Staff Stuff

     I love saying Good-morning at the clinic. I like to shake all the hands and have all the cultural good-morning pecks on both cheeks from the other Haitian nurses. We have time to ask how the night was, or if we feel really grouchy, we have time to count pills or hide away in a corner and study the meds for a patient.

    And then, the day is on. We are zooming around grabbing meds, and extracting pus from wounds, and forgetting that some of us are white skinned and some aren't. I love it. Dolph is over there praying with a patient in the hospital room, while Nores scolds a lady for not taking her meds. Direk peeks over his half glasses as he prepares paperwork for the patients. Anita is calling a doctor about a hospital patient, who presents a difficult case. The cleaning ladies are burning blood and bandages outside, or mopping hallways inside.

    Katie is doing a really good job of doing check-ups on malnutrition cases. It is so exciting that we can actually see some children helped so much! This past month we didn't really have a very big stock of milk for them, and so we were thinking and praying about some other options of nutrition for them. It is scary to look into a swollen face and see the bleary, tired eyes of a child who is slowly dying in your very presence. Please pray that we would know where to go with these needs right now. I often hear Katie saying, "Can I just keep this one and nurse it back to health?"  Is there a way that we can start a more supportive program and more aggressively help or prevent death in this way? But the Lord blessed us so that we are able to buy more milk formula for the next while.

     This afternoon after a busy day at the clinic, Katie and I took a hike with Rachel Widowski up to visit the Haitian nurses in their house. It was so fun. I had to forgive them for their late arrivals to work some mornings after I realized how much energy it takes to trek up the mountain. I had to laugh when Mis Leda asked about a rash on Rachel's arms, and noticed that it was difficult for her to walk because of a previously sprained ankle. She is a good nurse, I said to myself....even watching out for health when she was washing her cooking kettles.

   So that is our update from clinic today. I just wanted to honorably mention my co-workers today. Because, when the day is all over, they are usually exactly the people I want to work with the next morning. And  if not, I can always count pills!