MOVING!!! well, sometime...

     It's Christmas time and we are having vacation... We even took time to eat chocolate,drink tea, and sing Christmas songs together on Christmas Eve. We all hope you have had a joyous holiday as well.

     So, yeah, vacation, well, from long lines of waiting patients, anyways. We have dropped down to three or five patients a day. Most of these are bandage patients that need to be cleaned and freshly taped up so infection doesn't set in. We are keeping most of our things in the clinic until the new facility is prepared.

     What have you seen on our blog since the most important part of clinic life is gone? Probably not much. Without our patients to blog about, we have resorted to talking about the buildings. Do you want to see inside our NEW building?

     At this point, we have decorated the building with paint cans, sanders, rags, buckets, and such. We are still painting shelves and walls. Sometimes we spend hours removing paint, too. Like when the people who paint put the paint on the floor, then it needs to come off. We will not disclose any names of the culprits. We will only show you their pictures on the following blogs.( Please do not hire them yourself, we would be glad for their continued help here- and, well, really, they didn't slop too much. )

     At times, we see someone welding still more pieces to fit into our clinic" puzzle". I don't always know what they are welding. Probably it is some grate for the door, or maybe some more shelves for the pharmacy. Other times we see Donovan fixing a sink up for our bandage patient corner. Or maybe Alex is washing out a paint roller for us. I have seen some Haitian men chiseling away at plaster. Many other helpers are doing many other undisclosed functions.

    Sometimes Anita, or Michael, or Steve come down to the clinic and discuss the layout of important rooms or the placement of needed objects. One day I believe their plans will turn into visible results.

    So go ahead and look at the pictures, and if you get hungry, stop by the house. This whole time, Shana and Thea have probably been up there at the house making some wonderful food or brownies or something for all the clinic workers to eat.

    And while you are up there, look at the yards and yards of fabric that are being turned into curtains for our clinic room dividers and cabinet covers. Thanks goes to Sharon and Breanna here. We can hardly wait to hang them up.

     Stop by any time, especially if you love dust and dirt! We would love to use your energy! Happy Holidays!

     

Finishing Touches

Right now the clinic is closed for holiday vacation and for us to move to the remodeled facility.  Below are just a few shots of what you see at the new clinic now.  

Pills of equipment and supplies waiting to be placed

Final painting 

New shelves in the pharmacy ready to be filled

Poor Little Girl

This blog post isn't as cheery as the last one.  Here is a little two year-old girl that got burned badly yesterday.  Somehow she got hot corn meal mush all over her.  Her right cheek, forehead, chin, and right arm got most of it.  It has to hurt her pretty badly, but she does well when we clean and bandage it for her.  She'll be coming in frequently for a while.  

Her and her Daddy

A close up of her face

Big Boy

Clinic was almost over yesterday when I got the news that a lady in labor had just arrived.  As I finished what I was doing, Breanna began getting vitals and checking the lady.  It was a 19 year-old mother, first baby, and vitals for mom and baby looked good.  She was progressed enough that we didn’t go home, and a little later Rhoda went and got some lunch for us all.  Her advances were slow so we hung out in the pharmacy and kept an eye on her.  Baby finally came just before 7 pm.  The delivery went well, and Rhoda was soon bathing a healthy 8 lbs. 10 oz. baby boy!  

The nurses with the baby

Mama and Baby

Below is just another shot from the clinic this week.  Here is a little child who is under weight and hopefully can benefit from some of the supplements that CAM sends us

Little child getting Herbalife and Ensure

     Today is Tuesday. We started the day busy with blood pressures. The line was reaching way back to the door for a few minutes, until Breanna came around the corner. She got busy real quick at diminishing the numbers.
    Philip and Miriam Rudolph spent a few minutes checking in on our day. Maybe that is why it ended so smoothly.
    After getting home, we quick-fixed some lunch, and prepared to go to visit a lady in Molliere. She has a seven month old baby that was born in our clinic. One day she told Breanna that she must come visit her at her house. Today was the day!

     The sky had a couple dark clouds floating above us, and a frisky breeze was blowing. That was a good thing, because we had a pretty sturdy hill ahead of us to climb. Along the way we met our friend's son, who showed us the way to her house.
     As we walked into the courtyard, our friend's hurricane-beaten house came into view. She greeted us, and wondered if she could make us some Chocolate to drink. While we sat on the chair holding the baby, and another neighbor's baby, we watched her prepare us a special treat.
    We watched them wash our cups with long grass. Then we saw them start a fire, grate ginger, and shred chocolate into a big kettle. Soon we were sipping steaming cups of chocolate/ginger drink and eating Haitian bread. Following the snack, we had a bit of talk time and prayer.
    It was time to leave. We had a gorgeous walk back home. After all that beauty we should be ready to face anything at clinic tomorrow.

New Little One

 Thursday night at 11:30 this little one was born.  It was a first time mom so it was a longer labor--making it also a longer process for us nurses who were keeping an eye on things.  She had come to the clinic mid day Wednesday.  So after a many watchful hours and back and forth from home to the clinic, we were so thankful once again for a safe delivery and healthy baby. 

This makes baby number four born at the clinic this month.  Normally we don't have more than 4-5 births a month, and we're only to the middle of December!  There were two ladies in labor this week that we sent the stretcher out to carry them back, but they delivered before they got here.  

Little girl--6lbs 2oz

Mama and Baby

Progress

Here are a few shots of the progress on the rebuilding project at the clinic.  A team was here for the past week from PA putting up the fence around the clinic compound and working on shelving and painting inside.  We plan to move in over Holiday vacation, opening up again at the "new" clinic January 7, 2013.  

We are so excited about operating in the new facility!  

New fence

Making shelves

Mounting shelves in the pharmacy

Thank you SO much to all of you who have made this project possible by giving time, labors, money, and prayer support.  Do continue to remember the work here as we serve our Savior in serving others each day!  Lives are being touched and souls witnessed to.