Greetings, on this fine, sunny day. A bit on the warm side, which seems to have sprouted palm trees on every inch. Amazing. No snow or other pleasant things. I would never enjoy a world without seasons, as I had already discovered in New Orleans.

The chickens and rooster were above me in the trees again this morning. The chickens are after the bugs in the bromeliads and, well, the roosters are after the chickens.

Yesterday we slung the Christmas lights across the windows and took a taxi/moto ride out to the orphanage to borrow cookie sheets. Had a great visit!
When I was there a year ago, a girl, about 5 years old, had been left on the doorstep of the orphanage school at the busy time of 180 kids coming in. Nobody noticed her. She was propped up against a pillar and had, amazingly, not fallen over. She couldn´t focus, didn´t talk and had no muscle tone. They called her TiFi (little girl) and did´nt know what to do with this mysterious appearance. Abandoning was not an option: the community can do that, but not a ´blan´ There would be a riot and lives in danger.
So they kept her. Tifi had to be diapered, fed and there was seemingly no hope. I had a Christmas [picture of her last yea, sagging on a chair with a huge rag doll that had more posture than she did.
When I saw her yesterday I almost fainted. She is WALKING when holding a hand, (even up the steps) says Mama to Karen and gives endless hugs. What a little miracle! I know an orphanage in Port au Prince that specifically takes such children and I am going to find it back. Karen cannot keep TiFi - she takes too much attendtion they don´t have special services for her. In the mean time I am going to try and see whether we can´t find a physical therapy or art or music whatever therapy student who could come over there this summer as part of an internship or volunteer work. There is so much to be done and such a great and loving experience. My kids definitely have competition here from the children of Haiti when it comes to affectionate hugs!

Sander has climbed the water tower twice now, with the aid of a harness and carabiners. He has befriended a very nice young lady from Germany, who works in Port au Prince in Social Services. They had 2 really nice days together and she loved going up the watertower with Sander when he went up the second time.
Carl and I are making reservations for a wonderful beach resort here, Indigo Beach, where we will spend 2 nights (38th anniversary) before returning home. White sand, great drinks and dinners, snorkeling and all that stuff. Itś just about mid-point between here and PaP. Perfect.

Today Sander has gone around trying to take unposed pictures, which is almost impossible. In the first place you cannot take real candid shots because you have to ask everyone for permission (still much superstition), and in the 2nd place the people are ¨spoiled"by the fact that Sander had on-the-spot prints. Now everyone wants them. We have explained that 1) there are no more prints (not true) - maybe later (true) and 2) that pictures now have to be taken for the hospital book and has to show people working. So they make a great show of working. One guy practically danced as he painted the walls. Very funny.
Sander succeded in getting great shots of most departments.

Last night Carl and I went to the market to buy somew rhum. The price is rediculously low for some of the best in the world. Smoooooth...
I was short 500 goud (about 10$ Haitian = 1.20c US) and promised to bring it today (their suggestion to take the rhum anyway...it is pretty hard for us to run away...we sort of stand out in a crowd) This morning I did and with a glorious smile handed her the 500 bill, all dirty and crumbled as they all are. She looked at it carefully, straightened it out, looked again and handed it back to me. I thought that was very kind, but insisted that she keep it. She called in the troups, who explained to me it was fake money. Sure enough: it was a 500-whatever bill left from Kyrgyzstan! Another trip to the market will be made later today.

Gladys and the 4 boys will be coming Wednesday and spend Christmas with us. Yesterday, after much searching for the right ingredients, I made a run of 10 typical Milks Christmas loaves and they came out OK. Today I will make the 2nd batch and Carl can give them to his staff. I ordered a dozen eggs from the house lady (brought mayo and had 2 pkts of McD mustard) to make 24 deviled eggs. Also found a tiny piece of (old??) brie in PaP and brought crackers so the staff will have an extremely luxirious Christmas party at our Alumni House, with the wine we brought! The other options are rum or coke or rhum and coke or coke and rhum. We all look forward mto it!

OK. Enough. As you can see I don´t really have miuch to tell today.
Much love to everyone, thank you thone who wrote emails, thank you Jet and Bob for the party picture!
Hugs, Sander, Carl and Marianne