Back in Haiti!

Sorry I haven’t written for a while. Unfortunately, I was flat on my back from a back injury and was pretty much unable to do much of anything. I was totally out of commission as the result of trying to draw a bucket of water from our cistern.

You see, our generator died and we were without power – which can actually be quite fun. We’ve kinda grown fond of “no power” days here. No DVDs. No computers. No video games. It’s kinda like “Little House on the Praire.” Sometimes, however, the kids don’t like it that much, because I insist they call me “Pa” instead of “Dad” during “no power” days. When I light the kerosene lamp I will warn them of Indians lurking in the shadows.

So, this one night, I was heading out the door saying, “You younins keep the door locked while I’m out fetchin’ water from the well. You never know what’s out there.” I could see their eyes roll in their heads behind the faint pale of the kerosene lamp.

When I made it to our cistern, I dropped in the 5 gallon bucket, (set my rifle aside for a moment) filled it with water and began pulling it straight up, I took a step to adjust the rope and “pop” twisted my spine -- the wrong way. “Aghhhhh,” I shouted, and down dropped the bucket and down I fell. It was pretty pathetic. I could have laid there by the cistern, moaning and looking pitiful for the next hour or attempt to make it back to the house. So I chose the later – I hobbled upstairs, making my back pain even worse. As I walked in the door, I expected my kids to be standing there shouting, “Pa! Pa! What happened? Should we fetch Doc?” But they were nowhere to be found. I had to make it to my bed by myself. That is where I remained for the next three days.

Fortunately, however, we had no shortage of aide with three nurses and a visiting doctor to assist. They had pain meds and back patches and all kinds of things that made it a very painless recovery. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much about those three days other than images of visits from Doc Baker . When I finally was able to walk, I got up and realized I lived in Haiti, and discovered that much was going on.