… I think Sheppards pie it will be when we get home…Or a really good steak.. I need meat… enough with the rice and pasta..blahhh!!! but I am truly grateful that we had food this week…

I can’t wait to show you all the pictures of all these beautiful people..

Good night

– Judy