Those Little Clubbed Feet

 Remember this little fellow? Samuel is gaining well... going on 6 lbs! We're starting the process of getting the operation done for his tiny clubbed feet. We aren't sure what the exact cost will be but would like to raise support for him. If anyone is interested you can go to our contact page on the blog.

 This is little Samuel Senechal with his Father when they came in for his appointment today.

- Mis Katie

Angels Unawares

     I really don't know how they look-- Angels unawares. But I think they might look slightly like this sometimes. You know, some days you are having a hard time sensing God's timing and plan. And then, something like this happens. For some reason, it tells you very clearly that God is up there, and that things do not happen by accident with God. Ever. 

   I was walking down to clinic to grab some supplies for a shot we needed to administer Sunday night, and was planning on returning to the house in a few minutes. As I came from one direction, a lady in labor came from the other. 

   I decided I would welcome her in, give her a quick check up, and then run home to tell everyone what was up. Well, it wasn't meant to be. I got quite involved, and asked the one neighbor who had accompanied her into the room to go get a nurse for me. Apparently, something happened, and no nurse was coming. Well, then, before I knew the little angel had come...no time to wait for other nurses. I, for some reason, felt God was right there. I had time enough to get all the supplies I needed, but not enough to worry or stress. 

    And so, I wrapped the little baby up, and went out and asked the noisy children outside the gate if they couldn't please call Mis Whitney. They did, and before I knew it, the troops were present, including Mis Katie, who was too sick to be there.  I had plenty of people to help get everyone comfortable and cozied in for the night. 

A Multitude of Maggots

     The sun was bright and cheerful this morning as I stood at the clinic door and scanned the crowd of patients outside. My eyes rested on a tiny,white haired granny sitting towards the back. A swarm of insects buzzed around her head; her clothes were filthy and she smelled like infection. And rotten flesh. And something else I couldn't decifer. I flipped back her shirt and tried not to gasp at the protrusion of rotting flesh on her upper back. We took her into the clinic and laid her on an exam table.

     I grabbed gauze and a tweezers and slowly started removing the white globs of matter inside one of the holes. I gasped as a clump as big as a bouncy ball slipped out. It had the texture of a cheese curd... but mind you, it did NOT smell like one. ;) And then, after going back to dig again, I saw the crevice from which I had removed it was writhing with huge maggots. That's when I put on a mask. The smell of rotting flesh, mingled with the feeling of those writhing creatures in the grasp of my tweezers was enough to make me feel a lil woozy.

     The next hour was spent removing those 'clumps' of matter and then making a dive to remove the pocket of maggots underneath. Dolan shone our bright exam light onto the wound, and I saw a whole herd of little heads poke to the surface. Ro and I dumped peroxide and cut away dead flesh and grabbed at maggot heads and tried not to gasp or gross out too loud. ;)

     And I'll add a pic of this precious 2 month old baby boy that came in this morning. His skin was literally flaking off like the scales of a fish, and raw and bleeding under his ears and between his legs. He was so weak he could hardly cry out. We dosed him up with meds, spread cream over his entire little body, and dressed him in clean clothes.

 -Mis Katie

Life is Good-Especially if...

     I am looking for the Aunt to this baby. I thought the baby was cute...and was already taking a picture of her, when I really read what the shirt said. So if you are related, own up. We are looking for the priviledged AUNT.

     Yesterday we took a little ride out to Bassinguette again. Our dear sick friend Elvie had finally gotten her call to Heaven, and we wanted to visit with the family and attend the burial service.
     I will have a hard time expressing the emotions of our afternoon. You wanted to cry. You wanted to start crying because Elvie's husband was motioning to the tomb outside of their house with an empty, sad set of hands that showed Elvie was going to be put in there. He just wrung his hands and pleaded for hope. His daughter was wailing on a bench nearby, supported by a kind relative. We watched as the drunk husband tramped over to comfort his weeping daughter.
     "Miss Woda," she cried out when I joined her," I won't have a Mama again. She left me." I found myself crying...again.

      And then you needed to dab  your eyes one more time because the one Christian daughter was singing a church song with her head uplifted, eyes closed, and tears streaming down her face. But she had hope. She was bound for heaven. She would see her mother again.

     And then there was Mr. Lamont. We walked down a rustic little trail to find him. He was lying on a bamboo mat, swollen from his waist down. Poor man. He has a huge sore on each of his legs. We are hoping that his friends can carry him to the clinic before too long so we can give him some consistent care and get him back on his feet. If they cannot, we will try to send him meds and bandages to expedite his recovery.
     Tomorrow is another day. Life is good. We know it in our hearts, even if our faces don't show it!
   

   
 

   
     
   
   
   
   

Where Are My Teeth?

     We were driving up the road from Laogane when Fre Daniel met us, telling us that no nurses were in the clinic and a real bad wound had come in.
     In a few minutes, we were sheathed in our scrub tops and hurrying down to see who was there. By the time we got there, Mis Leda was busy dabbing blood. "This boy needs to go to town," she told me. I started praying. The boys were exhausted. They had been on the road all night taking a lady who was seizuring with eclampsia. Only now did they finally get a chance to find some pillows and a bed.

    "God, we just don't need this boy's tongue to keep bleeding," I prayed as we started our clinic day an hour later than usual. "Can't you just make it stop?"
    As Mis Leda continued stitching, the bleeding slowed down. She stitched the hole above his lips. And then, there was the big stitch job on his scalp. Kate says it was one of those deep skull cuts again.
    Precious little man. He didn't cry. The IV was sagely dripping into his arm. His teeth were sitting back up there in the roof of his mouth. And he wasn't even crying. Just trying to hold still. And then the bleeding was STOPPING.

    So after a night in the hospital room, he was still bravely grunting since he couldn't talk. He was blubbering down coffee. I was so excited. His tongue wasn't too bad. But there sat his teeth. Up in the roof of his mouth. Knocked way up. Stuck up there.
    After a while, he was on his way to TiGoave for a dentist... We were happy. But the pregnant lady who walked off is still here.
    So we are wondering if she will run off again. But then again, if she wants to, I guess we can't keep her here. But I think she is back to stay. She only made it to the top of the nearest hill, and then she was begging to come back to bed. So we made up another bed for her.

     I just had to add this little man on to the blog here. He is not blessed with total mental capabilities. But he always is so sweet. He loves to have a little pain medication and some lotion. He just wanted to tell me that he is praying for me. It made my day. Prayers can do that.

   

I'm Wondering...

What to blog about today?  I think for this time I'm just going to post a few pictures of a young boy that came in this last Friday evening.  His mom said he stepped on a rock.  Poor guy, must have been a sharp one, as you can see!

  It was really neat getting to see how thick the skin was on the bottom of his foot!  :)

 Notice Rho's sterile field in the left of the picture... she's getting ready to start her mending job! :)

She did a great job of cleaning, numbing, and stitching him up! 
Sorry I don't have more to write.  :) 
Things have been really strange around here the last few days without Steve and Shana and the children...   Yesterday afternoon Shana came back up here to the mission to pack for their trip back to the States.   Now this afternoon just as soon as we finish up a few things (this being one of them:) and do some quick packing, the rest of us here are planning to head down the mountain to join them for the night and then drive back up here again early Thursday morning in time for clinic.  
We're so looking forward to spending tonight together again!  Not looking forward to saying goodbye to them for now...  Thank you all who are praying!  We can definitely sense it!   Things are changing- too fast, it seems, but we still have peace, trusting that God is orchestrating all these events! 
And it's very exciting to see how God is using this to touch individuals here!  Please pray especially for Madame Moyiz, the witch doctor...  From things she's been saying, she seems to have a new awareness of her state before God and is seeing her need for salvation, but is afraid of potential opposition.   God is at work!  It's comforting to see that and be assured that He has beautiful purposes for everything He does and allows.   We know that ALL things work together for good...
All for now, I need to skidaddle before I get left behind...:)
~Whit

Stitch up a Saturday

     It is Saturday....we just put the finishing touch on those orange glazed cinnamon rolls, and then a knock came on the gate. It was Daniel, our gate guard. He said someone had totally broken his head when he fell down the mountain. Katie was on call, so she ran down to access the situation. After a few minutes, the rest of us made our way down, too. If the head was totally broken, it was going to be rough!

    This is what we found...the man had an ugly swollen eye, a gash that reached into his skull, and then a few scrapes on his face. The bad thing was, that he had gotten the cut the evening before.
   As we tried to decide what to do with the situation, we looked down and saw he had a missing leg. Poor man. He had seen his share of woe in life.
     Because of the risk of infection, and the dirty, swollen eye, we felt safer to keep the man overnight, and went home to see if rats had eaten our cinnamon rolls.
     Sunday we did a little check-in on him again. It was so much fun to bequeath him with a pair of crutches so he could get around a little better. Mis Katie did a test run on the crutches herself. She looked happy, but I think the wounded man was in too much pain to enjoy the joke, so we laughed with her.

   We are so anxious for him to come back for a bandage again. Meanwhile we are praying that only good things are happening to his head!