Doctor Luke

Today started with house building.  We had a fun team that worked really hard for 3 hours this morning.  We shoveled dirt, gravel, rocks, and sand into 5 gallon buckets and wheelbarrows and carried them about 100 yards to the job site.  Much easier than last year!  The location is further away from the Lifeline campus, but right off the main road behind some trees and family.  We went from dirt ground to a 12x24 framed pad!  They will pour the floor today, then Monday we will go back to help with block.  The worst job of the day was sifting sand to get the big rocks out.  It consisted of holding a 10 pound grated rectangle, pouring in a load of sand, shaking it violently until the small particles fell to the ground, and then throwing the larger rocks onto a different pile.  Luke and I spent the most time working out our biceps and backs!  He was awesome.  Alyssa was a beast power cleaning buckets up onto her shoulders.  Her APC class has really done a lot for her strength.  There is no way she could have done that last year!  It was great to see our sponsor mom and grandma there.  The kids are with family in Port Au Prince.  They will come next week.

So then we came back for lunch and found out our afternoon church service was canceled due to rain.  It is the dry season here, but it has rained every day so far.  It hasn’t been bad though.  Bill, the longtime veteran and “surgeon”/ER doc of the group, came over from the clinic at lunch and asked if I was up for some circumcisions.  Of course I was all in for some surgery time, especially since we couldn’t go to church.  So I took Luke over with me to catch the last couple lipoma removals and watch me do the circumcisions.  There ended up being three!  A five year old, 3 year old, and 2 year old.  Quite a bit different than the newborns I’m used to at home!  We can’t just strap them to the table and do the procedure.  So we had to use some versed and ketamine to sedate them, and everything went smoothly.  We had to tell the father who was with the first two that it wasn’t a good idea for them to ride home on a motorcycle!  Just imagine that guys after a circumcision.  Luke was a rock star.  He absolutely loved watching all of it.  He asked tons of questions, and with his dad’s sense of humor, was cracking us up.  He is just taking it all in and enjoying every minute of it.  I can’t tell you how proud I am of him and Alyssa!  They are such awesome kids!  Quote of the day, “I am definitely going to be a doctor and do this stuff dad!”

We ended the night playing Dutch Blitz with 8 of us.  It’s a combination of speed, skip-bo, and solitaire all combined into one.  Apparently it is one of the most played games by missionaries.  We can see why.  It was a blast, but very stressful!  Church and the beach tomorrow, and then the real work starts!

Au revoir,

J