Clothes

In Haiti, the clothes donated by other countries, are sold in small markets and so most of the women come to the clinic in the cutest and most fashionable outfits and I always think they look better on them than the first time around in the US. Tight jeans and sweet skirts, shoes and hats. They live with no electricity or running water and show up just as cute and done up as can be. Recently a young woman had her baby and was back in her skin tight jeans lying in bed nursing 30 minutes later! The houses are often no larger than our garages, with many people so I am deeply in awe. A traditional house is painted bright colors and in a cluster with perhaps a pump and outdoor cooking area. Work, including wash is all done in the "yard" where children play. I suspect the houses that share one yard are related.

A concern, I try to share, is that US baby clothes are too hot for Haiti and so babies are arriving in wool and layers with temperatures of 102 ! so this is not working well for babies. Their own baby clothes are light, brightly colored and perfect.

My own clothes are washed outside and perhaps over bleached as the flowers fade away. I can barely stand to wear a sundress it is so hot. I feel badly about so much handwashing and it is easy for me to rinse out many of my own things. The families are expected to do their own birth laundry so they are out there scrubbing away, even the fathers.

There are cactus fences and it is common to see the clothes hanging from them as i walk down the road.

The children in the orphanage do not seem to have access even to the second hand markets so i am sure some nice clean t- shirts would be appreciated.

I hear a birthing woman approaching. Sounds like better run fast!