Another day

Greetings,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was WEIRD and LONESOME, although it was great to talk to each one of the kids, and nice that Jean, Gladys and the brothers (of Gladys) were here. But everyone just kind-of sat there. There was no music, no ornaments or anything jolly, the maids refused to go home to their families etc. JUST WEIRD. I will definitely be home for Christmas next year. And the next. And..etc
So, with these blues in mind, I sit here and count the days to come home. Most everyone in the hospital has been sent home and the ´crew´ is down to the absolute minimum. There is truly nothing to do and that is just not my style. Carl is working today and has clinic, but even there few have shown up. Sander went, to his delight, into the mountains (again) with the security guard whom he befriended. His name is Wilson (many people here have last names for first names, like DeLaRose) and he is one of the personal guards of Preval. He checks out all places (now the hospital) for security and Sander has had a great deal of fun going into the mountains with Wilson. Wilson totes two impressive-looking guns but I have grown accustomed to it.

For the five of us: Carl, Sander, Philip (another MD volunteer), Wilson and myself we have three or four maids. OK: I prefer ¨Femmes de Maison¨. Not so derogatory. They appear before sunup, around 5:30 am, and leave after dark at 6pm. They wash all the floors and all surfaces, do all our laundry by hand, cook 3 meals for us all, go to the market twice a day (5 min walk ), rearrange the furniture to perfection and kill the chickens. They are and function like a family. Laughter is everywhere and they yack like everyone else. I love them.
I look how busy they all are, and wonder why housewives in other countries, also raising their kids, running them around and often have a full-time job, do it. Weŕe totally NUTS. And we have 530 000 people out of work. We either should lead a more peaceful life or use more of our money to give others an honerable job.
The turnside is that I HATE having people around me all day long. In addition I am not alowed to do anything. It is a mix between them enjoying to spoil me (we get along very well and laugh much while they improve my Kreyol) and me being in their way in their territory. I understand that. But I am bored to pieces.

OK. Enough grumping. Just not used to it and my cough is not improving.
Can wait to get home and stay home for a while. It´s not so bad to need peace.
We´d like to go to a beach resort for 1 or 2 nights, but the all, so far, appear to be full. (Our anniversary). Sander is planning to go to Port au Prince, or even to Jacmel on the south coast, with a (very nice) girl from Germany he met here...
She works for Community Health in PaP and the Dominican Republic.

See you all soon: home the evening of the 30th and hoping for snow the following day!
Much love, Marianne