Daily life is getting easier and, at the same time, harder for the members of the St. Mary medical mission in Marbial. On the first couple of nights, simple things like showering, brushing teeth, getting ready for bed and going to the bathroom were difficult. Using the toilet involves filling up a bucket of well water for flushing. Showering involves filling up the same bucket, lugging it into a small room with a drain, and pouring cold well water over yourself. Those things are getting easier.


Sleeping through the night is getting a little easier as well. Now that the mosquito nets are up and in place, getting into bed simply means crawling under your net, tucking it under the mattress and closing your eyes. And people generally are so tired from working long, hard days in the sun caring for patients that they fall asleep more easily. You still don’t need an alarm clock – the roosters crow like clockwork.

But things are getting tougher as well. The team of four doctors, three nurses and two volunteers is worn out after three long days treating an average of 200 patients a day. The difficult cases, terrible poverty and sad stories of the Haitians is taking a toll on the volunteers.  And the question of whether the mission can obtain more medicine is weighing heavily on everyone’s mind.

And then there are the dogs. When the sun goes down and after everyone goes to bed, the dogs that lay around in the hot sun all day perk up and get rowdy. When one doctor goes outside to brush her teeth, she comes running back into the room followed by a pack of barking dogs. She dives across her bed, tearing down the mosquito net and rolling backward onto the floor. The dogs stop at the door and do not come inside, but everyone is so terrified they refuse to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. There is talk of setting a time in the middle of the night to wake up and take a team trip to the bathroom.