Haiti highlites

Nobody listens to the cry of the poor or the sound of a wooden bell ... Haitian Proverb

 I have many stories and wonderful memories from my time in Haiti. One of the things I struggle with is not overwhelming someone with them all. The stories are so personal to me and it's hard to portray that to others. I decided to share some of my favorite stories.

One of the disadvantages of going on the short trips is we don't get to follow up on the people to see how they are doing. Last month when I went back to Haiti I got to see the affects of our work.
When I first saw Mackenson was in October 2012 in the village of Covant. His family had come to our clinic for medical care. Mackenson was in critical condition. When we first saw him it was hard to tell how old he was, my guess was two or three years old. After talking to his parents we were stunned to learn that he was six years old.
We sent Mackenson out for emergency care, his father went with him while his mother stayed behind to take care of the rest of the children. Honestly I didn't think he would make it. When I got home I told all my friends and family about this sweet little boy.

Mackenson and his father, Oct 2012

JUMP AHEAD THREE MONTHS ... I'm back in Haiti :) Sherry asked me if I remembered the little boy in Covant that came in with severe malnutrition. How could I forget him? Imagine my surprise when she said, "wait til you see him now."! His father couldn't stay in the city because he needed to get back home to take care of his family so he asked Sherry to please take his little boy so he wouldn't die.
Mackenson has been staying in the orphanage at LAC. What a difference three months of medical care and proper nutrition makes.

Me and Mackenson, Feb 2013

One day we were having clinic when I heard very loud crying ... not everyone is excited to see the strangers. Our clinic had a lab area, there was a mother that needed to give a urine specimen. The mother didn't have anybody with her so one of our workers offered to hold the little girl .... the picture tells the story :)

Are we that scary looking?

Another story of a crying child ... Our group went to a church to do a VBS type service with the kids. We had just settled down when we heard a little boy sobbing, there was a girl with him (possibly his sister) trying to get him to sit down. We had never seen these children before yet this little boy went straight up to Rob and climbed in his lap. Within minutes he fell asleep, it was such a sweet moment.

When we went to Covant one of our drivers, Maurice, brought 250 dresses that the ladies in his home church had made. He had so much fun handing out presents to the children after they went through the clinic. There was one night we went to village church, it was packed. As we were looking in the congregation Maurice pointed out to me that some of the little girls were wearing the dresses he had given to them. I'll never forget the huge smile on his face and how proud the girls were of their new clothes.

Maurice handing out new dresses

So there are a few of my favorite stories, I shared at least one from each trip. I hope you enjoyed.

JMM trip D8

My last day in Haiti was an emotional one, it gets harder to say good-bye. We had a great group of interpreters, drivers, and security.

Great group of hard workers

I pray for the opportunity to go back.

We worked crowd control together

Even though we had a large group everyone did a wonderful job of working together.

JMM medical team Feb 2013

I am so thankful that I was in tent 7 and made some lifelong friends.

Tent 7!! Awesome group of ladies.

At the airport in Port au Prince we had to part ways because we weren't all on the same airline. Thankfully I didn't have to wait by myself.

Dr. Uvoh, me, Lynn and Dr. Pete

I had the later flight and was going to be by myself for a couple of hours, but my companions flight got delayed.

So what do you do when you're stuck in the airport with nowhere to go? Play Uno and eat trail mix :)

Our makeshift table

My flight left on time. I was thankful that my trip home was very uneventful.

JMM trip D7

Our last day of doing clinic we went to the village Croixde Boquet, it was far in the mountains.

Travel in Haiti can be dangerous so we were going to have to make our clinic day short so we could be back before dark.

We set up in the village school, which was perfect for crowd control.

The gate to the school

With time limits we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to give medical treatment to everyone that needed it. However, everyone that was in line got seen and we actually finished early.

Registration table

384 people received medical treatment.

one of the class rooms set up for the doctors

Pharmacy team once again did an amazing job and filled 1,230 prescriptions.

Families received much needed medication

 Our ministry team did skits, sang, and presented the gospel, 207 prayed the prayer of salvation.

Dr. Uvoh saw 26 patients and extracted 27 teeth.

Croixde Boquet was a good place to end our week.

A 'convenience' store in the village

We even had time to stop on the way home and take pictures.

I love this place

JMM trip D6

The next day we went back to Madamn Bauje's village, we weren't sure if there would be many people to see however it ended up being our busiest day.

We had long lines all day long

547 people received medical treatment,

Sweet momma with six hungry children

including this precious little baby.

A month old and only weighs 5 lbs

Our pharmacy team filled 1,812 prescriptions.

Dr. Uvoh saw 57 patients and extracted 68 teeth!!

He had some very happy and grateful people.

Our ministry team went nonstop and prayed with 297 people that wanted to know Jesus Christ.

Our lab nurses were super busy too, not only doing medical care ...

Baby drying off after getting a betadine bath

But also handed out donated items to those that needed it.

Sweet kids

Showing off new clothes

JMM Trip D5

For our third day of clinic we headed to the village called Madamn Bauje.

Madamn Bauje

During one of the storms the church and school had been washed away. Recently a church group came in and helped build a new church AND school. The buildings were very nice and ended up being a great place to set up a clinic at.

The front of the school

We were able to use the church as a waiting room and that was wonderful because the people didn't have to wait out in the hot sun.

Sherry keeping order in the church

Dr. Uvoh had his own room to set up his dental clinic.

He saw 39 patients and pulled 68 teeth.

Dentistry third world style

The lines were long and 547 people received medical care.

Waiting to see the doctor

Our pharmacy team didn't slow down all day and filled 1,677 prescriptions.

Pharmacy waiting room

The ministry team worked hard and filled our day with beautiful music. That day there were 122 people proclaiming that they wanted Jesus Christ in their life.

JMM trip D4

We went back to the village of Lastik for our second day of clinic. This little village is between two fords of the river and is beginning to erode away. Bobby and Sherry are working with the pastor to find a good place to move the village to before it washes away.

This is the road if you turn right out of the church

This is the road if you left out of the church, it goes into the river

 We were able to get clinic started very quickly because we were still set up from the day before.

We had eight doctor stations

I was amazed at how many people showed up because from where we were there were very few houses.

That day 465 people received medical treatment,

Families are seen together

with 1,512 prescriptions given out.

Explaining the meds

Our dentist, Dr. Uvoh, saw 49 patients with 65 teeth extractions.

The dental team

The ministry team was very busy loving on the people while they waited for their prescriptions to be filled. Totals for both days at Lastik was 239 people praying for a relationship with Jesus Christ!

I came over to say hi to the ministry team

The people in Lastik were wonderful and I enjoyed meeting them.