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...

... 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

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!!

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.

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

"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

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

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

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

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....

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.