i am in the port-au-prince airport and heading back to kansas city. i am excited to spend time with friends and family, but it is always mixed emotion as i leave friends and family here in haiti.
today is my last full day here at the mission. i will head to port-au-prince tomorrow around noon and then be back in kansas city on thursday. your prayers are appreciated as i wrap up last minute details and say goodbye.
maternity is full this morning. we had five babies born yesterday and we have four little ones staying with us until they gain a little bit of weight since they are all under four pounds.
this afternoon we delivered our first set of triplets. the first one came in the road after the mom spent the day with a local matron (women who help with deliveries) and the next two came feet first. the middle one died and the third is on oxygen and in the incubator. i am so grateful they all delivered!
please pray for families here who are losing loved ones to illnesses. we had a staff member die yesterday, a granmoun die yesterday and we lost a 14 month old child who came to clinic this morning.
please pray that the God of comfort will come and be that for all these families.
every day we have staff devotions in the mornings. sometime last week magdala (our campus manager) was reading off everyone’s name and having everyone stand up and it was creating a stir. i didn’t hear in the beginning what the list was being read for. later i figured out that it was for the annual staff gift exchange. the staff were excited about it all day long, they kept laughing and talking and asking if each other were going to be the one to give each other the gift. it brought a smile to my face all day.
a couple days after that in devotions one of our mechanics stood up to share a story. to understand this story i wish that i could explain to you who sergo is. he is just a good ole guy. he told the story about the importance of realizing that it isn’t about the size of the gift that matters. he told a story about a christmas when he sent a gift to his daughter in port-au-prince. that he sent a goat and that was a wonderful gift and his daughter appreciated it so much. then he went into detail about he wasn’t able to send such a good gift the next year, because he just didn’t have the money. he went into detail talking about how he bought some sardines and wrapped them up again and again. his hand gestures were funny as he showed how he wrapped them again and again and again.
his daughter got the sardine package. but didn’t know that was what was in the package. she excitedly opened it only to find a few measly sardines. needless to say he said she was disappointed. he said she thought about it and decided to invite her friends and share her christmas gift with them even though it was small. he said that it was amazing because all of the people who were there were able to share in the sardines.
he shared that story to encourage people not to worry about having to have big gifts for the christmas gift exchange. it touched my heart because i feel like so many people give or share gifts, talents or resources for the mission here and there are times that i don’t really understand how we continue to function, but i know that it is through generous gifts and God multiplying those things.
thanks for your generous gifts.
the flu
HIV/AIDS
malnutrition
today was a little bit of a rough time. . . i had planned on working on budget stuff that i have due, but my days don’t always go as planned.
i am filling in for some of our staff on vacation in maternity. we had a mom presenting with twins and the first one coming was breech. always a bit scary. we never heard a second heart beat and after the first baby came it was over three hours before finally our physician here was able to put on forceps and get the second baby delivered. the mom asked me why her baby was not crying, i thought she had understood that her second baby wasn’t alive, but i don’t think it hit her until that point.
while evaluating whether we could stitch up an older lady who came with a big laceration, someone told me that the twins who were born here a few weeks ago were here and the boy looked horrible. we rushed him in to examine him and tried to do some CPR, but he was not there. sad day. . .
i went back to stitching up the older ladies leg so that the other nurse who was working with me could eat lunch since it was after 3.
tonight ended trying to process how to deal with one of our little ones who has horrible hydrocephalis and is in lots of pain. . .
so i guess i will possibly get to the budget tomorrow.
thanks so much for your prayers for me. without them i know that the last few weeks would have been tougher than they were. there have been many busy days between when i arrived just a few weeks ago until now. but they really have been good days.
the surgical team arrived and truly did hit the ground running and we kept running. the team was great and they are always such a blessing and encouragement to have here. we kept a few patients a little more long term and i sent a few home over the last few days and we only have two guys left. i had some great nurses over the last few weeks who have helped tons in recovery! thanks so much guys!
days like today are busy and make me ready for bed by 8:30!! i saw lots of post-op patients this morning and then helped see pediatric patients, we have had so many sick little kids. there is some really bad virus going around that is making lots of people sore, sick and dehydrated, especially kids! we had a little preemie born just over a pound that lived for a few hours. it was sad because his mom already had lost two little ones.
if you could pray for a little one that i saw today, he is probably 18 months or so and fell face first into hot oil. at least his eyes are not burned, but his lower face is horrible. burns here in haiti are horrible, but the face is especially bad and it was really too bad for us to take care of him here. we sent him to the closest hospital that has a good pediatrician and i pray that he gets good care. we gave the family money to take him, without that there would have been no way they could have afforded to go to the hospital. rough reality!
please continue to keep this place and the work we are doing in your prayers. especially our medical staff. they see and face such difficult situations every day and yet have smiles on their faces.
i hate burns here in haiti. i have a little one who is three years old who has been here this week because she burned her leg really bad when hot water spilled on her.
i just think that if she goes home that it won’t stay clean and then she could lose her range of motion in her leg and i really don’t want that for her. so i am changing her dressing a couple times a day. i just hope for no infection and good healing. her little eyes were so sad tonight when her mom brought her for me to change her dressing, it almost made me cry.
