Four New Faces

Ah, back to blogging, and having a hard time of it deciding WHAT to blog, 'cause so many things have happened since I got back!  Maybe I should have blogged sooner.  :)  Two very full weeks have rushed by, sweeping me right back into the strong current of constant clinic commotion and everyday life in Allegré, Haiti.  Sometimes it feels a little more like you're white-water rafting through one thing to the next!  (or anyway what I'd imagine it to be like:)   

 

So what's happened?  Let's see, there was the machete cut to a young man's forearm that took 12 stitches, or the brave eight year old boy who came in yesterday with a gash to the top of his head that took 11 stitches...  Apparently he went to bathe and slipped on the rocks, revealing plenty of pearly-white skull beneath.  And then there's Alexi, another whole story that I think Rho will tell you about soon.   It's been a very heart-rending situation to see.  He's a young man that we thought was dying of kidney failure, and then we found out someone had put a couple demons on him.  Medical diagnosis or demons?  Or both?  We can't always know, but we can always pray, and that's what we've been doing. 

 

And those four new faces... I've lost track of order and time, but somewhere within the last two weeks there's been four births.  It must be the season, 'cause it seems like more than usual to me.   

One baby was born last Sunday.  Rho and Mali had left with Donny Saturday evening with a few heart patients they were taking out to the hospital in Mirabale, so Marcile and I were on duty here.  

We were woke up at 6am Sunday with someone knocking at the gate telling us a lady, named Joann, was in labor.  She progressed steadily, and by 9:00, we went to clinic to stay for the long haul, passing the time quickly tending to other bandage patients.  Janelle and Julien kindly volunteered to come down and help too, and I was grateful, 'cause we used them a lot!  

By 10:00 the mother started pushing and right about then there came in a crowd of probably 15 people into the gate carrying in a lady on a cot.   You never know what kind of an emergency you'll find on a cot!   I left Marcile with the mother (who was now screaming "Woi!" with each contraction) and ran outside to check it out...  

In the meantime, Janelle and Julien are making beds, fetching items, controlling the scene, and doing all kinds of other things to be a huge help!  

We got the new lady, who seemed semi-conscious, in on a bed and were in the process of checking her blood sugar when I hear Marcile call urgently, "Uhhh, Whitney!?! Can you come here?  I think the baby's coming!"  I run in and decide I still have some time, told her she's doing great, and I'd be right back.  So I run back to finish helping Janelle check the new lady's blood sugar...

They told us she had fallen and hit her head and couldn't walk or talk well since then.  She was awake enough to mumble about her head hurting her extremely, enough mumbling for us to notice her difficulty talking and the suspicious drooping of the left side of her face.  She couldn't lift her left arm either, and her left eye was less responsive than her right eye.   Another stroke victim?  Likely, but then in the back of our heads we're also trying to determine if she had a stroke that made her fall, or if she fell and could have some spinal injury and/or internal bleeding from that...   But her vitals were all stable, so we decided to monitor her and get back to that baby that was well on it's way!   And at 11:15 she came, a healthy baby girl!  We prayed through that birth, and thanked God afterwards for making everything go so perfectly!

Then this past Friday we had another exciting birth in the middle of a very busy clinic day.  I was just putting gloves on to finally bandage the leg of a sweet little old man who had waited very patiently for me, when I heard some commotion outside and a serious sounding "Woi!", that typical cry of a woman in labor.  I thought, "Wow, another birth already?" and finished donning my gloves.  I wondered if it was the lady who's due that's been staying close by at the neighbors only with false alarms, waiting for real labor to start.   Right then Rho popped her head in and asked if she could redirect me to go check the lady out.  I said sure, but wondered if I'd have enough time to quick get that bandage done?  She didn't think I should wait, so I assured the man that Mis Marcile would bandage him, and that we'd give him a milk since he waited so long, and I grabbed everything I needed to get vitals on the laboring mother.  She was in the hospital room, since the birthing room was fully occupied with other patients.  I was glad Rho told me not to do that bandage first, cause this mother was in active labor with her fifth, too active to even get those vitals taken!  Marcile soon came in to assist, and after we got the mother on the bed she had just enough time to run and grab everything we needed before a chunky baby boy showed up!  We hardly even had enough time to get nervous before that one was over! :)

This was the first baby born the day after I got back.   Extra cute, I thought.  :)

I missed getting any pictures of the third and fourth babies, but I added a couple other cute little faces...:)  This little preemie baby girl below just came in for a check-up and to get salve to help a little eye infection.

And then one more baby who's been sick with the fever lately, MaKayla Joy, who is a real joy to have around!  We were all glad to see her smiling and saying, "Happy, happy, happy!" again the last couple days.   That means she's feeling better.   :)

Another word on that young man, Alexi, I mentioned earlier.  We just found out that he died early this morning.  I think Rho will still blog about him.  That was hard news to hear, hard to understand...and yet how can we question God's sovereignty in letting him die when he did and how he did?   Pray for his family.  There's so much darkness and bondage there.  Sometimes I feel like I get real glimpses into hell when I see inside of people that are slaves to sin, slaves to Satan.   Sometimes it can seem impossible for the Truth to conquer and set all those people free...  At times it leaves you feeling so helplessly outnumbered.   But then I remember again, we don't need great numbers of Christians to be able to be victorious and fight, so long as we have the power of Jesus!  I remember again the reality of His power, and I wonder what I'm doing...if I'm doing all I can to live against Satan in my own life, and all I can to fight for others too...

A Stitch In Line

...when a Band-Aid just won't fix it.   The two stitch jobs below are the two I mentioned awhile back.

This guy told us that his brother got angry at him and his mom gave his brother a knife and he cut him with it.   Ugly story, beautiful healing...

Lovenski, the 9-yr old boy below is the one I mentioned that went to the river to bathe and fell on a wet rock.  He handled all our poking needles so bravely, but he-and we, were ready to be done with it all when it was over!

He's a very shy little guy.  I always like giving him a piece of candy and making him smile. :)

Another young boy below, Tiga, was brought in the other night with burns all over his body.  They said they don't know exactly what happened cause his mom was out of the house when it happened, but thankfully none of the burns are very deep.  The poor Mother though was almost more distraught than he was!

I promised Rho that I would get a post done...I fell asleep working on it last night, so I'm kinda hurrying to finish it this morning! ;)  So I'm down to just a few minutes before it's time to gather at Donny's house for devotions and then time to head to clinic for the day!

Please pray for the people that come into the clinic, that they would see and feel Jesus there!  We see so many sad, hurting people, and sometimes we wonder if we're reaching them at all but then we see and hear inspiring little stories of people being touched, and we're reminded to keep praying for them!

Have a blessed day!

How Is Your Monday Smile?

     It is Monday. Never start a day without prayer. Especially a Monday. When you run into men like this.

     It is hard to know what to write about today. Look for yourself. We had the skin issues. Babies to treat, bathe, and follow for the next couple weeks. A lady came who wanted us to visit her friend about an hour from here, who had a serious sugar/blood pressure issue and was swelling up. " We will save that for this afternoon," we told her.
 The neighbor girl came in again. She has had diarrhea for a month, and it seems meds don't want to make any difference. We can't get an IV to go in her little veins, without collapsing them. Shall we send her out for blood tests soon? What's up in her little body?
     Here is Whit, trying to clean up a toe that a man was begging us to cut off. We begged him for a week to work on him, and maybe then, at that distant day, we will consider it!

    Our week-end was filled up with baby births and a trip to Mirabelais hospital again. This trip was on a Sunday, and we were meeting up with some heart specialists, who checked out a few potential problem patients for us. We thanked the Lord for some wonderfully helpful doctors, and a safe trip home.  Here are the heart specialists, posing for us all...

    We are really hoping to make more contacts with the Mirabelais doctors for our many other long-term cases, but we haven't been having much success recently. The appointments keep falling through, which is DISAPPOINTING for these people who have no other hope or help for some of their illnesses. Please pray for us, that we could show the love of Jesus as even more important than health care in a country where doctors never quite reach around to all the people who need them.
  Here is Mali, happy to be in Mirabelais, the beautiful hospital, where help seems possible and doctors know what they are talking about! The ladies on both sides of her have babies with health issues. The one baby has a heart with switched valves, which gives the Aorta a weird twist, but works fine in the end, and the other has cerebral palsy.

    Have a fine week, everyone, now that Monday is almost behind us! -Mis Woda
   
   
   

Christmas Time for the Nurses!

And a  Stitch Job...

Finally the long awaited for meds arrived from CAM. We had so much fun rummaging through the boxes and finding a whole bunch of treasures. We felt like we were opening Christmas presents!

I have learned to appreciate meds and what they do for people, much more since I am here working in the Pharmacy.  Its such a blessing to be able to give the needed meds but my utmost desire is that they would see Jesus and turn to him for healing.

Here we are going through boxes and marking down the quantity of each med.

Ro and Mali stocking the pharmacy.

Wit trying to hide from the camera.

While we were unpacking meds this guy came in... He was working on a construction crew and  cut his hand with a saw.  So Mali stitched him up.

 


I'm just going to throw this picture in from today. Here's a 16 year old who gets seizures once or twice a month.  Unfortunately he was too close to a fire and fell in, thankfully the burns weren't too bad.

Please continue to pray for us as we let our lights shine!

~Miss Marcile

One or Two???

"Its twins"...was the verdict of 3 tired nurses as they carefully slid the ultrasound probe over the woman's very pregnant belly. Glancing at each other we nod in unison. "Twins". She needs to go out. We all realize that our diagnosis could be wrong but what if it was twins and we are not equipped to do a caesarean.
 Don came told us that in half in hour if we still feel the same about it then Kate and I should go with Julian to Tit Guave.
  Half an hour later we are all ready to leave. I clutch our emergency birthing bag and whisper a prayer that we wont need to use it. After a short prayer from Don we go flying down the trail. A BIG thank you to whoever donated towards our new machine. It rides like a dream !! Kate and I couldn't get over it. We made it to Tit Guave in 1 hour 15 min.!! The lady seemed to be calm and her contractions not too strong. Sadly the hospital in TG was closed so we had to go to Pastors to get the ambulance. After loading up all our gear Julian announces the tire pressure to low to drive to Leogane. I wink at kate..."Oh joy,!!" Every minute is becoming very precious. We quick switch everything to Pastors vehicle and roar away. I can hear her contractions getting closer..."Go faster Julian.."About 3 minutes from the hospital in Leogane we hear a flood over water. I jump back to check her, "Her water broke, just drive as fast as you can." I plop down to my seat and pray that we make it. A second later and more water and a plop. I switch on the light and there is a healthy FAT baby on the floor. Kate yells to stop and we run to the back. It was CRAZY!!! I take care of the baby and Kate takes care of the mom. Kate glances at me,"I think that's all,I cant feel another baby in here.."I feel like laughing but instead I lean over the pink screaming baby to ask him if he had another womb-mate with him. The dad is shocked. "Mis, the baby is too young to talk!!" I throw my head back and laugh. Kate joins and even Julian did, soon the father is chuckling and the mom has a huge smile. We are parked right in the center of a busy spot in town. People flock to watch. We try to have some privacy but it is impossible. They are all excited about this. A birth, in a vehicle, 2 little white nurses scurrying around trying clean up, a huge baby.... We felt awful for our wrong call but as we bounced back up the trail Kate said drowsily. "Mothers fine, baby's  fine, we are tired but alive."I nod drowsily, right now I am too tired to care.

One or Two???

Everyone happy and alive!!

 

 

The last few days at the clinic have been sort of stressful. Saying Goodbye to our administrators in the middle of a busy clinic day,crying our eyes out as we hold hands and pray for strength to face our line of waiting patients that are quietly watching the white nurses wipe tears. Two days later finds us doing the same thing except this time its Mis Katie that is leaving us.  We watch in tears as Fre Derick takes her by the arm and brings her to the waiting Bobcat. Once again we watch the bobcat disappear down the trail and Kates arms waving in farewell. We miss you Mis Katie.

When Rho caught sight of the this cute preemie....she couldn't stop hugging it!! It weighed 3 lbs 4 oz.It brought smiles to our faces!!

A big welcome to Mis Whitney!!We missed you and its great to have you on the team again!! I am sick with a very bad fever and very achy bones. I am sure I look exactly like 90 year old!! Please pray for the clinic staff that no one else would get sick!
"We can never bless the world merely by having a good time in it; but by only by giving our lives for it."
-Mis Mali

Pumpkin Soup and Partings

    Pumpkin soup. Exactly. Maybe it would be better than you think. Maybe if it was all you got to eat all day, you would think it was good.

Joe said, "I always love when you come."
    Joe gets none too much love. He suffers way too much pain. But when we see him in the morning, again, he says, "God didn't call me yet." Poor, dear Joe with the huge bed sore. I think you would make him pumpkin soup if it was one thing in his day that made him smile, wouldn't you?

And, then, there is Pasquet. He has had cancer, for years, and seems to be on his death bed. He came

to us, deeply dehydrated, and unresponsive. We kept him on IV overnight and into the next day, before he started to respond with smiles, a few words, and hand motions. It is so exciting to watch him revive, and yet we know unless something miraculous happens, he will most likely be heading towards death, anyways. But, Pasquet loves God, and his peace is evident.

And, this cute little droopy-eyed child....why is he smiling?

We were able to make a trip to Laogone hospital, where specialists work on bones. This little boy returned to us after his surgery with some white doctors in that hospital. They were able to  successfully remove a toe that was causing him problems with pain and efficient walking. We praise the Lord for H

is timing, because the surgery itself was able to be done with a fairly low cost table, since it was a missionary team on the premises that week.                                                    

On the positive/miracle note. We were running out of gloves again here at clinic. They were too expensive to buy more when the last crew was in town, so we were trying very hard to not use too many of our sterile glove stash. Every day, multiple times, I would ask God if He was remembering about our gloves. Well, he was! Yesterday, some donated gloves arrived, unexpectedly. So, I know God is like that. 

 We as a team want to thank every one of our friends, who sends encouragement, takes the time to pray, and touch our lives from all over the globe. Steve, Shana, and family.This is your last night here. THANK-YOU doesn't cut our sentiments. Kate, ADIEU, and sniff. God is calling you somewhere else, too. We will try to pass on the legacy you left behind. We all love you and will miss the excellency portrayed in your service in the Haitian hills. I know that sometimes, at least, you will remember us over coffee....Good-night! --Mis Woda                                         

After Hour Fun...

  Yesterday we had a great time cooking corn and bean sauce at the neighbors house after work. One of my patients brought it as a gift and it made a great BIG pot.. enough to share with neighbors and all the hungry little bellies always begging for food.

Happy faces...eating off of Mali's plate :)

A few smiles from clinic today...

A jolly baby fattened up with Herbalife.

Our dear granny friend who doesn't come to the clinic for meds but always dances in the door and looks up with her signature face and says, " Did you leave a little food for me today?" She's a delight.

  

 And a new nurse! She came to take Mis Leda's place over the time of her pregnancy and birth. We're grateful for her help.

Jesus bless your day. Let's lose our lives in the joy of His service today!

- Mis Kate