This is another view of the 'ravine' where I volunteer every Tuesday morning. Hundreds of families live on both sides of the ravine in small block houses, some of the size of our bedroom. This is where a family of eight or ten might live. On Tuesday mornings, I walk up one side of the ravine and down the other with a registered nurse from Jacksonville Florida. We see and treat only children. The adults ALWAYS have something wrong so we send them to a nearby free clinic. In this way we focus on the really sick children and not on the adults who may only want some tylenol for a future ailement.

Here you can see Doctor Karen from the USA examining a child that the mother has said was sick. Sometimes work teams come from the USA to help at Christian Light Ministries. CLM is run by Sherri Fausey and has a school for many of the children in the ravine. She also has a feeding program for malnourished very young children as well as a Little Angels program. The Little Angels program is for pre school children that are in need of a meal for the day. Sherri Fausey runs all of these programs. She is also instrumental in the weekly medical clinics on Tuesday mornings.

Here you can see many of the mothers and fathers lined up to see a nurse or a doctor. We see between 30 and 50 sick children every week. After being diagnosed, these children are prescribed medicine or offered advice how to deal with the problem. After that, twice a day a worker goes to the ravine and gives the children their medicine. It is not wise to give a weeks supply to the mother. The child may never receive the medicine. It may be sold for food for the whole family. Sad, isn't it.

This past Friday, we were invited to a private library here in Petionville, about 10 minutes drive from the school. There they have quite a number of books and for $40 a year you can join. Here you can see Steve Hersey, the director of Quisqueya Christian School posing with his home made bread and bagels. Every few weeks, a member takes turns to supply the group with some special goodies and beverages. We really enjoyed meeting new people from the Canadian and US Embassies. It is a chance to meet more 'blancs' in Haiti. We will probably join at the beginning of the next school year.