A Daily Dose of Di

2011-09-29T11:47:00.002-04:00

Hello, all!

Sorry for the silence! I've moved over to a new site... it seemed appropriate with a new last name, a new job, and new home. :) Thanks for following my adventures in Haiti, and I'd love for you to see what's new at:
http://thedownlowe-dianita.blogspot.com/

Going to the Chapel...

2010-08-29T22:25:00.001-04:00

... and gonna get married... :)

My wonderful boyfriend is now my wonderful fiancé!! Yay! Sorry about the dearth of blog posts, but you can read all about wedding stuff it our wedding website, created with love by my amazing maid of honor:
http://www.justproposed.com/dianeanddavid2010/

More news to come soon!

Never a Dull Moment

2010-06-30T22:15:00.001-04:00

So, today started out a little bit crazy... By 7:15 this morning, I had run along the beach, kept Sassie from being eaten by another dog, febreezed the dog I'm dogsitting, found and cleaned up his doggie doodle left on the living room floor, killed the largest cockroach I'd ever seen (more than 2 inches!!), gotten fresh spinach from the garden, been asked for a doll by a girl on the street, and talked to several people in Creole.

Maybe all of that should have prepared me for this afternoon's adventure...

Around 4pm, I left my house to go greet some visitors. They had walked up from the wharf because Trisha, who normally would have picked them up, had taken our friend Neil to the airstrip. I called Trisha who agreed to come get us and take us to the wharf to get the visitors' suitcases. So, we head down there and just as we arrive home with the stuff, Trisha gets a call from Neil, who's in the airplane.

The plane had HIT A TREE leaving our airstrip and knocked off one of its landing wheels!!!! Neil asked us to go to the airstrip and pick it up. They were still heading to their destination and were going to attempt a crash landing. Crazy!!!!

Matt and Bena took off on the 4 wheeler and Trisha and I and like 5 WISH guys piled back into the truck. The whole drive down it was thundering and lightening and starting to rain, and we prayed and talked and prayed!!! It felt like something out of a movie!

When we finally got there, Matt and Bena had found the wheel, and Matt took me over to show me the spot and the HOUSE that the wheel had hit!!!! The plane was a privately owned small plane being flown by a retired pilot, not the regular missionary (MAF) flights that we usually use.The pilot did not have much experience flying in Haiti and took off from the middle of runway instead of using its entire length like the MAF guys do. He didn't get enough lift and smacked the top of a tree. The wheel came off landing on the corner of a thatched roof shack and causing a huge hole in the ceiling. The people and goat inside the building all ran outside, unharmed, and rushed down toward the seashore.

Matt and I rode the 4-wheeler home dodging goats and pigs while lightening lit up the sky. Trisha called us with updates as we continued to pray for a safe landing of the plane. They got rerouted to Port Au Prince, since there's better safety equipment and hospitals there, as they attempted to land with only half their landing gear! Butch (who is in Port overnight waiting to bring a doc back here for a short trip) and Dan were asked to meet the plane at the airport. They arrived just in time to watch it come in, make a shaky landing, spin in circles on the ground, sliding off the runway and finally come to a halt!

Praise the Lord! No one was hurt! Whew! What a day!

Christmas in July!!

2010-06-29T21:23:00.000-04:00

It's so exciting!!!

After almost 2 years without a functioning x-ray machine, my hospital is getting ready to celebrate (and accurately diagnose fractures again!)!!! It feels like Christmas is coming! On July 2nd, our new machine is going to be shipped from FL to Port au Prince. Please join us in praying that it flies through customs and that we get our machine and training on it so very soon!

Praise the Lord!

p.s.

2010-06-27T14:49:00.000-04:00

Check out the Charite Service link for another post on all the little "coincidences" of the last couple of weeks... crazy awesome tales of summer homes, creole words, visitors, and good books!

My Life in Haiti, The Sequel

2010-06-27T12:20:00.001-04:00

"Apre danse, tanbou toujou lou." (Haitian proverb)
"After the dance, the drum is always heavy. (i.e., after the excitement, life is boring)

About a month ago, that was exactly how I felt. One night, I was talking with a friend and realized that I felt like I was living in the epilogue of the my story in Haiti. The earthquake craziness is mostly over, we're settling into a new normal, and my life even has some semblance of a routine. We've started swapping war stories of what we all did right after "the event" of January 12th. It's almost easy to look back and to be able to say with some conviction, "yeah, I was supposed to be in Haiti for that season. I was supposed to help out. That was part of the plan." And that leaves this season sometimes feeling like an epilogue. There didn't seem to be much excitement or much to say now. I started to wonder if maybe my time here, my purpose here, was over. And there's not a lot to say in an epilogue; it's time to finish the book and start a new one.
My friend challenged me to live these next several months like I'm starting the next book. Instead of living in the memories of this crazy year, I want to focus on the new adventures that God offers for this time in Haiti. The dance isn't over yet.
And, thus far, the sequel has been incredible!!
God put some things on my heart last year and this winter that He is now bringing into existence! Last year while I was preparing to come to Haiti, I felt like God wanted me to do some discipleship with younger Christian girls and to spend time at the orphanage. And now He's opening doors for both!! My friend Esther (whose father passed away when she was 8)came over this week for a Bible study that the Lord showed me about being a beloved child of God (and which she loved so much that she invited me to share it with her youth group this afternoon!!). On Saturday, I had 9 older girls from the orphanage come to my house for a fun party of painting fingernails, eating cupcakes, singing, and sharing that same Bible lesson, with Esther as my co-teacher. How sweet to see God bringing to life dreams that He gave me so long ago!!
The Lord also put on my heart to work on offering continuing medical education (CME) at the hospital. And, Lord willing, this week we will host our first guest speaker, an OB/GYN from Texas who will share on difficult birth presentations, prenatal care, and eclampsia! While I love seeing patients, taking care of them, and praying with them, I can only see so many. But if we can pass more education on to the health care providers who will be here for years, what a wonderful thing to leave behind!!
Thus far, I'm likin' the sequel an awful lot!! This week looks like it's going to be an exciting next chapter!

Lost in Translation

2010-06-04T21:54:00.000-04:00

David got the funniest email today! When he was in Haiti in March, he made friends with a guy who did a great job teaching him Creole. They've written a few times, and David sent him a gift when friends of his from Clemson went down to Haiti this week.
David was in Georgia when the group left for Haiti, so he had his buddy Adam pick up something for the Haitian friend. He mentioned something like a Clemson hat or t-shirt.
Today, David got a thank-you email from his Haitian friend, thanking him profusely in English for remembering him and sending him such a wonderful... casket!!
What on earth did David's friend pick up in Clemson?! I looked up the word casket for the Creole translation and couldn't find it. And then I decided to check the Creole-English side and found that the word "kasket" means baseball cap!
O the joys of translation!

Think on These Things

2010-05-23T08:40:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to focus on the positive while I've been down for the count with typhoid... I've been attempting to work out my funny bone by watching funny movies (my mom's favorite prescription for when her family gets sick :). I've been taking my mom's advice so much that I think I could apply for a job as a movie reveiwer! :) I turned movie watching into an 8 hour day of work! I could also start my own weight loss program called "Got Typhoid?" as I've lost 5 pounds this week! It's amazing how you can make one slice of pie last 3 days when you're nauseous and have a funky white coating on your tongue. And using a rusty can opener can be an amazing workout when the furthest you've traveled all day is to your spare bedroom in a 700 square foot apartment. But I feel like having typhoid is right on par with getting a tape worm for weight loss-- rather effective, but you still have to work the bugs out!

So in light of thinking about happy things, a few weeks ago I saw the neatest thing. And the memory has been warming my heart even on days when I've had the worst chills!

That day, I was craving cookies. Big time. So, I set out down the street headed to the closest cookie vendor. And wearing my favorite skirt. It's always nice to try to feel kinda pretty in the 105 degree heat. As I walked, I heard some familiar shouts from children.

"Blan (white girl)," they called out as I strolled by. I smiled and debated on answering with my typical response, "My name's not 'Blan,' it's Diane."

Before I decided, I walked by 2 women. One was short and stocky and pushing a wheelbarrow heavy laden with a giant steel pot in it. The other was tall and slender and perfectly balancing a medium sized pot on her head. And then with the same insistent voice that the children yell out "blan," they called out, "Diane!"

I was quite surprised! I didn't recognize these women. And the way that they yelled my name is not the way that a friend typically greets you. Creeped out, I continued down the road to my cookies. After buying several packages of the tasty little coconut cookies, I turned towards my home again. And passed the same 2 women, who called out in the same way as before.

I felt the Holy Spirit prick my heart through my armor. When you leave to go out on the street, often you steel yourself. You know that the children will call out to you. Often, people will stop you and ask you for things... money, water, toys, a radio, your hand in marriage. Some are truly in need; others are just playing a game to see your response. But I felt clearly that God wanted me to put down my guard.

So, slowly, I turned around, forced a smile, and said to the women, "Ah, I see that you know my name, but I'm sorry that I do not yet know yours!"

The women smiled broadly and introduced themselves. We attend the same church, and they had seen me introduced in front of the congregation several months ago. They live on the Saline-- the poorest part of town-- and were headed to Kay Pov Yo, or the Home for the Destitute, with food. The shorter lady pulled the lid off her pot to show me a heaping mound of rice and beans. The tall, slender one took down her pan and showed me a red fish sauce that emitted a tantalizing aroma. While impoverished themselves, they feel strongly that the church needs to help those less fortunate, and they had volunteered to take food to Kay Pov Yo. Our church does that on occasion, they explained to me.

And they complimented me on my skirt, one that my mom had given to me recently. And they complimented my mom's good taste in clothing. And they thanked me for coming to Haiti.

And I was thoroughly humbled by their generosity. And their kindness. I'm also so thankful to know that others love the downtrodden ones that have captured my heart. And the memory of it still makes me smile. :)

Health and Haiti

2010-05-22T12:04:00.002-04:00

Thank you soooo much for the sweet emails, love, and prayers as I recover from typhoid!! Thankfully, I'm finally starting to feel a little human again this morning. I have a little more energy, a little less abdominal pain, and a lot less nausea. Also, my labs returned to normal yesterday-- praise the Lord!! At the beginning of the week, my WBC was 3,000 and my Hct was 30, as can happen with typhoid. It's so nice that on paper, my body is getting better. Hopefully, the rest of me will follow along soon!!

My friend Caleb is doing food distribution, and he sent out this email update as a prayer request for our health. It so eloquently sums up my experience here, that I wanted to share it with you too:
Caleb

..."Actually, I would ask you to please pray for the health of all of the workers and missionaries here. It is true that Western hygiene and good diet help protect us but we need more than that. I don’t intend to be dramatic but this place is full of sickness and death, before and after the earthquake. I hear the death wails from the hospital so frequently I almost don’t notice them. Same with the stories, “oh so and so’s son died last night of an asthma attack.” “Oh him? Yes, his family was all killed.” “No, no, this was a different 3 year old who died of malnutrition.” I could write on and on, pages maybe, but my point is just that one gets used to this stuff it’s so common. And we who work here are only protected by the grace of God. It’s not that we deserve more protection than our brothers here, it’s that if we are to help them we have to be healthy and strong enough. God please give us that grace."

Amen.

Dangerous Dave and Dancin' Di

2010-05-22T11:38:00.001-04:00

Another one of my adventures before I got struck down with typhoid...

"Pye, pye, fe bak... pye, pye, fe bak," David repeated and grinned at me over Esther's head. We were doing it! We were actually teaching our first swing dance lesson together, and it happened to be in Haiti... with explanations in Creole! Esther looked delighted!
And David pointed out to me a universal truth of dancing... Women everywhere love to dance, and male shyness crosses international borders! David's taught many beginner lessons before, but this was my first time helping him teach a group. And what a fun group to start with!! Esther had invited us to church that morning for David's only Sunday in Haiti, and after seeing lots of pictures on my fridge of David and I swing dancing, Esther asked us to teach the youth group how to dance. Swing is how David and I met a year and a half ago and something that we still love to do when I don't have a broken arm or typhoid. :)
The girls loved it! I think God planted a dancing gene into almost every woman's DNA. And there's something about the creativity and smoothness of lindy hop that beckons to that gene. Even in another language. Even if the boys hang back shyly.
The pastor and some of the younger guys bravely repeated our little mantra (foot, foot, go back; my attempt at translating step, step, rock step), and they picked up the steps rather quickly. David was the perfect teacher, and I loved watching him communicate through the international language of dance. All we need now are some good swing dance instructor names, as all the best instructors have names with a cool ring to it. How do you feel about Dangerous Dave and Dancin Di? Coming to a country near you soon!!! :D

Alo? This is Diane speaking....

2010-05-20T15:45:00.003-04:00

A typical week of phone calls in the States consists of things like a call from my mom with an invitation to dinner, a call from David about when he’s picking me up for a date, calls from friends to set up coffee chat-fests, and maybe a long distance call to faraway friend or sibling who’s still close in my heart.
My typical Haitian phone calls in a week go something like this:
Monday morning, Mme. Soliet called to tell me that they were out of food. Completely. She sent the orphans to school without any breakfast and had nothing to serve them when they return. Is there any way that I could help them?
That led to a brief cry over orphans going hungry and then more phone calls around to see if there was funding available. Thankfully, the last team that was here left a generous donation that will get her through for a few more days, and another phone call lined up some things for the orphanage after that.
Next, Monday afternoon was phone call from Mis Vero, my dear Haitian nurse friend. She was calling to see if I felt any worse and to let me know that she was coming by to take out my IV, the one that she had put in that morning when she visited me at home. I’m so thankful that she makes house calls!
That night, I made a call to my family to tell them I have typhoid.
Tuesday consisted of calls from missionaries to see how I was and to discuss some upcoming visitors, a call from a Haitian buddy to tell me about the LaGonave soccer team playoffs on Sunday and how I should go if I’m better, and a thank you call from Mme. Soliet.
Wednesday, there were calls to set up a missionary flight in a 4-seater plane to Port in a few weeks, calls about hiring someone to cook and clean for me since I can’t get up off the couch, and calls to pray that God would protect the food distribution from rain and violence. The good thing about being sick is that you have lots of time to pray!
Today has had more calls from the orphanage (with a report that the kids are all healthy and playing, and sometimes playing too rough and Mme. Soliet gets to be referee), a call from Caleb about keys for somewhere and how the police on the mainland may have been looking to appropriate some of the food from his distribution and to please keep praying.
So, my phone’s been busy this week! And sometimes the calls feel a little bit like lines from episode of Burn Notice. Just another normal week here in Haiti….

A Note from the Sick Bed and How to Eat a Coconut

2010-05-19T12:53:00.001-04:00

Some Follow Up on Being Sick:

Typhoid. {sigh} And anemia. {sigh again} Once again, I am thankful that none of this takes God by surprise, even though I had not been planning on getting sick this year. It's nice to finally have some answers on why my stomach still bothers me and why I'm exhausted, but I still covet your prayers.

While I've been convalescing in my home for the past week, I really have no new adventures to report. So, I've been working on reporting an older adventure. A few weeks ago, I learned how to prepare coconut here, and my experience is as follows...

How To Eat a Coconut in Haiti:

"Knock, knock!" someone called to me on evening a few weeks ago. It was Jon Bena, who was standing outside my door with 3 other Haitian friends and Caleb. Here, it's rare to actually knock on someone's door, and much more common to call out. Another typical greeting is for the visitor to say "One" (honor) to which you answer "respe" (respect). This particular evening, they had come to visit and see if I wanted some coconut.

In America, for me, coconut comes sweetened, shaved, and in a plastic bag. In Haiti, it comes from Jon Bena's 13 year old friend climbing the coconut tree in the yard outside my door. In an amazing feat of acrobatics, this boy climbed the 40 foot tree to throw down some coconuts for me.

After that, we walked over to a stump so that the buys could hack off the outside covering with a machete. Ben, Jon Bena's twin brother, is teaching the younger guys who to use a machete and still keep all of your fingers. Ben and jon Bena learned how to use one when they were 11 or 12.

After the thick outside layer was off of the coconuts, we migrated back to my house, found a drill, and made a small hole in the top of each coconut. That allowed us to extract the yummy coconut water. We poured all the coconut water into a pitcher, added sugar, and stuck it in the fridge for a couple of house until it was ready to be a nice, tasty, chilly treat for us!

Next commenced coconut smashing... which means going outside to my front patio and dropping the coconuts onto the ground to break the brown outer shell. It was then ready to pry out of that dark brown shell with a small spacula. After that (and sneaking a few small pieces to taste :), the coconuts were ready to peel the outside skin off. While I enjoy nibbling on it with the light skin still on, it's best for cooking and pies if you peel the rest off. I've found that a small paring knife is quicker than a potato peeler, but either way it's still a time consuming task. After that, the final step in the process is grating the coconut. At long last, your coconut is ready to be munch or added into granola or made into a delicious coconut cream pie!

David's Amazing Missions Blog :D

2010-05-11T18:02:00.003-04:00

I'm so excited for him!!! My amazing boyfriend David got accepted into a missions internship program in Costa Rica for this fall! I can't wait to read all about his adventures there! He'll be doing civil engineering projects and speaking a ton of Spanish.

You can follow him too at: www.engineeringhope.blogspot.com

p.s.

2010-05-11T13:17:00.001-04:00

Hi, again!!!

Just a quick note of enormous thanks to my dear friend Bethi for my lovely blog makeover!!!! While waiting for the arrival of her second adorable baby girl, Bethi made my blog look gorgeous! Thanks a million, my dear friend! And welcome to the world, baby Madeline! I'm so glad you're here!

You can follow her adventures at her amazing blog: http://www.bethibook.com/

Thanks, Bethi!

My Life as a Haitian

2010-05-11T13:15:00.000-04:00

Hi, blog friends!
Sorry about the long absence! It's been a really busy but neat month! I feel like I've gotten to experience a lot of distinctly Haitian things, and it's been wonderful. Are you interested in some details on my adventures as a "blan" (white girl) pretending to be Haitian?
First, I got back into the country 3 weeks ago after a nice little rest in the US. Since life has been a bit more intense for us post-quake, our mission board asked us to work a certain number of weeks and then rest. So, I was up on the respite cycle again, and it was nice to see my family, some friends, and my David again. So sweet!
Since I've been back, it's been an adventure! On our way back out to the island, we stopped in a little town and bought pates, a yummy little deep-fried, homemade hot pocket. Then, we took the sail boat, The Wesleyanna, back to our island paradise. Shortly after I got home, I opened the cupboard door, and a tiny gecko ran out! Next, the water in my kitchen didn’t work, so I got just a little taste of Haitian life as I carried drinking water from the Guest House to my own (if I were really Haitian, though, I would have carried it on my head—the women here are amazing!!!). I am so thankful to have running water again!
I’ve also been exploring the local market. When we have short term teams visiting from other countries, I usually eat in the Guest House with them, so I haven’t needed to cook for myself very often. But this month, I’ve gotten to do so more. Matt (a friend of mine from SC who’s also here serving for a year), Caleb (a guy from NY who’s been here since the earthquake directing food distribution), and I all went to the market. Matt’s great at finding the stuff that we want, Caleb’s amazing at negotiating prices on mangoes and lobsters, and I am the coconut buyer (I made friends with a merchant and her daughter and they give me a good price ). Matt and Caleb also found (and tried) dirt cookies, much to the amusement of the women working in the market!). Dirt cookies are made from a certain type of clay, sold very cheaply, and are supposed to stave off hunger pangs when you’re starving. Matt says that they taste like—shocker—dirt! Please pray for those who don’t know where their next meal is coming from; for those who find that dirt cookies are their only option.
I’ve also been working in the hospital clinic. It’s been neat to get to know the nurses better, see patients on follow-up visits, and feel more comfortable in my Creole. It’s been slightly less neat that some of my patients share well, and I’m home sick today.
David’s here for a visit!! It’s been fun to have him (especially when I wasn’t sick ). We went to my friend Esther’s church on Sunday, and we were asked to sing a duet! That’s how they like to make visitors feel welcome!! And it really doesn’t matter how you sound as long as you make a joyful noise to the Lord (thankfully, since I’m not much of a singer!).
There’s a quick summary of some of my Haitian adventures! I’ll try to update again as soon as I have some more adventures!

For Such a Time as This

2010-04-08T18:26:00.000-04:00

We kicked up clouds of dust as we exited church two weeks ago. Not on purpose, but it's the end of dry season, and everything is covered in a layer of powdery, whitish earth. But not her...

The four year old's black patent leather shoes were still spotless. Her lacy socks were still a dazzling white. Socks and shoes that covered emaciated feet and legs that cannot carry their small charge around. The little one is a paraplegic.

Curled up in her mother's arms, she never even offered us a smile. Urgently, the mother presented her child to the group of visiting Scottish doctors and myself. A year ago December, the girl fell. She was taken into Port Au Prince for x-rays and diagnosed with cervical and thoracic spinal fractures. This January, she stopped walking. Desperate, the mother hoped that the foreigners would be able to do something for her child.

We prayed. And set up an appointment for her to see us in the clinic so we could review her chart.

Tuesday morning, we shuffled over to the hospital in the swirling dust. And we saw over little girl with the clean shoes again. And prayed again. And tried to figure out how to help.

Thursday night, another missionary, new to the field and just completing his first week on the island with us, rushed across the mission station, leaving small clouds of dust in his wake. "They'll see her!" he informed us excitedly! He had gotten in touch with the University of Miami Field Hospital in Port Au Prince, and they had a pediatric neurosurgeon who agreed to see our little friend. But there was a catch-- he was leaving Haiti on Saturday!

But God's timing is perfect-- the Scottish team was traveling back to Port on their way back home on Friday. Excitedly, we called the child's mother, and the following morning she trudged through the dust with her husband and the child to travel to their doctor's appointment.

Last I heard, the neurosurgeon was confident he could help the girl. He's scheduling surgery for her in the States. I cannot help but think of how timely the Scots' visit and the arrival of the new missionary are! Truly, they are in Haiti for such a time as this.

Quick Note

2010-03-27T23:50:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note as life hurries onward...

We've had lots of visitors in the last month. We've had teams from all over-- Canada, Washington state, Pennsylvania, Scotland, France, England, Indiana, New York, South Carolina, and Montana. O, and one more special one all the way from Georgia-- my wonderful boyfriend David! He was only here at my mission station for 4 hours on a Tuesday before going off to another part of the island to work, and then he returned to spend a day with me before flying out. What a blessing to see him, even if it was way too short!

I'm so proud of him! Here's a link to more of the story of his work in Haiti:

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20100327/NEWS/303270021/1186/Coffees-and-more-news-from-Our-Lady-of-the-Rosary-Catholic-School/Trip-to-Haiti-puts-students-engineering-skills-to-work

And here are a few pictures of the fun we had together: (a nice place to hang out during his brief afternoon visit :)

A visit with my friend Esther and her family:

Some of the sand, shells, and small children that we found on the beach... and that found us!

What a sweet visit! I can't wait for his next one!

An Rx for Listening

2010-03-22T19:48:00.000-04:00

Koute se renmed ko.
Listening is medicine for the body.
~Haitian proverb.

The last few weeks here have been busy weeks of talking and working. We have been hosting several different short term teams with different schedules and agendas. I've also had the opportunity to talk about some projects I'm excited about, to catch up with old friends, and to swap Haiti stories with my wonderful boyfriend who was here last week working on several projects.

All that talking.

How much listening?

Tonight, when I came across that sweet little Haitian proverb while studying medical Creole, I paused. In medicine, I was taught that if you listen well, the patient will tell you what's wrong with them. Listening is diagnostic. I've been wondering how often I slow down from my busy bustling to actually hear what the people around me are saying. To hear their hurts, their fears, their needs, their passions, their dreams. To learn more of who they are through listening.

But listening is also therapeutic. Isn't it sweet when someone truly listens to you? When someone else knows you, hears you, and acknowledges you?

As we host a team of 25 people over the next 2 weeks, I think I need to prescribe myself some listening. In my conversations with Haitians, I think God's already equipped me to listen more, since there's still so much that I don't know how to express yet in Creole. What a great time to offer others the sweet remedy of listening!

A Day in Pictures

2010-03-05T20:50:00.002-05:00

Hello, again! I'm sorry that the last post was rather somber... it's actually taken me all week to write that as I sort through layers of sadness and grief. Today found me with a renewed passion for life and living it to the fullest with however much time the Lord blesses me with on planet earth.

I realized that I haven't shared pictures in quite a while, so I toted my camera around with me to ask if "M met fe foto"(if I could take pictures) as I went through this day's journey. Below is the evidence of my day:

First, I found Gravy, one of the stray dogs who's adopted our missions station, curled up in this planter outside my door! She's so silly!! Potted dog, anyone?! Poor little ugly dear... she was probably cold. It was 75 degrees here today, after all. Our normal is mid to high 90's, so this morning found me wearing a jacket! I guess that means I'm acclimating well! I also got a cute shoot of Gravy cuddling with one of her new puppies. Bless her doggy heart, but Gravy is just not a very pretty pup. I'm so glad one of her litter favors the daddy! This is lil Sassafras...

I passed Gravy on my way back into the house after breakfast. I had a little time this morning in my home to answer emails and arrange a few things and to answer my door. It's quite common to have visitors come to your door if they need to talk with you. Not everyone has a cell phone (although having electricity is not a prerequisite to owning a cell phone as evidenced by how many cell phone chargers appear in the wall outlets in church on Sundays!).

Then, it was on to the Kay Pov Yo (the very poor peoples house). I had visited for the first time last week and wanted to return to check on a lady that we had treated for a bad bladder infection. They were again so very sweet. It feels like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. The walls of the building are caked with years of dust. The inhabitants also are covered with a thick dusting of dirt. I wanted to wrap the whole building in Clorox wipes and deposit every inhabitant into a rose-scented bubble bath. They greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and sweet smiles. My little UTI lady was so much better! She actually made sense... I think. It's hard for me to understand Creole when the speaker only has 2 teeth! There are 15 people living there now, three of whom are children.

After a few moments, they spied my stethoscope, and I made the rounds. While most are frightfully skinny, they otherwise seem to be fairly good health. I would love to visit weakly and check up on them. When they are sick, it is difficult for them to get to the hospital. I went with one of the guys who works for WISH, the West Indies Self Help organization. They send food every Friday to the Kay Pov Yo.

After that, it was back to the WISH house to listen to the lungs of the wife of one of their workers. She has asthma and has been hitting up her rescue inhaler 10 times a day! The awesome group of Scotland just brought us some steroid inhalers, so I taught her who to use one and a spacer. She's so sweet. I also started teaching Sassafras how to sit.

After that, back up to the orphanage to check on some wounds. One of the little ones had an eye infection that I've been treating, and he looks so much better! Above are some sweet little faces, and me being silly!Such a full day, but so full of life!

Lavi Se Yon Gwo Kado

2010-03-05T15:26:00.002-05:00

“Petet ou ka mouri. Lavi se yon gwo kado.”

“Perhaps you could die. Life is a big gift.”

Such goes conversations that we hear on the street and in our mission station. Such is life post-earthquake.

This had been a week of the trauma of a major earthquake resulting in over 300,000 deaths superimposed on already harsh living conditions. And yet the perspective is still that of appreciating the gift of life. Every moment is a surprise present from God, wrapped up in the vibrancy of colors and smells and touch. Life truly is the present.

This week began with trauma. A motorcycle crashed violently early Sunday morning, leaving 3 critical patients in its wake. Doctors and nurses worked valiantly to save them in the predawn hours.

Later that morning, I made a trip down to the airstrip to greet a small medical team. A married couple (an OB/GYN and a pediatrician/internist) and a pediatric nurse wanted to spend a few days with us. I enjoyed visiting with them. They were so nice and interested in doing some education in the hospital. They had been in Leogone, just up the road from where I served in the relief clinic. While memories flooded my mind from my time there, it was still neat to compare notes and see how things are progressing in the area now. I was encouraged to hear that Leogone had an orthopedic team pulling 14 hour days. Right after the earthquake, we were desperate for orthopods. The group put their stuff in the guest house and we went over to the hospital for a quick tour. The hospital staff pointed out 3 very sick children that they wanted the pediatrician to see. One was a severely malnourished 7 month old, her poor eyes sunken in and skin plastered to her bald skull. As we wrapped up the tour, I got a phone call from their director... with horrible news.

There was a guy with the rest of their group from Seattle that had come down for a few weeks with them. He was a believer and so excited to be there. He was an ER nurse, married with a 3 year old and a 6 year old. Last night, he didn't feel very well. He took 2 Benadryl, hoping to sleep. The OB doc had been up several times in the night with diarrhea, and she thought his breathing was a little funny, but she was so sick that she didn't pay him much attention. He aspired. A few hours later, he arrested. The director is a trauma nurse and tried to revive him, but to no avail.

We were able to secure transportation back to Port for the doctor group so that they could be united as a group. While I was arranging that, they asked our missionaries to pray with them. That was neat coming from a couple of non-believers. Please pray for his family!!!! While our group was praying with them, a loud wailing noise permeated the air. The hospital is across the street from our missions station, and one of the critical patients from the motorcycle accident died.

I was informed two hours after they left that the very sick, malnourished baby died. The pediatrician never had a chance to see her. I’m not sure that he could have done much else for her, but it was still another tragic death added to the day.

The Lord sent an amazing group of men to us later that evening. Two pastors and a doctor from the States spent an evening with us, and what a blessing they were! It’s neat to get to share life with people like that, even if the things you share are from a bleeding heart.

Tuesday was also a rather eventful day… There was a small malfunction of our new boat (a retrofitted lobster boat that arrived providentially in December! What a blessing it’s been since the quake!!). It involved a leak in the fuel line and a lot of smoke inhalation for the brave guys that acted as honorary fire fighters. Thankfully, everyone is okay and the repairs are minor!

Just as someone was telling me about the boat fire, a large group of people (probably about 50-75) paraded down the street in quite an agitated manner. A large boat had arrived in our port from the States full of food and lacking the appropriate paperwork. Sadly, the port authorities had to turn them away leading to demonstrations from the hungry people of my town. We are safe and sound, but it has been a difficult week. Please keep us in your prayers!

Perhaps you could die. Life is a big gift.

I still don't like cats, but at least they're better than the alternative!

2010-02-28T17:57:00.002-05:00

David knows that I don't really care for cats. I think that it goes back to a childhood memory of being viciously mauled by a feline at the tender age of 3. David, my wonderful boyfriend, and his optimistic family like to pretend that someday I will like cats. I'm still not a fan, but I'm hoping that today I really do have one in my house.
What follows is an email that I sent David (and his awesome mom) describing the events of this afternoon...

Darling David...

I think that I might actually have a cat living under my roof!! Today I heard something really loud traipsing around in the attic and I saw something gray and fuzzy pop out of the ceiling tile cracks!!! (the earthquake and aftershocks have been shuffling around my ceiling tiles) Justine told me that we have cats who live behind our house who sometimes get into the attic and chase the rats! I'm actually hoping that I saw a cat paw...that or we have really, really big rats!!!! I'm putting up my mosquito netting tent right now just in case to serve as an extra rat-barrier!

Never a dull moment around here!

~your diane, the cat-in-the-attic-girl

Just a small moment in the life of this missionary girl!

P.S.-- There's also a goat out in the yard... Maybe there's a goat in my attic?!?!

All in a Day's Love...

2010-02-26T16:21:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, the phrase is usually "all in a day's work"... but today I don't feel like I worked as much as I was given opportunities to love and be loved. And sometimes love hurts, if the ones you love are hurting, or hungry, or sick, or dirty, or lonely.

Today's opportunities of love included...

~meeting the rest of Esther's family. I spent a lovely hour visiting in their home. I was so humbled to learn that they pray for me daily, that God would bless me and that He would protect me. They are very concerned for me that I live alone as that's a foreign concept to many Haitians. Many families live in a one room building or at least have several family members in the same bedroom. It was sweet to be loved on by them, and I am humbled to hear them pray that God would bless me, as I see them working so hard just to feed and clothe their family.

~hugging orphans. I had the incredible privilege of going to the orphanage today to take care of some sick kiddo's. As I climbed the steep hill to the orphanage, I could hear the children laughing and playing. It was beautiful. While there, Mari Tares, a sweet little girl of five with red highlights in her hair from malnutrition, climbed up into my arms to just hug me and smile at me. I want to keep her and let her know she's loved every moment of every day (and to stuff her full of yummy protein rich foods). They have 7 new kids there now, all orphaned during the recent earthquake.

~treating sick kids. While there, a couple of the kids needed some medical attention. I had arrived with several meds, but I need to go back tomorrow as I realized that another girl has a fever and another has a wound that needs further care. Madame Soliet, the amazing orphanage director, looked tired. She has 58 children and only 5 workers. She made time in her day to sit with me and talk. How sweet! In the midst of telling me about the orphans, a deaf man came to the door. She welcomed him in, greeted him (by waving, and he saluted me-- how sweet!), and mentioned to me that sometimes he seems very hungry and she feeds him. She proceeded to tell me about an asylum for the very poor in our town. The people who live there have no family (kind of a rare thing in Haitian culture) and no jobs. She told me of how dirty it is and how hungry they are. And out of their meager stores from the orphanage, she tries to share food with them. She looked me in the eye and said, "We have nothing. But they need it more." Wow. I am amazed at her generosity. I am overwhelmed by the need.

~Visiting the very poor. After the orphanage, a friend and I went to the Asylum. We were greeted very enthusiastically by an orphan. He's about 13, has cognitive deficits (doesn't know his own name or age), and a crippled left foot and arm. He ran up to us, grinned, and hugged me so tightly, leaving a dusty print on my shirt and an imprint on my heart. They heard that we were nurses, so they brought out a very thin, frail, elderly woman with a fever and a man with a horribly swollen leg for us to look at. I have been told that the town supplies this home with food. I hope so. I feel that my time with them is not yet done.

Sometimes the need is overwhelming here. And so is the sweet spirit of these people... a family struggling to get by that prays for a little missionary and worries about her, orphans who laugh and hug and play so freely, and a crippled, orphaned boy who runs over to a strange white girl to hug her.

All in a day's love.

Update

2010-02-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

Hi, friends!

Just a quick update on life here! I realized today that I haven't written in a while...

It sure has been busy! But I usually prefer it that way. :o) I'm back home in LaGonave, and it's nice to unpack and settle in... to my little home, my work, and my relationships.

Last weekend I hosted a surgical team from Canada. They were a great group and did 18 cases in 3.5 days! Wow! We sure were busy! I assisted with a C-section of twins, and the anesthesiologist taught me how to do spinal anesthesia! Otherwise, there's only one person here trained to do that, and when she was gone one day, an OB had to do a C-section with only local anesthetic, which is a good deal less effective.

Since then, I learned how to run our guest house and am flying solo in its management for a few days. That's been fun and certainly keeps one busy! In the last 2 days, we've had people here from Canada, France, Scotland, the US, and missionaries from other parts of Haiti. Wow! The dinner conversations have been very eclectic and interesting! I found out from the Scottish guys that I'm famous over there! When I was working in the relief clinic in Peti Goave, they arrived one day like a Christian calvary. They swooped in with a ton of medicines and equipment, sweet smiles and sunny spirits, and swooped back out. While there, one of the guys made a quick video tape of me caring for a patient. I talked him through what I was doing, and they left. He used that video as a part of fundraising dinner in Scotland, and they raised over $100,000!!! Wow!!!

I've also been coordinating the arrival of thousands of pounds of donated medicines. It's been incredible to watch God provide for the needs of my hospital as we are no longer able to buy medicines since our supply line disintegrated with the earthquake.

We're still experiencing "small" (4.8) aftershocks. Last night, I couldn't tell if my ceiling was shaking from those or from the rats racing around in my attic! Never a dull moment around here!

My Creole lessons will be starting in earnest again. I love to talk anyways, but language skills will be invaluable over these next few months of coordination and running the guest house. My old friend Esther (the 16 year old who hung out with me in Port in November) is coming over tomorrow to visit and drink lemonade and eat cookies and teach me Creole! I'm so excited to visit with her again!

One last thought... This morning my devos were on Eph 3:14-21, and it talks about knowing the length and width and height and depth of the love of God which passes knowledge. What a miraculous thing to know His love, which is so incredibly great that it overwhelms our capacity to know things! THAT'S how much God loves us! Wow!!!

Charite Thoughts

2010-02-14T10:22:00.000-05:00

A couple of new posts at one of my other blogs... a eulogy, some miracles, life's rippling effects...

Check em out at:

http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/

Quake Stories, Part Twa

2010-02-09T15:11:00.000-05:00

I remembered a story today; a story that I had not thought of since it happened on January 17th.

It was our first day of clinic work, before we teamed up with the group from Michigan, before we set up shop in Peti Goave, before we had ample local anesthesia.

I have been amazed at how my patients acted. How would Americans act under the same situation? How would I respond to someone debriding my open wounds without even a drop of lidocaine?!

Very few people just murmur... it's usually either shrieks of pain or an impermeable facade of stoicism. The lady I remembered today was the former.

She had a wound that needed debridement. It was a 4 cm lower leg area of necrotic tissue that had to be cleaned up to prevent further spread... cleaned and cut away and dressed without even a dash of lidocaine.

And she sobbed. And howled. And jerked. I focused on just working as fast as humanly possible to make her suffering end quickly. Dr. Kris, our awesome missionary doctor working with us, encouraged her with, "Kenbe kouraj, madam! Kouraj!" (Keep courage, lady! Courage!)

Dr. Kris then asked if she was a Christian, which the woman replied that she was. She was then encouraged to act like one! I'm not sure where that is in Scripture, but I agreed... and she was so brave after that! She quieted down and attempted to hold still.

When I had finally finished sloughing off dried blood and dirt, removing nonviable tissue, and covering the now 8cm gaping wound with neosporin and gauze, I apologized profusely. My sweet, noisy patient grabbed my hand, pressed it to her cheek, and thanked me repeatedly.

Wow.

She lost so much-- members of her family, her home, and a few centimeters off her calf without anesthesia-- and her response was gratitude. I had so little to offer her in the face of such loss. I am humbled by her faith and her attitude.

Quake Stories, Part 2

2010-02-02T10:32:00.005-05:00

As I prepared for a year of medical missions work in Haiti last November, I thought that what I was about to see was going to be bad. At the end of December, after 1/3 of the patients I had seen that month died, I realized that it was really bad. After the devastating 7.0 earthquake shook Port Au Prince, it was absolutely catastrophic.

In November, I tried to prepare for third world medicine by reading up on tropical diseases. In December, I began planning the implementation of a CME program to train and equip my Haitian coworkers in first world medicine so patients wouldn’t die of things that people don’t die from in America and so nurses would stop putting tongue depressors in the mouths of seizing patients. In January, I moved to Port to work in a disaster relief clinic.

A huge part of me wants to give you stories of hope after the quake... stories of life and love and the magnificent human spirit.
But I realized that I have been a little remiss... You also need to hear some of the horror and tragedy and heartbreak to receive a balanced picture of where I have been and what I have seen. Many of the news stories are true... stuff is bad. Horrific. Hellish. Heart-wrenching.

Much of what you see on the news is true. Only worse. On the news, you don’t get a sense of the sights and smells. You can’t travel through Port, knowing from the stench which buildings still have dead bodies trapped under them. On the news, you don’t get to drive by the grocery store where you used to shop, realizing that the man who used to slice your cheese and teach you Creole is now trapped at his deli counter, crushed under 7 stories of concrete.

This is a tent city... it's now where people live. Even if a part of a house is still standing, many are not stable enough for people to live there again. And we're still experiencing aftershocks, so no one sleeps inside. Malaria and typhoid have less barriers as people live right next to one another and good water is scarce. The aftershocks still occur daily. You never feel completely safe... and you never sleep too deeply.

It looks like a bomb went off. So many buildings are crushed... Can you count the floors of this building? It had at least 5.
Haitians usually wail when a loved one dies. It's a loud, haunting sound expressing deep hurt and anguish. I've only heard it once since the quake... The magnitude of death and destruction is so overwhelming that I'm not sure the grieving has even begun.
Everyone lost someone. All of the people that I treated in the clinic also lost their homes. It's hard to wrap your brain and your heart around devastation on such a large scale.

Our clinic was rough... Bare bones medical. You had to be creative and flexible to attempt to treat what came before you. Babies not eating because both their parents are dead. Everyone has a headache and a stomachache. Baby fingers that are black with gangrene and need to be removed. A strangulated hernia that needed surgery after a son lifted a cement wall off his mom only to find that she was already gone. New accidents, as a motorcycle driver gawks at the rubble and runs into a pedestrian. A little boy with an open head injury, grey matter peeking out, after he gets hit with a pick ax that was being used to dig bodies out of the rubble.

We worked in an outdoor clinic, with tarps set up to catch mangoes and coconuts that fell with the aftershocks, attempting to not create more patients. Patients lined up by the hundreds every morning to be treated. Every morning, I had to scramble to get a small bucket of water to be able to splint fractures. Every morning, it was a quest to find a little bit of clean water to wash out wounds.

This is the background stress of clinic work. After the first day, I had trouble asking each patient their story, as despair threatened to overwhelm me for the loss these sweet people have suffered.
Every patient had the same history. “A wall fell on me.” “This bulge (a strangulated hernia) showed up in my stomach after I lifted a wall off my mom, only to find out she was dead.” “I’m the only one left alive. I was in a hotel with 200 people for a conference.”

The Lord told me that morning to slow down, to look at their faces and love them. A couple of days later, my interpreters (I found that I worked faster with using them and it was a good check for my Creole) told me that I was working “dousman,” a word that I knew to mean “slowly.” I was a little discouraged to hear that, but they quickly reassured me that I was not to change and that the people talked about me and loved me. The meaning of “dousman” that they meant was “sweetly” and “gently.” It was sweet for me to know that God can use a broken heart for His kingdom. I was able to pray with several patients, and all of those I treated received tracts.

My favorite patient was an 8 year old who showed up with a crushed injury. Her left hand and wrist had been smashed by a falling cement wall. She had a few scrapes that needed to be cleaned up and she stole a piece of my heart (I wonder if that's how moms feel when they put neosporin on boo-boo's). She has a great smile and a black eye, where debris had smacked her in the face. She was brave as I examined her hand for gangrene (none yet, thankfully!!) and scrubbed her scabs off to bandage her arm and then molded a sugar-tong splint into position. She came back for a recheck two days later, no signs of gangrene and arm healing so well! I whispered in her ear that I loved her and did she know that Jesus loves her, too? She smiled back at me, nodded, and gave me a huge one-armed hug! Her dad leaned over to tell me that she liked me, and also that she was going to the Dominican Republic the following day. My heart rejoiced that she could be headed somewhere safe, and I cautioned that she really needed x-rays. She gave me another hug and headed out, hopefully to safety.
There is hope mingled into horror, healing in the midst of heartache.

How to HELP!!!!

2010-02-02T08:41:00.001-05:00

Wanna be a part of disaster relief?
We (my team and I serving in Haiti) would love to have you come along with us as we care for earthquake victims. How to help:
1.) Prayer-- Your prayers have been powerful and effective... Thank you sooooo much for those!!
2.) Donate-- Another huge assistance is our disaster relief fund. Money translates into food, water, clothing, shelter, and medicines for quake victims. One hundred percent of the donations go directly to our clinic and missions stations to help those in need. For more info, please check out:
http://www.wesleyan.org/doc/news_article?id=658&src=news

Thank you for all of your notes and encouraging words!! Those have been a huge blessing to me (I almost made that #3 of how you can help... I wouldn't complain if you wanted to write me notes/comments :).

Quake Stories

2010-01-31T20:32:00.000-05:00

Some stories from my first few days of clinic work....

Michael's Miracle

On Day 8 after the earthquake, a miraculous thing happened!!! A 5 year old boy arrived at our clinic (along with NBC) right after his family pulled him out of the rubble that had been their home! And he was absolutely fine! All that he needed was a good meal and a whole lot of water. NBC is calling him Miracle Michael, and here's the link to his story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34944333#34944333

On the morning of Day 9, my first patient of the day was an Amercian (kinda fun to start my day speaking English). He works with an American mining company located near Peti Goave, and they are using their large earth moving equipment to attempt to clear some of the rubble of buildings. The previous morning, he had been about to start clearing a home. As he pointed his large machine at what had previously been a 2 story home, a frantic mother and father rushed to his side. Using gestures, they got his attention to show pictures of two sweet children, their 5 year old son and 8 year old daughter, still buried under the debris. They begged him for a little more time.

That morning, they dug out Miracle Michael and his sister. Michael, as you know, came to us, and his sister went to the hospital down the road. What a truly miraculous morning!

A Cup of Cold Water

Dr. Bill was a wonderful ER doc from Michigan who joined our team for a few days. He ran our splinting and casting center for a little while, and as he headed hack to Port Au Prince to fly out, was overwhelmed by the generous spirit of our sweet Haitian neighbors.

He was sitting in the back of a pick up truck, stuck in traffic. An old man, with dusty feet and tattered clothes, perched at the edge of the truck asking about water. Dr. Bill didn't have any, so he sadly told that man that he had none.

Traffic inched forward, and the old man shuffled off. He returned to the gridlocked truck a few minutes later, still dirty and dressed in rags but now holding a cup of water... for the doctor who didn't have any.

What an incredible group of people I have the privilege of serving!

More stories to come....

The Setting-- What Life In Haiti Is Like Now

2010-01-29T15:17:00.001-05:00

Hi, again!

I just wanted to send out a quick update that I am well and safe! I spent the last couple of weeks working in a clinic just outside of Port Au Prince and then running a guest house for the teams rotating through. Whew! It was great and tiring and exhilarating work! And thankfully, it's my turn on the rotation schedule for a break! I'll be out for 2 weeks to rest up, and I'll try to post stories and pictures every few days as I process and grieve for the incredible people of Haiti.

Let me tell you a little more about the clinic today, and I'll try to write stories of my sweet patients over the next few days...

I met up with a medical team that flew in from Michigan-- what an incredible group of people to work with! We have established a clinic in Peti Goave, which is the town next to the epicenter of the earthquake; it's 40 miles outside of Port Au Prince. We have averaged 120-300 patients each day. We did wound care, quake injuries, and general medical complaints. We saw obvious closed fractures, with forearms bent at a 45 degree angle. Almost everyone that I saw the first day had a cement wall fall on them. We saw wounds that had been sutured (stitched up) on the first day, but had not been cleaned first. So, we removed the stitches on days 8 and 9 after the quake, and the wounds fell open and we scrubbed ROCKS out of them! I would start debriding (removing non-viable tissue) on a small dime sized wound, and by the time I had reached viable tissue, the wound was the size of a fifty cent piece and down to the bone. We started without even local anesthetic, and as awful as it was to cut away skin with a scalpel without any numbing medicine, it was so vital to do that to save people's arms and legs from gangrene and to save their lives. I assisted with several finger and toe amputations. We did awful, necessary things to save lives.

All of the people in Peti Goave are living in tents made from sheets in the street, as no one trusts the structural stability of their homes if its still standing. The cooler evening temperates and the stress of the quake are contributing to a rise in general medical problems-- we're seeing malaria and typhoid along with the normal hypertension and diabetes. Normal medical clinics are not functioning, so primary care is half of what we've seen this week.

There is a hospital less than a mile down the road. Currently, there are mainly Cubans there who speak very little Creole. It's almost completely out of supplies. We had a surgeon here this week who was invited over to do several surgeries. He brought supplies with him from our clinic.

We camped out at the clinic in very primitive conditions. Our amazing hosts at the clinic/camp site are the Haitian general superintendent's wife and several Wesleyan church members. They do laundry and cook. There is no running water. They turn a generator on for a few hours each evening, and after that, there is no electricity. There are rats in the building that we slept in.

I found that the most valuable traits for this week were flexiblity and creativity, in both the living and working environment. When you do not have the medical supplies or the streile environment of your hospital back home, you have to be ready to creatively treat and adapt to the problem. All the while, we tried to be as compassionate as we could, but still be prepared to be flexible in our treatment plans.

What a crazy, incredible experience! So, that sets the background for more stories... more to come soon!

A Place in Port Au Prince

2010-01-18T10:27:00.000-05:00

Hi, all!

I got into Port Au Prince 2 days ago. Things are okay here. It's hard to say "good" in light of a 7.0 earthquake and the devastation that follows, but it's a much better situation for us than I had imagined.

Things are getting better on the streets... Things are slowly getting cleaned up. There are no more piles of bodies in the street, nor bodies lined up outside of houses for identification, like we had heard reports of earlier last week. There are still dead trapped in houses, which you can identify by the stench. Everyone walks around with a mask on.

But we have felt very safe. We're staying at Carl and Maya's. We gathered good information from the US Embassy that if we show up at the Embassy and ask to be evacuated, they will. That's a nice thing to know just in case.

We drove through several places in the city today on our way to clinic. Many buildings have pancaked down, but they have cleared the rubble out of the road. There are white people, relief workers and UN, in soooo many places! This is the safest I've ever felt in Port before. Part of it is probably because I'm with a big group of white people and since I speak more Creole now, but the people are also very subdued.

Today, we saw people out walking around doing normal looking things. Some of the markets are open. Several gas stations are open with long lines.

We set up a clinic in Carfoufe yesterday. Our largest Wesleyan church is there, some of it is still standing. That area was very hard hit. We had the clinic in a classroom in the Wesleyan school. We had a bunch of help from people in the church, and they were wonderful!!

The sickest patients showed up for the first few hours. Probably the worst was a girl with a broken femur and broken wrist. Mainly, we cleaned wounds and splinted broken bones. We saw about 100 patients all together. Dr. Kris Thede, one of our missionary docs from the north of Haiti, joined our group yesterday morning, and it was so good to see her! Mis Viro, the Haitian nurse practicioner that I worked with in the hospital on LaGonave, has been here at Carl's, so she came with us too. It was good.

We did a lot of wound debridement, and gangrene is already starting to set in just a little. I spent 30 minutes carefully cleaning a wound and removing the nonviable tissue on one young guy. A piece of his house fell on this ankle where the wound was. His parents and all 3 of his siblings died as the house came down. He alone escaped and is now homeless. He was so brave while I cleaned him up with no anestehtic. We talked for a little while about how God has a plan for him, as he alone was spared, and also how he came for medical treatment at a critical time. Hopefully, with debridement and antibiotics, he will live to tell his story.

Much love, and I just wanted to report on what we're up to. We finished our clinic an hour earlier than planned since we ran out of patients, so we're hoping to link up with Bobby Boyer, a family friend from back in SC who pastors a church here, today and see if we can help out in their clinic. Dr. Kris also suggested that we get in touch with other Wesleyan churches and see if they need clinics there like we did today. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

Thanks for your prayers,

~diane

We're SAFE!!!!

2010-01-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

Dearest friends and family,

I am safe!! Please keep Haiti in your prayers as we just suffered a devastating 7.3 on the Richter scale earthquake this afternoon. The focus of the quake was just outside of the capital, Port Au Prince, demolishing parts of that large city. The main hospital for the country was leveled. Many government buildings collapsed, and the airport is currently closed. Thousands of casualties are suspected. I live on an island off the mainland, and thus far, we seem to faring well. The missionaries here are all okay. I sewed up some minor wounds, and we've heard reports of some structural damage to buildings. Our cell phones are out of service, but otherwise, most things are okay. We are still feeling the aftershocks. My fridge is on wheels and moved 6 inches away from the wall during the big quake.

It's dangerous to cross the sea at night, so tomorrow morning we, the LaGonave missionaries, will see where we can help. Please pray with us that God will open the way before us in Port. Please join me in praying that the Lord will open a way for me to use my medical training. It's so hard to be so close to tragedy and suffering and yet still too far away to help.

Thank you! While I wrote this note, I've heard a voodoo parade pass by. I've also heard a nearby church singing hymns. Please keep us in your prayers!!

~Diane

The Belated Christmas Post

2010-01-11T19:49:00.000-05:00

Hi, friends!

This is the link to the long awaited Christmas-y post! It almost made it up here in time for the epiphany! :o)

http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/2010/01/urgent-life.html

Happy reading!

Answers to Unprayed Prayers

2010-01-08T14:13:00.000-05:00

Merry belated Christmas and Happy 2010!!! I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and enjoying a great start to the new year! I had a wonderful, whirlwind 2 weeks in the States, savoring time with my wonderful boyfriend, spending Christmas with his sweet family, crashing the ER for a brief visit and dropping off (really really strong and good) Haitian coffee and wishing that we all had more time to visit, enjoying time in colonial Williamsburg with my encouraging parents and aunt and uncle and cousin (and fellowshipping in the car on the 8 hour trip it took to get there :o), and being a part of my gorgeous best friend's beautiful, joyous wedding. Whew, what a great and speedy trip!

I returned to my Haitian home this week and was so blessed as God answered a desire of mine that I hadn't even started to pray for yet! I have been compiling a "wish list" for the hospital here. At the top of the list are necessities that I feel are urgently needed, like lab tests for basic serum electrolytes and liver function tests and a working x-ray machine. The other items are more dreamy... things that would help to elevate my hospital to first world standards. I dream big. :o)

On the ultimate wish list is a physical therapist. That request seemed so far away from fruition that I hadn't even started to pray for it yet. And I think that the Lord may already have the answer on the way! Wow! God is so ... amazing! And nice!! (and indescribable-- it makes even gregarious me speechless!!)

When I got back to the island on Wednesday, I got to meet a wonderful short-term team, who were finishing up their stay. One of the ladies is a physical therapist from Canada who's seriously considering serving in Haiti for 6-12 months to train Haitian medical personnel to work as a PT!!! She rode back on the boat with me to discuss the possibilities and realities of serving here, and the whole time my heart was singing to think that God might be answering a prayer that I hadn't yet prayed!!!!

Wow! It's good to be back.

The Stories, Continued

2009-12-19T15:38:00.000-05:00

Curious about the conclusion of some of my adventures? I realized today that I've been telling stories and not always giving follow up, so here are come continuing stories mentioned in previous posts. Check 'em out at:

http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/2009/12/continuing-story.html

Stay tuned... Christmas post is coming soon! As we enter the season of celebrating Jesus' birth, I have been thinking about how He is Emmanuel, God with us, and what that looks like here, where life is so fragile.

Choir Practice in the Hospital Hallway

2009-12-17T17:42:00.003-05:00

Singing in the hospital?!? Yup, that was my day! Read more about it and the lessons the Lord taught me today at...
http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/2009/12/hospital-sing-long.html

May your days be merry and bright and full of singing!!!

A Day in the Life of Mis Diane

2009-12-15T21:04:00.001-05:00

Curious about my daily life? I felt like today gives one a good idea of a typical medical person's day here in Haiti. They call me Mis Diane here, which means Nurse Diane, with the understanding that I function like a nurse practicioner. I have a really good imagination, but I don't think that even I could have imagined that my life would look quite like this... It's full of love and loss and hope and heartache.

8am-- Arrive at the hospital for an awesome time of staff devotions with our 83 year old pastor. Thankfully, I can understand every word he says because he talks so slowly. He's an incredible, godly man!

8:15-- Find out that one of my babies died. She was my precious little patient. She was 8 months old and so malnourished that she didn't have the strength to smile or even cry. She seems to have been neglected by her mother, who I only saw once during her 6 day hospital stay. Her AIDS test was negative, but I'm still suspicious... She was so malnourished that her skin was breaking down and allowing horrible staph infections on her arms and legs. We pumped her full of antibiotics and vitamins and milk every 2 hours, and she seemed to be doing so much better!! And she was, until early this morning when she spiked a fever and didn't pull through.

8:30-- Devotions end and clinic work starts. The clinic is like a combo ER/primary care office. If you're sick or pregnant, you sign in early in morning, and then get seen in order of arrival/level of urgency. If you're sick enough, you get admitted to the hospital from the clinic. If you need to be rechecked, a follow up date is provided. Usually pregnant women will show up for one prenatal visit before returning to give birth. What a different world here!

Noon-- Enjoy lunch with the other missionaries. Matthew's brother and his wife are visiting from my hometown, and it was fun to have a meal with all of them.

2:00-- Take Matthew's family on a tour of the hospital. Kelley is 6 months pregnant, so we tested out the ultrasound equipment on her and did an impromptu ultrasound! It was so sweet to see their son's little face!

3:00-- Go to the orphanage. Filled to the brim with 53 children ages 4-12, it is a place of stories of past heartbreak and present nourishment. Some of them look incredibly different, in a healthy, happy way, from the sad, starving little ones I saw in March when I was here for a week. I'm so thankful they can be there! And I'm so thankful that I can spend time with them! I had a group of 8 little girls who enjoyed braiding my hair and begged me to come see them again. I can't wait to go back!

4:15-- Getting ready to have the church's youth group come over. At prayer group on last weekend, they asked if they could come over to pray with us before we left to go to the States for Christmas. Justine and I were delighted to accept! How sweet! While I was getting ready for them to come, I got a call from Joy that one of our missionaries had been hit by a motorcycle! Dr. Emmett is a wonderful retired missionary doctor who comes to Haiti every year for a month or two to give some of the Haitian doctors a break. He's 77, and while walking back from the hospital this afternoon, he was struck by someone driving a motorcycle with brakes that don't work!! He doesn't remember the accident, but somehow he face-planted on the gravel road. The Haitian docs spent 3 hours sewing his face up, and we extracted a rock from one of the cuts on his chin. I ran errands for them and keep his wife updated on their progress.

8:00-- Go home for dinner. We finally finished up at the hospital and I managed to get home for dinner.

9:00-- Start neuro checks on Dr. Emmett. Without a CT scanner here, I have no way to know for sure that he doesn't have a bleed inside his brain. Even if we could do one here, he's still at risk for bleeding for the next 72 hours. So, tonight, every 4 hours, I'm going over to check and be sure that he's okay. Please keep him in your prayers!

Whew! Such is my life! I'm so thankful that God promises to order our steps, cuz my day sure is full of steps!!

Medical Website!!

2009-12-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

I finally did it! I started my medical blog!

For a little more medical detail on today's patients, please read:
http://misdianediagnoses.blogspot.com/

I hope that you're healthy today and don't need to answer the question, "Sa ou genyen?"

The First 48 Hours

2009-12-10T16:22:00.001-05:00

It's nice to be back online! I spend the weekend travelling the country, seeing a few other missions posts, a little sightseeing, and taking care of fellow missionaries who had malaria and dengue fever. Whew! What a weekend!

I got off the boat Tuesday evening on my new home of LaGonave, and we had just arrived on the missions compound, when an urgent need presented itself. One of our sailors was unloading the boat and dropped an oil drum on his finger causing a near amputation. Right away, I hurried over to the hospital to sew it back on.

Yesterday was my day off. I was awoken at 8 am with a knock at the door and the plea for “Mis Diane” (nurse Diane, as I am called here, with the understanding that I am like one of their senior nurses who diagnoses and treats) to come help in the hospital. Many stitches and 3 hours later, I returned back home to spend my day off doing laundry and unpacking.

Today I technically started work.

Today I saw my first AIDS babies… scrawny little scarecrows with sunken eyes and bulging bellies and stick-figure limbs.

Today I saw my first stillborn baby… and the agony on his mother’s face when we told her that he didn’t have a heartbeat.

Today I heard that my first machete-hacked patient from yesterday that we spent 6 hours sewing up died in Port Au Prince.

Today I heard of a seizing mother that we desperately need to do a C-section on to remove the baby but we must wait to do so between seizures.

Today I felt the swollen neck, enlarged to be twice the size of a normal neck, of my first little girl patient with TB.

Before today, I lived in a medical world of plump babies, seizure-free mothers, and little girls who could never even imagine TB. As I write, I am fighting to see through my tears. Each patient has a story, a family, and a piece of my heart. I can only pray for them, serve them with the strength that God gives me, and ask Him to make me a “well-watered garden and a spring whose waters never fail” (Is. 58:11) to meet these unique needs.

And this is only the first 48 hours!

Urgent Prayer Request

2009-12-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

Hi, again!

I just received some news of a patient who urgently needs your prayers! For more details, read:
http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/2009/12/pray-for-miriam.html

Thank you!

There's No Place Like Home

2009-12-02T19:49:00.001-05:00

LaGonave is a wonderful place... a place I'm excited to call home for the next year.

This past week was wonderful!!! On Thanksgiving morning, we left bright and early to head to LaGonave to celebrate with other Americans. We sat in the front of a huge truck (think along the lines of a Mack truck) and spent some time praying that we didn't hit any pedestrians, goats, or brightly painted taxi buses on the way to the boat dock. Matt was sitting in between our very skilled driver and I, and unfortunately was the only one without a seatbelt (I think maybe it increased his prayer life!!). Then we arrived at the Wesleyan wharf and were whisked across the sea in a speed boat by Butch Alexander, the director of WISH, or West Indies Self Help Organization. It was great! Usually, I don't associate Thanksgiving with speed boat rides and working on my tan! Here's some pics from the Wharf on the main land side:

It was absolutely wonderful!!! I really felt like I was home as soon as we arrived!! Dan and Joy Irvine are my amazing area directors (aka boss) and already call me one of their kids! Their 16 year old daughter Brooke feels like the little sister I never had but always wanted! Butch and his wife Trisha were also incredibly welcoming. It's neat to live in a place where you can unpack your bags and also your heart.

We had a great Thanksgiving feast with all of us and a great group from Long Lake, NY, who were here for 10 days on a missions trip. I feasted only on green bean casserole and coconut pie (i'm still sticking to safe foods until these allergies die down), but it sure was yummy! To the right is Mois, Dan and Joy's future grandson (their daughter Beth and her husband are in the process of adopting him) playing with my token Thanksgiving decoration, an adorable scarecrow that my boyfriend's wonderful and thoughtful grandma sent down with me. Mois loved it!!

On Lagonave, there were many opportunities to be out amongst the people, which was great for my Creole and my sightseeing!! In Port Au Prince, it is more difficult to get out right now as there have been several riots this month by upset students. Sadly, with Christmas coming, there is also an increase in kidnappings in the capitol. It's important for us to be extremely cautious at this time. Thankfully, it is much safer on LaGonave, and we even have the mayor in our English classes!

On one of our adventures, we hiked up to the top of one of the small mountains surrounding the town of Anse-ga-le, where I live. The view was incredible! You can see across the sea to the mountains back on the mainland! It was quite a workout, too, as most of our afternoons are 100-110 degrees!

I also got to visit at the hospital, and I can't wait to get started! I will start out working closely with the Haitian senior nurses, who are essentially nurse practitioners, as I learn more medical Creole and the ropes of their hospital. I will then rotate in their schedule of clinic, in-patient hospital, and on call work. I'm so excited! i was also encouraged as I was able to understand much of what the hospital staff said to me and could communicate with many of the patients!

One of my roles this year is to be the medical liaison for the hospital and American medical teams. I had my first duty in that role, and it was really fun! I got to write a thankful note for our supporters of the hospital. There are funds to provide milk to impoverished families with little babies, scholarships for the training of Haitian nurses, and an indigent fund for patients who cannot afford their medical care. It only costs $1-3 a day to stay in the hospital, and some cannot even afford that. Below is the story that I included in my thank you letter; I got to see the indigent benevolence fund in action for this patient, and I was so encouraged:

One recipient of your contributions is Jazmin, a fifty year old woman who was recently admitted to the hospital with a case of severe high blood pressure. She suffered from a terrible headache, which can be a symptom that precedes or indicates a stroke. High blood pressure, and its complications such as stroke and eclampsia, are common in Haiti and often can go undetected due to lack of primary care. After several days on a new medication, her blood pressure reduced from 210/110 at arrival to 140/90 at discharge, and her headache completely resolved. During her hospital stay, she was visited by no one, which meant that no family member arrived with food to sustain her. She has no money of her own with which to purchase a daily supply of the medicine that helped so much and could prevent a stroke. Her hospital stay and a supply of medication were provided for her by your generous donations, as her stay was paid for by the Indigent Benevolence Fund. Thank you for caring for this woman who had no one else to do so.

(and when I found out at the time of discharge that she hadn't eaten in 3 days, I was so thankful that I had 2 little cookies in my purse and was able to share something with her!)

Also, I had my first real experience with culture shock! It occurred when we transferred a patient. He had gotten into an argument with his brother, who threw a rock at him and broke his leg, resulting in an open tibial fracture. We wanted to transfer him to Port to see an othropedic surgeon. Well, in the States, a transfer means several phone calls, a whole lot of forms to sign, and figuring out how to transport the patient there. Here, it means writing a letter, addressing it to "whom it may concern," and letting the patient hop on the back of a motorcycle taxi to ride down to the wharf and catch a ferry into town. So different!!!!

I also got to be part of God's amazing timing! I had my first real patient (other than myself). Joy developed a funny little rash the day before I arrived. It burned, had blisters on a red base, and the pain radiated all down her leg and into the sole of her foot. She has chickenpox as a child and has had a lot on her plate this fall. She showed it to me about 24 hours after it started, and I got to see a classic case of shingles. The medication for shingles needs to be started within 48 hours of the onset of the rash, and thankfully, when we poked around the hospital pharmacy, we found exactly the right medicine. They only have that medicine because it can sometimes be helpful in HIV/AIDS patients, which we see frequently here. As I sat down to count out 200 pills for her (sadly, she needs to take 4 pills 5 times a day for 10 days; but it's exactly the right med), I saw a little pill counter on the table. I have very little experience in a pharmacy, but I moonlighted for an internist for 2 years. He runs a weight loss clinic and supplies his patients with medicines. Having worked for him, I know exactly how to use the pill counter!! How wonderful that God knew long ago that I would need that knowledge here in Haiti over Thanksgiving to treat a missionary!!! I'm so sorry that she has shingles, but I'm so glad that the Lord brought me at the right time and sent us the right medicine!!!

Yesterday, as we sailed away from LaGonave to return for a few more days of intensive language study, I felt a pang of homesickness. I miss LaGonave already! I had to snap a picture as we sailed away!

It's such an incredible feeling to know that you are exactly where God wants you doing exactly what He's gotten you ready to do in the strength that He provides! So cool!!! I can't wait to go back.

And we passed a boat full of people who had just gone out to the sandbar for a baptism:

I'm so excited to get back to that wonderful island! I'll be here in Port until Friday, and then a small group of us are going on a quick trip to the northern part of Haiti. We're going to see some of the missionaries and there work up there and then will spend a day sightseeing in Cape Haitian (i know, i know, another vacation! i promise i work some of the time! :). On Monday, we'll be back in Port to grocery shop (it's safer to buy meat from Port and it's the only place to get cheese and yogurt and white chocolate chips). Then by Tuesday, I can go home again!

There's no place like home.

You've Got Mail (hopefully :o)

2009-12-02T17:18:00.003-05:00

I have an address! Our mail is flown in once or twice a month from Florida, and I can receive letters or media mail. Anything larger than a manila envelope will go through customs and probably not reach me. I would love to hear from you!!

Diane Busch

Unit 2089-WES

3170 Airman’s Dr.

Fort Pierce, FL 34946

I also just finished my November newsletter. It's more like a condensed version of the blog, but you're most welcome to read it if you'd like! Sadly, I don't know how to upload it onto here, but you can email me and I'd be happy to email it to you!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2009-11-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

Happy early Thanksgiving? What are you most thankful for this year?

The Lord has been teaching me much about giving thanks, and you can read more about it on my devotional thoughts blog:
http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/2009/11/resting-heart.html

Tomorrow, I'm going to La Gonave for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with the group there. I'm excited to get to see the people that I'll be working with soon and looking forward to celebrating the day with other Americans!

May you have a blessed and joyful holiday!!!

Important Updates

2009-11-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

I'm so sorry that I forgot to mention this! I found out on Tuesday, and Tuesday, I had a very hard time remembering English! :o)

My dad's prostate biopsies came back negative for CANCER!!! Praise the LORD!!!!! I prayed for that, but really did not expect such wonderful results! Our God still works miracles!! My dad's bladder cancer was all removed with the first procedure, so he'll still need frequent rechecks (q 3 months). But we are so thankful!!! Thank you all for your prayers and sweet, encouraging words!!

Second, much smaller, update: New blog post on my devotional thoughts page with some thoughts as I see some of the extreme poverty here...
http://chariteservant.blogspot.com/2009/11/si-ou-ka-imajine-if-you-can-imagine.html

Finally, my allergic reaction is a little bit better. I can open both eyes again, almost completely. I'm still not sure what I'm allergic to, but I'm seriously considering a diet of just bread and peanutbutter for the next 2 weeks and slowly phasing foods back in!

Thanks again for your prayers, and please let me know how I can be praying for you!

The Attack of the Allergies!!!

2009-11-21T10:34:00.001-05:00

Good morning, friends! It actually feels a bit more like afternoon to me, even thought it's not yet 10am. That's mainly because I've been up since 5:15... Allow me to fill you in...

Last week, I had that crazy episode of hives and got to explore a Haitian pharmacy, an interesting world in which you don't need a prescription for anything and the pharmacist doesn't know his numbers in English great so you may not know exactly which doses you're getting (totally understandable, after all, i need to learn Creole and i can still look at the bottle :o). Thankfully, I've been pretty much hive free since Monday, when my area director made a House-like diagnosis. :o) As many of you know, House, MD, is my least favorite medical TV show... mainly because some information is withheld until the last 5 minutes of the show, so House looks awesome and smart and the poor PA following the show would never have guessed that diagnosis without that very important clue. Well, props to Dan Irvine, my amazing area director!! Monday night, he informed me that the mosquito netting on my bed is treated to ward off bugs, and as soon as we removed it, my hives went away!! So, I thought that we had solved the mystery... until now.

A little more background... This has been a interesting week for language! I found some Christian Creole music videos and have been loving them!! Here's my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6WyA-f3JdI&feature=related, and it's called "Where's your Bible?". I don't understand much else, but it's been fun to watch and I learn a little more each time I see it. I went from picking out words to understanding some phrases. And-- my favorite part-- it totally counts as my homework!! :o) If only all of my schooling growing up included youtube!! :o)

I've also been practicing with Esther every day. Esther is the 16 year old niece of our housekeeper, and she lives here in Port with her aunt to go to school. Her family is back on LaGonave, the island where I'll be headed for most of my time here in Haiti. Esther and I have formed a mutual admiration society/homework help group, and I'm proud to call her my first friend! ;o) I really felt like we were friends when last night, she asked if she could come visit me over Christmas break, when we'll both be on LaGonave. Soooo fun! So, mainly, we meet up every evening, and she helps me with Creole and I've been helping her with her English and Spanish homework... Yeah, you read that right-- Spanish!!! At first, I thought my brain was going to shortcircuit teaching my second language in my third, but it was actually really neat! And she is so patient with me Creole! I am so blessed to know her!

Last night, she told me about some several reactions that she has to mosquito bites, a terribly unfortunate allergy to have when you live in Haiti! She gets really bad hives, especially on her face. It was neat to be able to write down for her the names of some medicines that may help ease off her reactions. Also, I've been praying for ways to bless her and encourage her to love God more. Maya shared with us yesterday the huge need for youth ministry in Haiti, as over 50% of the population is under the age of 20!!! Any youth pastors wanna come join me? So, I feel like Esther is a little part of the reason that I'm here. Also, last night, it was amazing and peaceful to feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Such a neat feeling to sense that you're doing what you were created to do!! I highly encourage it! :o) It was awesome to be able to communicate with Esther, love on her, and help her out a little medically.

So, I fell asleep last night praying for Esther, and woke up this morning around 5am looking like this...

That's me gettin' ready to fight that reaction with some Prednisone and Benadryl! Good stuff! And it was as much as I could open my eyes! And my whole right cheek was one giant hive! Well, the good side is that none of it itches, and hopefully the mosquitos will stay away from me today! :o) The not so good side is that I'm still not sure of the cause and my allergic reactions seem to be getting a little worse. Here's a little reminder of what I should look like! :o)

That's Maya and I in the kitchen hanging out... like normal people who can open their eyes! :o)~

So far, the meds are kicking in and I can open both eyes again and actually have both contacts in again! Hooray!! But I'm calling on all you wonderful people who pray!! Please join me in praying for allergy-free days and discovering their source! Thank you!!!

Once again, I had a great time with the Lord this morning as He encouraged me that His presence and peace are available even when I can't see (literally). My devotional reading for this morning talked about how ever since His resurrection, when Jesus showed up, He encouraged His followers with the works "Peace be unto you" and that "I will never leave you or forsake you". So, I am so thankful for His peace and presence in the midst of this battle with reactions. Even though it's still a little hard to see, I can still study Creole by listening to those awesome music videos! Watch out, allergies, I'm ready to fight!!

Haiti for the Holidays... :o)

2009-11-19T12:37:00.000-05:00

Up until this moment, I haven't felt very fall-ish... I mean, I live in the Caribbean. I'm studying outside to work (carefully, without getting burned) on my tan (and of course, my Creole). But otherwise, it's been rather toasty here, with tempertures in the 90s-100s during the day. Next week is Thanksgiving, and I feel much more ready for Memorial Day or some other holiday where I can go swimming and eat ice cream, not turkey and stuffing! :o) I've noticed many of my friends debating on facebook about if it's too early for Christmas music... I can barely imagine C-mas music, although a Gingerbread latte from Starbucks does sound rather appetizing.
Until today...
This afternoon, I found a radio station in Creole. My language teacher recommends that I listen to as much Creole as I can to pick up on the little sounds and contractions that make Creole so tricky. So, I just finished class and scoured the internet to find Radio Lumiere.... an awesome Christian radio station that's mostly in Creole. And the first song that came on was a Christmas carol!! So, despite the heat and workin on my tan, I suddenly find myself quite in the Christmas spirit! Wanna listen along? Check out...http://www.radiolumiere.org/
And may all your Christmases be in Creole!

It's good to be three!

2009-11-15T20:54:00.001-05:00

I think that I have reverted back to being a three-year-old. I speak in short sentences, I go to bed at 9pm, and I get really excited when someone gives me a cookie. Perhaps this needs a little more explanation... :o)

This week has been a week chock-full of language learning, and hence my regression in age! Matt and I each have a 2 hour lesson in Creole every weekday, and then spend the rest of our time memorizing more Creole words and playing with Thea and Zahra (see-- we play with other kids! we're 3 again! :). Our Creole is progressing "piti piti" (little by little), and usually we just make people laugh a lot. I don't know a whole lot of words, but I sure can get creative in how I use the ones I know! :o) Also, Creole kind of sounds like baby-talk. It's very musical, but many words contain sounds like "kap" and "w'ap" and things that sound much like a baby learning to English.

DISCLAIMER: I may be forgetting some English, or at least how to spell! I apologize in advance if I miss something and the spellcheck doesn't get it! From now on, please don't hold me responsible for the grammar/spelling of my blogs! Thanks!!

Nine pm bedtime-- It's true!! I really have gone to bed that early! And it's really not a weird or difficult thing around here! Not everyone has electricity, even here in the capital city, so most people's days revolve around sunlight. That means getting up with the roosters before 6am and heading home by 5:30 pm when the sun sets.

So when missionary midnight (9pm) rolls around, you're quite ready to sleep. Also, learning a new language wears me out, so getting 8 or 9 hours a sleep is so helpful for my memory!

Cookies-- we've had lots of yummy homemade cookies this week! And that makes me so happy... I think that's all I need to say about that. ;o)

Thea is my favorite person to try out Creole with. As an 18-month-old, she doesn't correct my grammar, doesn't care if it takes me a few minutes to get a simple phrase out, and will giggle incessantly if I spin her in circles. I'm a little nervous that I may be corrupting her Creole, but I figure that her dad (a native Haitian) will have the rest of his life to straighten her out if I'm leading her astray! :o)

I've also been learning to trust the Lord with childlike faith this week. First, I got to be my own patient and visit my first Haitian pharmacy! As many of you know, I have a few random food allergies of things that are pretty easy to avoid. But, it seems that I'm allergic to something new, for I woke up Friday morning covered in hives from hades. Many were larger than my hand! I was absolutely miserable. Thankfully, the pharmacy had exactly the medicine that I needed! I don't itch anymore, but I'm still on the meds and now have a mystery on my hands to discover the source of those hives. Also, an unexpected blessing--I learned that mosquitoes don't like to bite me when I have hives! I guess they're afraid to catch what I've got!! I was so thankful to have a respite from mosquito bites! But I had a sweet time in prayer with my Heavenly Father on Friday as I cried out for Him to remove those hives, and He gently reminded me that He's bigger and more powerful than hives and that He has been preparing me for this work in Haiti for a long time.

First, it was neat to think that God had prepared me for that unfortunate occurrence. I'm a PA; I knew which meds would work and make me feel better. I was so thankful that God had lead me all those years and giant textbooks ago to learn medicine. Without that, I think I'd still be a big ball of itchy misery.

Second, my Heavenly Papa is teaching me that being a kid isn't so bad! He wants me to have childlike faith in the midst of these new situations and language learning. And like a child, I am back in school again; this time in preparation for my future Kingdom work here in Haiti.

Third, I've been learning to bloom where I'm planted. I'm praying for opportunities to be used while I'm here and learning to communicate. It's been neat to get to babysit for Carl and Maya so that they could go on their first date since Zahra was born, and one afternoon I made iced lattes for all of us (my espresso machine that I brought is the closest that we'll get to Starbucks this year!!). I'm thankful for these neat little moments to serve while I get ready for more hands-on service.

Well, I would love to write more, like to tell you about the awesome church that we went to this morning (at 7am), but it's 8:53pm, and you know what that means! Bedtime!!

~diane

P.S.~ I hope that your day is full of wonderful things-- like naptime and milk and cookies!

Status-Post Haitian Vacation... ;o)

2009-11-09T09:25:00.002-05:00

The Lord definitely has a sense of adventure! So after an awesome week of "roughin' it" for Jesus at that incredible resort with AC, gourmet meals (not always sure exactly what i was eating, but it was awesome), and (usually) hot showers, we have arrived in Port-Au-Prince to find a rather different situation.

Matt Tegen and I are staying with Carl and Maya Gilles and their adorable daughters Thea (18 months) and Zahra (1 month) in their beautiful guest house for this month to cram as much Creole into our heads as possible. As we pulled up to their house, Carl hopped out and opened the large metal gate, and I felt like we were on House Hunters International! It's a lovely home with tiled floors and lots of space and fun rainbow-colored awnings above the windows.

Shortly after we arrived, we learned that the water had been left on while we were at the retreat for the week, and it had emptied the cistern on the roof... leaving us with no water!! It's been an interesting journey the last 48 hours of Carl valiantly trying to get it fixed. In the midst of that, once the electric went off for several hours. Usually, the city electricity runs for several hours, then we switch to that battery inverter system, and when that's done we move to the generator. It enables us to have fans (without which we might not sleep) and lights. So, I've learned how to have a Haitian shower (a sponge bath-style bathing routine using a large bucket of water and a smaller bucket to rinse with) and I've gotten good use out of my headlamp for putting on my makeup while getting ready for church at 5:15 this morning. It's definitely been an adventure. :o) I think the fact that we have internet still makes me feel like I'm not really roughing it.

Yup... 5:15! Church was a really neat experience this morning, and we attended the early service (6-8am) at the largest Wesleyan church in Haiti! The place was packed out, and it was incredible to hear the people pray!! While the pastor was praying, they were all agreeing with him, and I am so blessed to be a part of the Lord's church worldwide and worship with this amazing group of believers! We were introduced on stage before the church (thankfully Carl translated for us so I didn't have to do it in Creole-- yet! the goal for next Sunday is to be able to introduce myself and describe my future ministries). I didn't understand much beyond a few scattered words and phrases in the message that was all in Creole, but I did figure out which passage of Scripture he was using... only to learn later that he read it all in French! I'm so confused! :o)~

Yesterday we had some fun little adventures! We whizzed thorough the downtown area to see the huge cathedral, a museum, and the palace, and then went souvenir shopping with some girls that were just here for the week. I bought a lovely painting that's gracing my room here, which Matt helped me negotiate the price for like 30 minutes! Do you like it?:

Also, we all got to enjoy sugar cane!! It's really good and different... You bite off a chunk, gnaw on it as sweetness floods your taste buds for 10 seconds, and then spit it out. It should come with a spittoon! It's nice, but much like chewing on sweet wood.

Now that you have an idea of some of the tastes of Haiti, let me describe the smells... Periodically, the aroma of a fire permeates the air. It seems that something is always burning. Typically, someone is burning a pile of trash. I'll have to post pictures of the city soon so that you can visualize it too! Thus far, I've been in a moving vehicle through the streets, so I'll have to try to get some still shots soon! But here's a little peek into my room, complete with my rockin' mosquito netting:

I'll leave you with one last story of smells here... On Sundays, we're on our own for meals, as the cook/housekeeper and her niece have a much-deserved day off. This afternoon, I had the pleasure of making eggplant lasagna (eggplant is sooo cheap here!) with salad and garlic cheese bread for lunch. It was fun finding my way around a kitchen in Haiti. The oven is fueled with propane, so you have to light a match and then turn the gas on for the stove and oven. We can't (shouldn't :) drink water from the tap, so it's an interesting process of cleaning vegetables. Washing dishes involves a small amount of soap and bleach and a rinse bucket of boiling hot water to scorch the germs and hopefully attain a small measure of sterility. But the results of the cooking sure were wonderful!! And one last scent to leave you with... Maya made cappuccino chip cookies for dessert! The running water it off again right now, but I'd say we're not roughing it too bad right now. ;o)

Haitian Vacation?!!! :o)

2009-11-06T17:25:00.001-05:00

Yup, you read that right! I'm kinda on vacation for my first few days in Haiti! How sweet after the hustle and bustle of leaving and the unexpected news about my dad! On the plane on Monday morning, the Lord spoke to me about resting in Him, and it was so sweet to find out Monday night when I got here, that it's also the theme of this retreat, centered on the same verses that God had shown me!!

First, I need to give you a quick update. My dad's bladder cancer biopsies came back this week, and-- praise the Lord!!!-- it's a low level, non-invasive cancer!! The prostate still needs further biopsies, but we are soooo thankful for this news!!! Thanks for your encouraging notes and especially for your prayers!

This week is an area missionary retreat, and it's the first one in several years. There are 26 of us gathered here, and it feels much like an extended family reunion-- we don't know one another that well but we already love each other! There are also 2 incredible women here who have been doing missions work in Guyana and Suriname for 40 years!! Their stories are incredible and encouraging, and it's fun to see pictures of people in grass huts!

I felt a little silly at first to be on a retreat when I haven't done any work yet, but I've been assured that I'll earn it soon enough! We're right on the ocean and the sunsets have been incredible! Isn't God a great artist?!

And the beach is incredible:

And I think that's where Monday night's dinner came from! Conch is yummy! Tastes a little like chicken... :o)

The schedule for this week has lent itself to lots of adventures! Our normal schedule consisted of meetings of encouragement and team building in the morning, and then free afternoons and evenings. Those times were full of swimming in the ocean and pool, enjoying the sun, playing games, visiting, drawing, napping, and snorkeling. And we were especially excited to have AC in the bedrooms and hot water (most of the time :). Picture us here:

And then one afternoon, I was invited to another mission for a quick visit.

That morning, one of our team members shared a neat insight into a common experience for missionaries in Haiti. Often when we're out on the island (La Gonave, the place where I'll be for most of my time here), children will hold our hand while we're out. The missionary mentioned that these kids are placing some of their hope and trust in us every time they do that. When I was here in March for a week and that occurred, it was just like "o, isn't that cute?!", but what a neat insight he had! But how neat to consider even these little events as a moment in which to share Christ and His love as a child places their trust in me for a short time.

This afternoon, a few of us visited Mission Possible with Cory, a botanist and a missionary in the northern part of Haiti. He was going to check on the garden, and they also have a school there. While exploring the gardens we checked out the banana trees.

As we meandered through the gardens, a little girl who lived there grabbed my hand. Instantly, Carl's message from the morning came to mind, and I felt so priviledged to be in this country and have moments of influence and venues for impact.

We also had a glimpse of Haitian power supply, and it's quite different from the States!! When the normal power goes out, we rely on an inverter system using power that was stored in car batteries! The one at this mission looks like this:

I think that there's 18 of 'em!

On the drive back, Cory told us about the gardens on the side of the mountains. The mountains are so steep here that people sometimes fall out of their gardens!! The lighter areas on the mountains in this picture are surgham.

A few more pictures from the retreat... This is the view from our room and the room itself:

And a few quick pics to prove that I was actually here, too! :o) This is me doing what I do best-- talking!! I was waiting for lunch with Pastor Dan, our area director, Dr. Kris, her son Eli, and Marlene, the wife of our pastor to missionaries. And the dining room has an incredible ocean view!! There are no walls in there, so we also had little birds who visited with us for dinner! :o) The food was incredible, all prepared by a Haitian/ Canadian chef!

And this is me (in the hat) on the rock beach at sunset:

I hope and pray that you're having a wonderful, restful day and look forward to hearing about your adventures!!!

Dear Friends, a little letter from me to you

2009-10-31T12:23:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends,

Hi! I feel like writing a letter today more than a blog. Letters seem to be a little more personal and sweet (or maybe just a little more Diane-ish :o). Most of the New Testament was written as letters-- epistles full of love, encouragement, personal greetings, and exhortations to know and love the relational God who first loved us. Today and the news that I have to share are letter-types of things.

My dear friends, thank you for going on this journey with me!! I'm so glad to have you with me in spirit on these new adventures. And I especially appreciate your prayers and responses!

I'm leaving tomorrow night for Haiti!! My flight leaves at 7:45pm from Atlanta, then it's on to a quick overnight in JFK. On Monday morning, I should arrive in Port-au-Prince!! Nov. 2-6th is a retreat for the area missionaries-- the first in several years! Then, I'll stay in the capital for language training for the rest of November and on to the hospital in December. Can't wait!

Dear friends, the next bit of news is hard to write. About 3 weeks ago, my dad started having some concerning symptoms. From an ER mindset, they were cancerous until proven otherwise. From a daughter's standpoint, they were nothing until they were something. Unfortunately, it did turn out to be something. My father was diagnosed with bladder and prostate cancer yesterday. We are waiting for the biopsies to come back to know how severe it is. Hopefully, it's not much of something.

In the midst of this curveball of news in my last week States-side, the Lord has been so sweet! None of this takes Him by surprise! My dad has an incredible sense of peace. And God has made it so clear that I need to be departing for Haiti in November. It has been incredible to watch Him bring the Haiti trip together! The vice president of the missions board I'm going through was amazed that all of the funds came together in just 5 months! I had a veteran missionary tell me this week how stunned he was that all of my fund-raising is already done (i'm just $500 shy of the whole $27,300 needed!). In the spring, I felt so strongly that I needed to leave in Nov., and here I am departing on Nov. 1st!! At this point, it still seems like I need to leave, but so much of my heart and prayers will still be here in little Central, SC. I know that my dad remains in the competent hands of great physicians, the gracious hands of loving friends, and the Almighty hands of Father God.

It has been a crazy but good week here. We spent it in doctors' offices, packing (and repacking-- still 3 pounds over in both suitcases! :o)~, eating and more eating of favorite foods, spending every second possible with family and friends and my wonderful boyfriend, and celebrating holidays (we had Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all this week!). I also had my last day of work yesterday, and it was an incredible love-feast! Love, because I don't know that I've ever felt so loved at a job, especially yesterday with the news of my father's illness!! And feast, because I have NEVER in 3 years there seen so much food in that place! And I think that food there really equates with love, and it poured out in a high tea and many other yummy treats. Heehee, and I think that I will be feelin' that love around my hips for a while! :o) What a blessing to work with such wonderful people!

May the grace, peace, and comfort of our gracious, powerful, comforting God fill you today and every day! Thank you in advance for your prayers and comments-- I look forward to keeping in touch!

In His peace,
~diane

My Life, a Miniseries

2009-09-08T12:20:00.001-04:00

I think that God loves to surprise me when I least expect Him to! I like to think that it's kinda like He's sitting on a couch in Heaven watching the miniseries of my life and at a moment like today, He'll lean over to an angel and say, "Hey, Gabriel, watch this! She's gonna love what I did for her! Watch for the expression that going to be on her face!" And then He leans back and smiles as He watches me enjoy the surprise that He's had in store for me since before the creation of the world.

Today had one of those moments!

So, I was writing an email to my mobilizer from Global Partners this morning. My mobilizer is the guy who makes sure that all of the long list of stuff to be done before going to Haiti gets done. I'm so thankful for him!! It's great to have someone know you, know your paperwork, and know how to get you to where God wants you to go! So, I was writing about my checklist of stuff (which is shrinking rapidly!!!) and mentioning fundraising. If my budget gets officially approved for $27,000 (that's the number i've been working with, but I need some i's dotted and t's crossed to make it proper), then I only need another $5,500! Woohoo! But the funny thing is... I have no idea where that money is going to come from!! The mobilizer wanted to know my plan for raising funds this month, and as I sat there pondering what to write had this feeling of "duh, uh, I dunno..." I don't really have a whole lot more contacts than the ones I've already contacted. It was a bleak feeling, and oddly, I felt so bleak I didn't even feel like I could pray about it.

So, on to the next email that I needed to respond to... and I realized that I needed to write back to a dear friend of mine who wrote me last week and asked about how to support me! Hooray! The Lord already has one more supporter lined up!

As I was writing her, I got a phone call from my mom. One of her friends had just stopped by to see her and share some exciting news from her (the friend's) recent doctor's visit. This doctor is a wonderful, nice doctor that I met as a student, and he had expressed interest in offering me a job 3 years ago. I had something else lined up by then, but he's still one of my favorite doctors. Well, this doctor asked my mom's friend if I was still moonlighting at the internist's office. When she said that I wasn't, he inquired about my current job status. The friend went on to explain that I'm preparing for Haiti and that I have a LOT of money to raise. {this is the part where God leans over and smiles big} The doc wants to support me!!! He told her to tell me to send him a letter and that he would love to be a part of my support team! Wow!!!

It's so neat when I think that I'm absolutely at the end of all that I can do trying to follow God's leading, and then He steps in to provide in ways that I never even imagined (and i have a really good imagination!). And He works even when I have zero faith that He's doing it!

Thanks for your prayers and I hope that today you're enjoying the next installment of adventures that God has planned for the miniseries of your life!
~diane
P.S.~ My target departure date is early November! Soooo excited!

Sweet Thoughts of September

2009-09-03T18:10:00.000-04:00

Happy Fall! It certainly feels like fall today!! It's wonderful to run in the afternoon (since it's no longer blisteringly hot at that time), drink Pumpkin Spice lattes from Starbucks, and watch God paint the leaves!
I hope that you're having a wonderful week! My September has started well with some hikes in parents' mountainous neighborhood, easing back into running (after a 4 month hiatus after running a marathon and then having shoulder surgery), and definitely enjoying a few lattes! Below is a fun recipe that I found for a homemade Pumpin Spice Latte-- let me know if you think it tastes like the real thing!

2 shots Espresso

3 oz milk combined w/ 3oz 1/2 & 1/2 steamed & frothed-- or As much as you like

2 Tsp Pumpkin Spice- Grocery store Spice Isle.

1 tblsp white mocha Tollhouse chips to sweeten.

Then mix it all up to taste. Top with whipped cream and a sprinke of pumpkin spice.

As much as I'm enjoying fall right now, I kind of miss summer. Usually, summer is so hot that I long for fall by the time it gets here. This year, I have a little bit of nostaglia for summer, like I wasn't quite ready for it to be done yet... I was hoping for a few more days of soaking up sun on the deck, wearing skirts, and eating watermelon. I think that perhaps God is getting even my internal thermometer ready for Haiti! I'm looking forward to living in perpetual summer, where the coldest it gets is 80 degrees at night in the winter!

Speaking of Haiti, it looks like a November departure just might happen!! I'm so close with the fund raising-- praise the Lord!!! I only need another $5,600 out of the $27,000! It's fun and wonderful and scary and exhilarating to be so close!! Thanks for your prayers!!

May you have a wonderul, blessed, pumpkin-spice-filled fall week!

The Start of the Blog

2009-08-28T13:38:00.000-04:00

Hi, friends!!
Here it is... my very first real blog post!! Below are a few little blogs that I wrote last year when I attempted to blog, but I have finally decided that it's time to really blog.
Now for a little background on me and my sudden urge to blog... :o)
The last three years have been wonderful... I have had a wonderful job working with great people in an ER (and getting great stories out of it, like the college guys reenacting Braveheart with steak knives and the patient who tried to steal an ambulance :), I traveled to see dear friends scattered all over the globe, I developed an insatiable addiction to swing dancing, and I renovated and decorated an adorable, cozy cottage.

All that is about to change (not the wonderfulness, just all those details :o).

I'm embarking on a new adventure and following God to Haiti for a year!! I'm so excited to join God in the work that He is doing there! Here is how my life is about to be quite different:

~Job- I will be working in a 26-bed hospital that serves 100,000 people. I will take call on a rotating schedule with 2-4 Haitian doctors, and the most common ailments are HIV, malaria, high blood pressure problems (stroke/eclampsia), and machete lacerations. And I get to work in the only 2 rooms on the island with AC-- the 2 small surgical suites-- woohoo! :o)

~Travel- I will be living on the island of LaGonave, which is located in the bay of Haiti. It's only 38 miles long, but because there are no paved roads, it takes 8 hours to travel from one end to the other. To get there, I will fly into Port-au-Prince, take a 2 hour ride in the back of a pick up truck, get a 2 hour tour across the sea, and arrive at the crystal clear waters of our boat dock on La Gonave. The language of Haiti is Creole, which is a fun dialect of French and I'm working hard at it (Sa ou genyen diarre? do you have diarrhea? ;).

~Fun stuff- There will be 3 other young adult missionaries from the States with me in Haiti, and we're hoping to start a small group for young adults at the Haitian church. Few people have electricity, so most people are free to do stuff once the sun sets (at 6:30pm), leaving an awesome opportunity for us to engage in fellowship on the missions compound (which has electricity until 9pm). Also, there is a huge desire to learn Spanish on the island, and I'm hoping to start a weekly Spanish club for practice and relationship-building, since they can't practice Spanish like we can in the States (by going to a local Mexican restaurant or watching the Spanish channel on tv). I'm also excited about visiting the local orphanage, full of adorable children who have smiles so warm they could melt chocolate.

~Housing- I am excited to get to live on the missions compound with a bunch of great missionaries!! There are several families who will be there and 3 other young adults. There is very little prepackaged foods on the island, so we do have a kitchen and employ 3 cooks for when teams come down for short term trips from the States. I hear I can even get one of them to bake me a loaf of bread every week, as there's no where to buy it! But they do have peanutbutter and delicious mangoes in the open air markets where I'll shop-- I'm excited!!

I'm going through Global Partners, the missions arm of the Wesleyan church (i currently attend FWC/ALIVE... www.fwcalive.com) and the link to my page with them is www.wesleyan.org/gp/mdirectory2/WM29-0070. I'm in the process of raising the last $7,500 out of $27,000 that I need to go, and I have been so blessed to see how the Lord is providing!! God has been bringing people into my life--without me doing anything-- who have been huge supporters and promoters. One of my nurses approached me about speaking at her church, where the pastor gave me all of this normal sermon time, I was informed at the last minute that I should give an alter call (first one EVER), and a girl got saved!!! I was approached by another coworker, who wants me to speak on her uncle's local Christian radio station!! God sent me wonderful renters for my cozy cottage, and I never advertised it!!

It has been an incredible summer, and I'm so excited to see what's next! I'm hoping to leave for Haiti by the end of the year, and I would love to have you share the journey with me!!

Ready or not, here I blog...
~diane

2008-04-09T22:37:00.002-04:00

So much of life can be described by "hurry up and wait." Sometimes I wish that my life were a bit like a movie-- all the exciting parts are there and ya can fast forward thru the boring ones. And yet, most of the living goes on the in the simple day-to-day operations. I am trying to learn to be thankful for the lulls and the "normal" days. In them, sparkle gems of God's love and traces of His fingerprints. Today, I got to see a little of that in the glorious budding of the trees in our neighborhood. I picked my favorites (heehee... or maybe i just picked the ones that i could actually reach :), and they now sit in a lovely pitcher on my dresser to remind me that God cares for the lilies. He has not forgotten me. I just read a sweet lil devo that ended with the words, "Our God is the living God of the Heavens, and even when He delays it is part of His goodness." So, even when I feel that nothing is happening (no sign of a future house or a future knight or a future international adventure on the horizon), this, too, is part of knowing Him. The normal, everyday life is a gift from Him. And I don't want a fast forward button to miss that! :o)

Good Start (not like the baby formula)

2008-03-24T19:04:00.002-04:00

Today was a good day... full of good friends, good food, good deeds, good ideas, good intentions... Seems like a good day to start a new blog. :o)

First, I celebrated finishing a 70 hour work week by sleeping in. That was good... very good. :o) Then, I went to lunch with a good friend, Janel, and we had a good conversation. It's so good to live life on purpose, and from time to time, to have deep conversations with friends about how to do that. Today was one of those chats. And it can be so scary sometimes to live the way that you know God is calling you to. A life of openness and obedience and abiding in Christ. A life that makes Him smile... o yeah, and it's good, too. ;)

This is where the good intentions come in... I intended for this to be the first day of eating healthy. (i'm no longer calling it a "diet" cuz that word is less fun..."healthy eating" has a much nicer ring to it than "bikini-body-for-may-vacation-diet", but the turquoise polka dot bikini will still hang from the back of my door as a reminder of the upcoming beach trip :) I intended to try this calcium-enriched diet that I read in a fun, classy book called How the Rich Get Thin. It made me feel rich to read it and get recommendations of all the places in NYC where you can eat and stay on her diet plan. So, in light of that, I was going to have a salad topped with grilled shrimp at lunch. Which, I am glad to say, I totally did... but then I also had a ton of yummy chips with artichoke dip and a criossant. So much for good intentions, but hooray for good food! :o) Random side note: she recommends water with a twist of lemon or lime in it. I like lemon water, so I thought I'd branch out and try lime water... not quite as delightful as I had hoped. Good lesson. :o)

I had a sweet chance to serve my mom today. She hurt her back lifiting a huge bag of fertilizer, so I got to work on being a servant of all by cleaning bathrooms for her today. It's sweet to get to serve while I spend my last few months at home. I'm on a quest for a little cottage that I can move into this summer. The Lord seems to be opening doors for me change my address. :o) My dear friend Joanna is moving back to be my roommate before we embark on our travels around the globe for Jesus (her possibly to Europe and me to Haiti). In light of the current housing market and awesome mortage rates, it might be a really wise time to buy a house. And it would be so cool to actually do the wise financial thing and get to be in the market at the right time (i feel like i don't usually make really wise financial decisions; it'd be cool to start :)! I'm still praying my way through it, but I have my eye (and prayers :) on two cute little mill houses. I love the thought of taking a sad little old cottage and turning it into a bright, cheery home with a little elbow grease and TLC.

Some random good ideas: I love to travel and have adventures, and I recently came across some fun ideas for trips! Below is a great website for swing dancing around the world:
http://www.swingoutoftown.com/
How fun would it be to lindy hop your way through Scotland?!
I also found a school in southern France that offers French lessons in the morning and surfing lessons in the afternoon. Tres chic! (and i don't know how to say "surf's up" yet in French :). You can find that here:
http://www.bls-frenchcourses.com/course-surf-GB.html

All in all, it's been a good day off. I think it might be a good time to watch a movie, and I hope that you're having a good day!