Friday morning

This is the view from the dining area here at Tubagua overlooking Mount Isabela de Torres. Spectacular, huh? I had planned to hike Mount Isabela today, but getting there would take too long and I have other things I need to do so I'm just going to hike around here once it's light enough.

Later this morning I have four home visits to do, one for a homebound patient and three for patients I saw earlier this week. Then we have a hospital tour and lunch, then we get a free afternoon for the beach or shopping.

The last two days we've been in Pancho Mateo, a very poor village with a large percentage of Haitians. The conditions are pretty bad, and our first day there we had to deal with a fairly heavy rain as a tropical storm passed below Hispaniola. But we were fortunate (sort of) and the rain stopped early in the afternoon. The unfortunate thing about it was that when the rain stopped and the sun came out, beating down on the tin roof of the little church where we held clinic, it became like an enormous sauna. And to top it off, the power was out, so no lights and NO FANS!!! I would say the heat and humidity were unimaginable, except that the next day the sun was out from the beginning, so it was even worse! But we were saved by the return of electricity and, therefore, air flow, and the last day of clinic ended on a high note.