THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130246
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Eric Feber
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
While spending a week in Haiti this summer as a visiting doctor with the Physicians for Peace program, Chesapeake's Patricia Raymond and her colleagues didn't live off Big Macs.
Raymond, a gastroenterologist and member of the Chesapeake General Hospital medical staff, traveled to Haiti at the end of June. They went to work, observe and teach at the Hopital Sainte Croix, a 120-bed general hospital owned by the Episcopal Church of Haiti and located in Leogane, about 30 kilometers west of the country's capital of Port-Au-Prince.
While in Leogane, Raymond, her fellow doctors and other scientists and researchers who happened to be at the hospital compound ate what was readily available.
``We ate an awful lot of goat,'' Raymond said. ``We also ate conch, wiry chickens, a lot of papaya and freshly squeezed citrus juices. But the diets of Haitians aren't that bad. In fact, their diet is very high in fiber and low in animal fat.''
But one of Raymond's most memorable gastronomic memories of Haiti happened at the end of one very hot and sticky day.
``It was a `hot as Haiti' type of day,'' she said. ``The surprise for us that night was homemade ice cream made with pineapple and banana. At that time, it seemed like such a miracle to have anything like ice cream in the middle of that hot, humid Caribbean weather. To have something cold and sweet and that delicious was such a treat!'' Too early for spooking
If seeing Christmas decorations and displays before Thanksgiving isn't way too early, consider the fact that a few Chesapeake businesses, and others in the region for that matter, are jumping the gun on Halloween.
A couple of local businesses have already been setting out displays of Halloween candy and decorations. And those were spotted two weeks ago, at the end of July when the thermometer was boiling at daily readings of 90 degrees and hotter.
One of the establishments, a party shop, had spooky and bewitching decorations set up and the other business, part of a retail discount chain, already has boxes upon boxes of Halloween candy on display so we can stock up now for Oct. 31.
Gee, won't all that candy just melt into a big gooey mess before Halloween even arrives? Or worse yet, in all that time, won't get eaten before the witching evening even approaches? All that candy is too much of a temptation for any family. by CNB