"Hidden Blessings" By Michaela Smith

The tears silently slid down my heart, as a lifeless little body slid into my hands. “God please”, was the prayer that echoed quietly from my lips, as I unwrapped the tight cord three times around his neck. Surveying the little one, I simply saw no trace of life, which them prompted my next move, CPR. Seconds passed, before I grabbed the stethoscope, to listen to a much wanted heart beat. Nothing. I continued, all the while making sure mother was in good condition. Marcile had just entered the clinic gate and soon 

joined me. We continued to work with the baby, but before long it was clear that we did all we could. I had glanced from time to time, at the faces of the parents, as they watched things unfold. Hopelessness was more and more seen, the longer things went on. We had tried our best in trying to get baby to breathe, but it was clear that the little one wasn’t meant to live life here on earth. My heart ached, and the tears threatened to flood my eyes, when I walked into the hospital room where the mother laid on her bed. The tears were streaming down her face, as she mourned for her child. I wanted to reach out to her and make things better, but I knew I couldn’t. So, I just stood by her bed, silently praying that God would be near her through this time. That same day, I assisted at the birth of a different mom who later went home holding her healthy baby girl. 

I will never know the “why” behind some little ones dying in childbirth and others living; but this I do know, that it’s God who ultimately chooses life or death, and that there is always a purpose behind everything he does. 

Although, there are moments of pain, there are still moments of beauty and things to be thankful for. I’m reminded of that daily: through the smile of a child, the music of praise playing loudly just before clinic opens, the laughter as friendships are being made, a flower, the little child running along with excitement as his handmade kite trails behind, and the songs of praise erupting from the mouths of loved ones over the safe delivery of their newest family member. These are a few of those “hidden” blessings, that serve to remind me to be thankful for the gift of life, but also of the sustaining strength, faithfulness and goodness of God. 

-Mis Michaela Smith

Update from Brendan Horner

05/11/20 

       It was great being back at clinic today. Last week we took off Thursday and Friday to go on a little beach outing with Derek and Lori before they leave. There was a funeral in T-Goave that we went to on Saturday then I stayed the night in T-Goave and came home Sunday afternoon. It seems like I was gone a lot the past few days so it was good to be back at clinic today. 

      It was a normal Monday at clinic. Had a total of 72 patients. My days consist of the usual bandage changes and just help out where needed. One of the patients that came in today is a little baby that is very malnourished, it's so tiny and sick looking. It will stay here at clinic till it is up to 5 pounds. 

       This evening there was another baby born at clinic.

 Having newborn baby's around is always refreshing. When you see a lot of sadness and people die it's always refreshing to see and hold a new life. 

 Brendan Horner, EMT

An update from Mis Marcile

 

                                           

Haiti...    the Country I left five years ago, the country I fell in love with... I'm back!

I left Haiti in 2015 not knowing where God would lead me. After going through 4 years of Midwifery training God opened the doors for me to come back to Haiti. I was thrilled and amazed at how God opened the doors. The last couple months at home had been very stressful for as I was preparing to sit for the NARM Exam to pass the test for Certified Professional Midwife. I passed the Test October 31st and then enjoyed a couple relaxing weeks with my family before I left for Haiti. 

     Life here in Haiti has been as normal as normal gets around here! COVID-19 caused quite the stir here. Unfortunately they blame it on the "whites" for bringing it into Haiti. There are so many false stories and ideas going on around here about the COVID-19. Like if you find a hair in your bible you boil that hair in water to make a tea and drink that to keep from getting the Corona Virus!!! So, people were going through their bibles and looking for hair and making tea out of it!! We of course told them that is NOT TRUE and will do NOTHING. 

     I'm not even sure how many actual positive cases we have here. But thankfully, as far as we know there are no COVID-19 cases in our area. We have been taking precautions though and doing a lot of education to help people understand how it spreads and what to do about it. We have a hand washing station at the clinic gate entrance so everyone can wash their hands. There are a couple other changes we made to keep the virus from spreading, if it does come here. 

Thankfully people have been calming down and we don't hear as much of this craziness. Clinic days have also been getting busier as things had slowed down over the first news of the COVID-19. The government closed all the schools and the churches are supposed to be closed too although many are still having church.

     Emergency runs have been far and few between... which is something we won't complain about! We did have an "almost" emergency run a couple days ago... a pregnant lady came into clinic, I checked baby's heart tones and was very concerned as they were not normal. I quickly did a cervical exam to check dilation and was confused at the position of baby. I was pretty sure it was breech but something still didn't feel right. I palpated her abdomen and still couldn't figure out the position of baby. I called in another nurse and we decided to send her out to town. By the time we got a transfer paper written and mom settled on the machine she was pushing. Here comes a baby's butt. We could see right away that something was very wrong with baby, it was severely deformed. Baby lived for about an hour after it was born. 

Death... so final. It seems like we've been experiencing it quite a bit the last while. Or is it just because it's so draining and heart breaking?????? A mom in labor working extremely hard to bring her dear baby into this world, pushes for one last time as a lifeless little form slides into the world with a very tight cord wrapped around its neck 3 times. We did CPR but baby did not come around. Tears slid down my face as I held the mothers hand and tried to explain why baby died. My heart hurt for her as she cried out "I did all this work for nothing". 

    

     Then there's Sè (sister) Ramon. The mayor of Ti-guave, the mother of many. Died from heart problems. EVERYONE knew her... an extremely influential woman with a big heart of love for everyone she met. Its crazy how the death of one person can affect so many lives. The night she died we could hear wailing and screaming all over the hills, I was wondering how I would sleep. Clinic staff came to clinic the next morning sad and heart broken. I didn't know this lady but being with people that knew her, people that were heartbroken and crying every single day, is wearing. Her funeral will be on Saturday. 

     

      A mom of 4 boys comes to clinic extremely sick. She just had that "look"... a look that tells you she is probably HIV positive. Probably one of the worst things I have to do here is tell a person that they are HIV positive. There's so much hopelessness in those words... so much fear, so much uncertainty, so much pain... I tried to break the news to her gently but she did not take it gently. My heart broke for her as she cried out over and over "its not possible, I do not have it". I checked her 5 month old baby and found the dear little one also positive. We encourage and firmly urged the mother to go to town for treatment but she refused because she was sure she was sick with something else. She died a week later... 

     On a better note there have been beautiful, healthy babies born, bad burns that are healing, wounds that were horribly infected that are healing, sick people getting better, smiling faces greeting you as you walk into clinic happy to see you, a premie baby gaining weight, smiling mamas as they listen to baby's heart beating loudly and baby giving a big mighty kick, laughter coming from the birth room as a god mother vividly and dramatically tells a first time mom how to push, friends that come and wrap you in their arms and tell you they love you, and so much more! 

     I love Haiti. Being here is both extremely draining and extremely rewarding!!! And yet its life... its amazing how your body and mind adjust to your surroundings and what's thrown into your lap. I was asked today if we've had any crazy cases come into clinic and at first I said no, then we started talking and I realized that there was more than I realized! Because its just normal life... Everyday God provides the strength and grace we need to face the challenges of each day. 

I have been doing quite a bit of visiting the last couple days. One of my friends that knows English pretty well, decided to start a small English school and asked me to help her. She has been doing an amazing job and her students are extremely excited about learning English which is helping them learn in leaps and bounds! So I try to hike up the mountain to her house as often as I can to help her out.  The pics below are from some of the visiting we've been doing.  

Please continue to pray for us! Prayer works and we can often feel it. 

-Marcile

                                             

Just a side note

For those of you who might remember her, the lady that had the baby pictured below is Joatase. She is one we have talked about several times before; she's 22, and is one of the girls who comes to our Bible study sometimes. Do pray as we continue to minister to her. She continues to show some spiritual interest, but has obviously made some wrong decisions in life. After she was pregnant, she did get married. That was in May, but her and her husband are already separated. She's back living with her mom. It's so sad.

Beautiful Sunset

Sometimes one just has to stop and take in the beauty around them!

A sweet little girl and her grateful mother--came with a gift of eggs for the nurses!

Yes, my medicine book which gets used quite a bit! :-)

A neighbor lady was sick last week so we trekked to her house 15-20 min away to check her out.

Do check out the cholera blog again as we've had a re-surge of cholera and are up and running full force again! Also pray that we have the strength we need as we're short staffed right now.

This and that

Yes, nurses do things other than being a nurse!

Here we are having a Bible study with a couple of the local girls here on the porch.

I know this is really gross, but the other day I was removing magets from this man's leg.

Virginia taking blood pressures at the clinic

From the nurse. . .

Well, it's good to be back at the clinic! For the first while after I got back from my 4 week visit in the States I was working at the CTC. We have others who are volunteering to come for a few weeks or months at a time and helping there, and I am able to focus more at the clinic again. Here are just a few pics from my day today at the clinic.

I thought it was about time to give you an updated picture of our Haitian clinic staff. We now have a new nurse since Mis Louda got married and a new pharmacist since our main one had to leave because of her husband's stroke and another one got a different job.

R-L Back row: Direk (runs the front desk), Madme Jean Mark (pharmacist), Madme Jean Claude (assistant pharmacist/cleaning lady), Adolf (pulls the charts and weighs the patients),

Front row: Mis Joslen (our new nurse), Mis Leida (nurse), Madme Daniel (cleaning lady/also does laundry at the CTC right now)

This little girl was one of the people I saw today. She had a really nasty skin infection. You can't really see it in the pic, but her ear was just covered in soars.

I know this isn't clinic, but we as nurses do other things too!

The other day Thea and I just spent some time on the porch with our friends Selma and Tislen. We put a puzzle together. They thought it was the neatest thing. It was a new thing to them! We had fun!

They were so happy when they figured out how it worked!