Visitors from Ohio

This week we had the blessing of a visit from a team from Grace Church in Akron, Ohio. Eleven guys arrived on Tuesday night and practically didn't stop working until they left this afternoon to head back to Cayes. We had two docs on the team so some of us we ran a three-day- clinic while others worked on numerous things around the mission from building school desks to repairing water pumps and generators. I wasn't great about taking pictures while the team was here, so thanks RaeLeen for most of these pictures! I'm slightly in awe of people who can do handy-work because I'm completely lost with that kind of thing. The kids had a blast playing in the wood shavings from the boards the guys planed. During the clinic, the doctors saw many patients who came in with anything from skin infections to mental illnesses and everything in between. It was wonderful not to be the one doing the diagnostics! I stayed busy doing pharmacy, interpreting (with Jacqueline's help; the people would say what they have to say, Jacqueline tells me in more simplified Creole, then I'd tell the doctor in English. It took awhile but it worked), doing wound care and whatever else needed to be done.This lady was in a car accident nearly three months ago that killed two of her children and left her with significant abdominal wounds. I've been doing daily dressing changes for about a month and a half with her.My first IV-start in Haiti. After two months I was worried I'd lost the skill. This boy ended up getting sent down the hospital. A couple weeks ago he had a high fever and since then he's had a mental illness where he's been totally out of touch with reality. He came to us hypothermic. The doctors wondered about typhoid fever that was high enough to mess up his brain, including its temperature regulation. It won't be an easy life for him to live out here where mental illnesses are understood even less than they are in the States, but he's a sweet kid and seems to have a family who loves him.Discussing Steven's care with Dr. Eric. Steven's doing really well. He has an appointment at the US Embassy in Port au Prince on Tuesday to apply for his medical visa and from there the last step will be to get the IBESR (something like Haitian social services) to agree to let him leave. If either of these don't go well, it could mean delaying getting him out of the country for his surgery for months so we could really use prayer! I've been continuously working on giving this back to God, trusting that it's really ALL in His hands. If all goes well, I'll be taking Steven to Indianapolis next Monday the 26th, where we'll be leaving him in the hands of his State-side guardians until his surgery at Riley Children's Hospital.

It’s amazing to me how much excitement we have in this far removed corner of the world. A couple nights ago, we got word that a lady had come to the mission to be seen for some injuries from a fall. I went down to find the lady waiting outside the mission gate with a crowd of people around her. Her family had carried her to us on a box-spring mattress-turned-stretcher with two long pieces of wood for handles. Her right leg had an open fracture, her collarbone was broken and I could see bone through the laceration on her head. It turned out that she hadn’t fallen; she’d had an avalanche of rocks fall on her. I learned that when people are working in their garden digging for yams, they dig deep holes and put rocks they find (some the size of small boulders) around the perimeter of the hole. David says that every year he’ll hear of people being killed or seriously injured when the rocks fall back down into the hole on top of people, and yet they continue to do it. It had taken her family a few hours to get her to us, walking part of the several miles, and catching a ride part of the way, so by the time she got here she at least had stopped bleeding. I got to work cleaning and covering the wounds and loading her up with antibiotics what little pain medication we have, while David made arrangements for his son, Josh, to drive her down the mountain to Cayes and the nearest hospital.
Another story I included in one of my emails but haven’t gotten around to putting on this blog happened a few weeks ago. A lady came to us just as we were finishing up work for the day. She had been pregnant but didn’t think the baby was due quite yet, so she walked about 9 miles to the market that morning. On the way home, she had walked about 2 miles, and then went into labor. The way she described it, the baby just slid out right away and passer-by’s helped cut the cord. This baby was very small and had a cleft palate as well as what looked like other neurological problems. So this dear lady walked another 3 miles to where we’re living for us to take a quick look at the child. She only stayed for a few minutes and then wanted to go home before it got dark. She would have walked (another 3 miles on the main dirt road and another mile on a slippery mud foot path) but a neighbor volunteered to take her by motorcycle. Of course I had to take a picture of this lady who had just given birth, walked three miles, was dealing with the shock of a child with serious deformities and was now straddling a motorcycle on a bumpy dirt road with her newborn in her arms! I visited the lady the next day and was really impressed with the way she was coping and caring for this baby in a culture where it would not be unheard of to call the baby a devil-child and throw it out to die. We ended up sending the baby down to the hospital for surgery to repair the cleft palate because he couldn’t have survived in these conditions as he was. I’m so grateful for the ability to send our critical patients to the hospital! It’s shocking how bad things can get for people when they can’t get any medical care because they can’t afford it.
On the whole I’m still doing really well out here. Every morning and into the afternoon I work with a Haitian girl named Jacqueline, who’s had training here in Haiti as a lab tech, and more recently, an American doctor spent two months training her in medicine. We don’t have an official ‘clinic’ here, but we usually see an average of 25 people every day anyway and as much to 40 people on a busy day. Jacqueline only speaks a couple words of English, but fortunately she’s smart enough to be able to figure out what I’m talking about as I butcher Creole. Our communication usually works with the patient explaining their symptoms in rapid paragraphs of Creole, Jacqueline simplifying it for me in Creole, my explaining treatment and medication in what must be pretty sad Creole from the looks that I get, and Jacqueline explaining to the patient what I’ve said so that they can understand it. It’s a little humbling when my Creole has to be re-translated, but I’ve only been here for two months so I guess I’ll need to have a little more patience. Fortunately, for the more complicated communication issues, David is often around and willing to translate. A lot of the people come for common complaints: headache, heartburn, a lot of asthma, simple infections or wound-care, etc., but every so often we do have more serious cases, like the one mentioned above, carried through the gate.
I’ve also gotten to spend a good amount of time getting to know people in the community. I love going for walks and visiting people at their homes. With few exceptions, living conditions in rural Haiti have improved very little over the past centuries. I took these pictures when I went to visit a man who works here at the mission when he was sick a couple days ago. On the way up to his house, we passed a few kids heading down to the mission for the feeding program. This is his mother-in-law as I found her when I walked up to the house, sweeping the yard. For pain, Haitians tend to tie tourniquets around the area that’s giving them grief. Sometimes the tourniquets will be simply strips of cloth, other times they’ll create a home-remedy compress of leaves, dirt and often more disturbing ingredients, and then tie the tourniquet over the compress. TiPelon had been having pain in his ribs so this is the compress that his mother-in-law had tied over them. It could’ve been worse, TiPelon is doing much better now.
Tomorrow, Steven will be going down to Cayes to get a letter from the hospital saying that the surgery he needs is one that can’t be provided in Haiti. That’ll be one step closer to getting him to the States!

Nearly two months old!

Steven, the baby we've been caring for with spina bifida, is getting so big! It's been so fun to get to see him grow from this tiny 5-day old infant to being now almost two months old and starting to show a little personality. Things are starting to move with getting him to the States for surgery, we hope I'll be able to take him out to Indiana in as soon as two weeks. He'll have the surgery at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis and some wonderful people in Indiana and around the country are working on raising the $24-32k (after a 20% discount given by the hospital) needed in funds to cover the surgery and hospitalization. If this is something you or someone you know would be interested in donating funds toward, please let me know.
It's really a miracle how things are moving but we still need several things to happen before we can get Steven to the States. Please join us in praying that things will continue to move quickly and smoothly!

The Hike

We intended to spend Saturday and Sunday hiking 4 hours each day and spending the night in one of the villages along the trail. We were going to visit a number of the new healthcare workers in the training program, make sure that they're aware of the teaching seminars we're holding this week, and map the villages they live in on GPS. We started out great on Saturday morning. We drove the Land Cruiser as far as we dared until the road became impassable, then parked it and started walking. It's notable to mention that we ended up parking the vehicle down a small hill behind a church because people from the church were concerned that if we parked it on the main road the kids of the village might mess with it. The first couple hours passed smoothly. We pass through a few of the villages, meet up with some of the healthcare workers, and enjoy lunch. Traffic heading the opposite direction on the trail.We noticed some dark clouds but figured that if it started to rain, we could duck in at the nearest house along the way. It wasn't until we entered this huge valley that's uninhabited because of flooding that the rain started, first in trickles but soon in sheets! We're all 100% soaked through by the time we reach the nearest shelter and face the choice of pressing on and sleeping on the trail (some of us by this time had no dry clothes or blankets) or heading back. We pressed on. So did the rain. After awhile, the trail got tougher. I wish I had pictures of the streams we crossed and the mountains we climbed up and down on a narrow slippery trail with a steep drop just a step away, but my camera was safely tucked away by this point. About this time, I found myself indebted to the guys we'd hired to carry our bags for saving me from a number of rough falls. Since our route was a large circle, we decided to finish the loop on Saturday because it was sinking in how miserable we would be in cold, wet clothes. We were hoping to make it back by dark, but all we had to estimate how long it would take us to reach the car was contradictory advise from different people and a rough idea from the GPS. When dark hit we were still walking but by this time we were off of the mountain and on a path made of rocks - Uncle John put it well when he said it was like trying to walk on softballs, the rocks were between the size of softballs and soccer balls. By this time my new Haitian friend has me by the upper arm and has given up letting go unless we come upon a particularly easy patch - it was a little humbling to learn that apparently I'm not as good at walking as I thought I was, but mostly really funny.
After covering nearly 17 miles of rough terrain in about 9.5 hours, we finally arrived back at the truck. Unfortunately, the truck is parked down a steep incline made of what is now mud. A ton of guys try to push it up, but it just wouldn't budge past a certain distance. Fortunately, later on in the evening David was able to come in his massive Deuce army truck with chains to pull us out and we made it back home tired and cold but overall unscathed!

Pestel

Everytime I'm with Uncle John in Haiti there are sure to be a number of adventures. These past few days I've had a blast getting to spend time with my brother, cousin, uncle and friends. On Friday we made the 17 mile (approx 1 hour) drive to Pestel. Pestel's a neat port town with a lot of character left from the French colony days. It almost reminds me of a third-world version of New Orlean's Square in Disneyland. Cool old buildings, very colorful. We met with a doctor who is the medical head of this region of the country to discuss the healthcare worker training program with him to get the seal of approval we need to continue. The meeting was an amazing success and we have his backing for the program. After the meeting, we had a little time left before we had to head home, so what else do we do but hire a boat and head out on the water to visit one of the nearby islands.Our 'Taxi' didn't go very fast so we had some time to relax and enjoy the ride.
It was cool getting to see some of the coast, especially the many different boats in all shapes and sizes and degrees of repair - I'm not sure if it will show up very well with such a small picture but these sails appear to be made up of garbage bags. We stopped to visit a man and his family John met two years ago. This man has a plot of land only accessible by either what looks to be a very steep foot path or by the water. On this property there is a large cave extending into the cliff-side and a bit of flat land next to the water covered with rocks. For at least two years this man and his family have worked to make this into a 'beach' people will want to pay to come visit. The man breaks off huge rocks from the inside of the cave (where he and his family are living, by the way), his son breaks them up into smaller rocks and the man carries the small rocks out onto the 'beach' and smooths them out. They are also working to build some kind of shelter on the beach to give it more of a resort atmosphere. I'm not sure if anything will ever come of this beach but it was pretty amazing to see the vision this man had and the amount of work he's put into it.Once we arrived on the island, we weren't able to spend much time, we just walked for a bit in one of the villages, talked to a few people and played with the kids. I was impressed to see a school on the island and the evidence that many people had recently gotten medical care.

On the way back, most of the boys decided they couldn't be this close to the Carribean Sea and not go swimming.

Surprise!

Last Thursday I received surprise visit from my brother Scott, my cousin Josh, Uncle John and friend Etienne! About 4:30 in the afternoon when this white Land Cruiser pulls onto the mission property, I thought I recognized it as being one of Harvest's vehicles so I was watching to see who was in it. At first all I saw was a Haitian in the drivers' seat, but then when Pastor Etienne pulled up and gave me a bag of Goldfish I thought it was pretty strange and noticed a white arm in the back seat...still totally clueless I asked Etienne where in the world he had gotten Goldfish in Haiti (I didn't think anything was TOO strange about him bringing me Goldfish because he knows I love them and I always bring it for his daughters when I visit...I just thought it was super random) and wondered what team he had with him. I thought it was strange that they weren't sitting up to see us, hearing English voices in the middle of nowhere. I was FLOORED to see Scott, Josh and Uncle John hiding in the back seat. Especially Scott, for some reason my mind just couldn't reconcile to seeing him in Haiti! I can't believe everyone was able to keep this a secret! RaeLeen did an amazing job of preparing the house for visitors without my being any the wiser. Her kids and household staff didn't even know until a couple hours before the guys showed up because she was worried about my hearing them talking! But even if I had heard someone talking and was able to understand a little of it in Creole, I never would have assumed that they were coming. RaeLeen was great, she and her girls had come down to where I was hanging out with the kids. She knew I was about to head out to change Baby Steven's dressing and did a great job stalling me from leaving until the Land Cruiser rolled up the drive!We all left a little while later to visit Steven and we made such a spectacle walking down the road, half the kids from around here followed us! I think that most of the neighborhood is used to me walking around, so, while they watch me, they don't make a big deal about it usually anymore, but a group of Americans (especially with such big guys) is always sure to draw attention. Janice, Steven's mom, is often pretty shy around me so I wondered what was going through her mind as our little group trooped up to her house! Scott has pictures from when he held Steven. It was amazing seeing Scott's huge hand compared to Steven's tiny little body!

Lately God has really been drawing to my attention his faithfulness in all things. I keep finding myself looking at circumstances and assuming I know how things will go…or more accurately out here, assuming that they could go any number of different ways, as one of Haiti’s consistencies is inconsistency. I forget that we serve a God who is very much involved in His people’s lives, who is big enough to hold the universe in his hands. In the middle of everything that’s been happening the past few weeks, with the rioting and starvation, he continues to show up and provide for our needs in amazing ways. I sent an email update out a couple days ago about how God provided when the food for the nutritional program here that feeds 300 children everyday nearly ran out because the rioting in Cayes prevented us from being able to re-stock. It was quite amazing how God coordinated everything to get that food up here in the midst of the riots! Everyday it’s a blessing to get to watch those children enjoy a full meal, knowing it means the difference between life and death for them. It’s hard, knowing that these mountains are full of other children who live in hunger but I’m grateful for the work God is doing here and trust it will continue to increase.These are some of the kiddos I've had so much fun getting to know as they're here everyday for the nutritional program.Caleb is probably one of my favorite camera subjects. This little boy is just full of so much life and mischief! His mother cooks for the nutritional program and is a really neat lady, the glue that holds her entire family together.
Donna (the little girl crying) and Daphna are usually smiling and strolling hand-in-hand but I love this picture because it just captures what a caring little soul Daphna has. I believe she's probably about 3 years old but she's such a relationship-oriented girl, it's rare to see her without her arm around a friend.Kenley (Caleb's cousin) continues to hold such a soft spot in my heart. His mother is going through a particularly tough time as she nearly died of a botched home abortion. She is now in Cayes recovering from surgery (thanks to all of you who prayed when we were worried about getting her down there during the rioting!) but will have a long road ahead. I spend as much time as I can loving on this guy who is very much in need of a mom.About 10 children currently live in the nutritional center. Gayleen and Viswa are two of five siblings who live there. Their father has died and their mother is an incredibly mean lady. Here they are safe and cared for. I've started spending a few nights a week watching a movie or TV show with the kids on my laptop. They love one show in particular called 'Life is Wild', a show that was on the WB for awhile about a family that moves to South Africa. Even though it's in English and they don't understand a word of it, night after night they ask me to turn on this show. Although I enjoy watching the kids reaction to the shows and movies we watch together, the highlight for me is holding Gayleen and having her fall asleep in my lap.

Last week I was able to join a team from the States for a couple days that was running medical clinics a few miles down the road from here. We saw many people in those few days and encountered a whole lot of crazy medical conditions I hesitate to describe in detail just incase you might be eating (sometimes I forget that not everyone shares my interest in all the gory details). We sent a couple children, including this boy, who just won't survive out here, to orphanages and others to the hospital for further care. I’ll be following up with several of patients in the coming weeks. One thing I like about being out here for more than just a few days is the chance to follow up and witness the improvement in our patients through our care. Besides getting to have more people to enjoy and speak English with, I was grateful to have this team out here because several of my current patients were able to go to the clinics so that I could consult with other medical personnel to make sure I’m on the right track with treatment. It was really good to be reassured that I'm doing the correct things for them!

Something I've been having to really trust God with is provision for Baby Steven (the now one-month-old baby with spina bifida I've been caring for nearly everyday since he was just a few days old) to be able to get to the States for surgery. We have reason to believe that the organization we were hoping would provide funding for the surgery might not be able to cover the expenses. We may not know right now how everything will work out, but I have to believe that God has his own plans for this baby and is more than able to bring them about.

Clorox

This has been a pretty exciting week for Haiti! I'm not sure how much news has gotten back to the States about the Demonstrations in Les Cayes. Protesters have attacked the UN and so far we know that at least 5 people have died (but I'm not sure which side the dead were on). Here's what we've heard from Rod and Debbie Wray, missionaries in Cayes:

All around our area of Cayes there have been roadblocks and tires burning since early yesterday morning. Here is part of a newspaper article;

Demonstrators angry over Haiti's rising cost of living
attacked a United Nations peacekeeping base and looted
food shops in the south.

About 5,000 people demonstrated in the southern
peninsula city of Les Cayes, where protesters chanting
slogans against President Rene Preval attempted to set
the UN police base on fire and stole rice from trucks
as Haitian police stood by helplessly.

This is a picture of one of many roadblocks which were blocking the road to the Cayes airport.

The U.N. are trying to restore order, but not having much success.

The Haitians are very upset at the huge increase in prices over the past few weeks. A small sack of rice has gone from $20.00 U.S dollars to $35.00 U.S dollars in two weeks. A 20 foot length of 1/2 inch rebar has gone from $7.00 U.S to $12.00 U.S in the past three weeks. Both diesel fuel and gasoline prices have increased and just about all other items have increased in price also.

The starvation here has reached new levels with the cost of living increasing so dramatically. When I see people for medical problems, I will sometimes ask if they are getting enough to eat or if they have been able to eat and I've been surprised that the answer is always yes, especially if the person is severely underweight. I just found out today that I've been committing a major faux pas by my question or even talking about food. RaeLeen was telling me that to admit to being hungry here is a VERY shameful thing (comparable to discussing having an STD in the States). Instead of discussing hunger, people out here have started talking about 'Clorox'. What they mean by this is their stomachs are burning with hunger just as they would burn if they drank clorox. I've been here nearly a month and I still can't even get my mind around the misery people live with.

One reason the people are striking out against the UN is that they're supposed to be here to help make things better, but instead they have stood aside as the situation grows more desperate. When I was down here in 2006, we came across the scene of a bus accident. There were nearly 100 people needing medical attention and three empty UN trucks passed the scene without slowing down. A friend of the Bustins said that in Port Au Prince UN soldiers stood by as a girl was raped. The stance of the UN has been that they are here as 'peace-keepers' only and as such they observe and do not interfere. The people aren't standing for it anymore. David thinks that after a couple of days the Haitian government will respond by lowering prices some but with international prices increasing, they might not be lowered much.

Everyday more and more people have been showing up for medical attention, some with minor aches and pains, but a lot with true medical issues. I've struggled in the past with feeling so inadequate to meet all the needs I see, and I sometimes have to fight that feeling off during the times when all I can do is offer a little Tylenol to ease pain for a short time. This morning I read II Cor 12v.9: "And He said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." What an encouragement this is. God is going to accomplish through me what He wants to, and it's going to be His strength, not mine. I just have to keep serving the people he puts in front of me. We do whatever we can to help but even if I could provide for all the material needs of everyone I see, it wouldn't make an eternal difference unless God changed their hearts as well. Haiti is the way it is because of a long history of corruption and rebellion and it won't change until the hearts of its people change.