Last Full Day

No sleep last night.  Stayed up too late since it was my last night.

Kendra and I walked/jogged around on the main road within UN Camp Charlie at 5:30am for about an hour.  When we got back about 6:30am, all the men were assembled in uniform for their morning meeting - oops!

Shower and breakfast.  Bologna sandwich, I only had french fries.  Omar gave the guys the parts of the van.  One screw is not the size requested.  Great.

Packed all our bags, then Kendra and Hermanito decided to go to the hardware store to find the right screw.  We need that van fixed!

Omar and Sue laid down for a nap while I made phone calls and did emails.  The clinic is next door and there aren't any patients, so the Doctor (Diego) came to visit for awhile.  Two hour nap afterwards.  During this time Kendra and Hermanito went to six hardware stores with no luck.  Yes, six (6) hardware stores and none had a 4inch screw.  They finally went to Russ and Sherry's up the mountain and Russ thread one for us.



As soon as they came back, a few of the officers came by to wish us all well.  Diego gave me a soccer shirt that says "Mbarete", pronounced m-bare-re-te.  It means strength in guarani.  Guarani is their native language in Paraguay - it is only spoken there so on their walkie talkies they will speak in it so no one knows what they are saying.

Taking pictures in front of our container.  To the left is the gun container.

Emily and Major Rodriguez

Omar, Emily, Lt Diego Lesme (Doctor), Susan

Emily and Carlos Martinez (Deacon)

Hermanito, Captain Florentin, Captain Torress and the UN Japengcoy officers went out to the village with us at 1pm to assess if they will be able to move the houses.

Emily and Captain Torres

Captain Torres, Kendra, Captain Florentin, Emily

Jacque, Baby Elby, Susan, Megine

Megine did Sue's hair and I sat with some others.  Then Sue passed out some clothes.  I printed pictures from my last trip and passed them out.  They were a hit!  I am going to bring more next time.  In Haiti, one picture costs 50 goudes or $1.25 US to print.  At home I print them on sale for $0.13 each.  For one - crazy.

About 3pm we headed to the border.  The water is not as bad because they have built up the roads and made a barrier, but it is still a mess.

We went to the bus station, but the bus had already left.  A guy told us it was just down the road, so we sped up to hop on.  Omar came at the last minute because an IT company just offered him a job over the phone.  Yay Omar!

I slept almost the entire six hour bus ride.  After having only french fries for breakfast and no lunch, I was totally bummed to get on the bus with no snacks and minimal water.  I was desperate for some food and a coca cola!  About four hours into the ride, we did make a pit stop.  Yes!  A bathroom, chicken, fries and a coca cola!  The three of us were sooo happy!

Got to the bus station in a shady area, got a taxi and went to Esmeldin's house about 11:15pm.