A week ago a baby named Ketli came to the clinic. She was limp and seemed barely alive. 26 inches long, 12 lbs and 14 months old. She had pneumonia, and Kwashiorkor, with edema on hands and feet so bad that her skin was tight as a drum, her mouth was so full of sores she had it clamped tight shut. Now after the inflammation is down, her wrists are the thickness of my thumb and almost all her skin has or is peeling off. When she came into the clinic, I asked the grandmother the story and this is what she said.
"My son lives in Port au Prince, and had this baby with a girl that I don’t even know. Baby Ketli got sick 3 months ago and now he sends her up to me to look after." I asked her if she is able to look after the baby and she shook her head, no. I then took baby Ketli to Candace and asked her if we should offer to take the baby in, at least until she is well again. We knew unless this babe was looked after, she would likely die soon. Candace said yes immediately. Ashley took her for the first day because we were leaving for the day, but then a day later we called and made arrangements with the father in Port and upon his agreement we went and visited the grandmothers house. She lives in a little banana leaf house that is about 5 feet tall, with several other grandchildren. She was very happy with our offer, and so... tiny Ketli came to live with us. We adore her. She has a weak but ready and very charming smile. She eats and sleeps lots, and basks in the love and attention of the family. She calls Candace "mama" and reaches for her whenever she sees her. We will see how this all pans out yet. We know she has a ways to go till full recovery, but we feel confident that with good care, and Gods help, she can make it. Pray for her (and us).
The other day we had our first rain in 2 months. The cistern level came up 12 inches! Woooo hooooo!
A baby girl was born in the clinic yesterday. Born to a 19yr old single mom. All went well and Ashley is turning into a good midwife.
Yesterday a man came running up to our yard, telling me that his sister had delivered twins and they were TINY TINY! Can you please take my sister and the twins down to the hospital? I asked a few questions about age and size and started prepping the vehicle to leave for the 4 hr drive to Port. Before we even got our flat tire pumped up, he got a call that told him we were no longer needed... the babies had both died. It`s hard for me to not always compare things to back in Canada, because that doesn’t really help my frustration level, but in Canada those babies would have gotten 100`s of thousands of dollars worth of intensive care. Here in our clinic we try to provide health care to 10,000 people in a year for fraction of that. I know we can`t save every person, but it still churns my guts when someone dies here when I can see how in N. America they could have been restored to health.
Our neighbour girl Nadia of 14 yrs old was great with child, and after determining that she would need a C section, we helped her get down to a hospital that could do it. Dallas`s took her down, and that evening a baby boy was born via C-section. Why do young girls delivering babies happen with such alarming frequency here? She has a very supportive family so I think she will be ok. God loves these young people, and would have a better way for them. A Gospel way that includes keeping themselves pure for marriage and that children can be born into secure homes with dads and moms. Should we keep birth control only for families, or should we give birth control to every 15+ yr old that comes to the clinic? Should we give it freely with no questions asked? Should we give it with a mini sermon?
A neighbour of ours broke her elbow 2 weeks ago. She went to the local charlatan bone guy who made some paste and tied it tight with sticks. It wasn`t straight, it was grossly inflamed from being tied too tight, but she wouldn’t let us help her get to a hospital and get it Xrayed and casted. She said the bone guy knows his work and she trusts him that when he says it will be good in 29 days that it will be. I cringe whenever I see it, because I feel it won`t heal properly that way. I know it`s not their fault, but sometimes you can`t win against ignorance.
Overall... life is full of enjoyment and surprises here in Haiti. We had some old friends, Galen Giesbrechts (from Ballico Calif), visit us for the Christmas season. They brought their family, so there was lots of activity. Thanks for coming Galen`s! We and Galens went and took in the awesome singing Gwop De Homme service in Fond Parisian on Christmas morn. A good service, and inspiring how well they can sing. I hear they served 480 people there for lunch.
We enjoy visitors from home, but we also thoroughly enjoy these wonderful warm Haitian people. On New Years day we decided to have a ``fet`` (celebration). The local tradition is to go visiting on New Years day and feed each other, so we decided that we were going to start making Canadian style New Years cookies and invite friends and neighbours. We served over 200 people around our dining table that afternoon. Plus lots of children outside. We served the deep fried raisin cookies, pop and milk. It kept us hopping, but it was so awesome to see how excited they were to eat Canadian food at the white`s house. Finished it off with some singing with one of the last groups that came in.
I`ll sign off this now and finish it later... they are calling me to run to the clinic, a PG mom is in some kind of trouble...
2 hour later: I ran to the clinic and the mom will be fine. But before the PG mom left, a little 8 yr old girl comes in with a broken arm. Thankfully she CAME!!! Ashley and I are checking its placement and it seems good, so, she got a cast. Before the cast is started, a little 4 yr old boy comes in with knife cut that went way down between his fingers, requiring stitches in the top and bottom of his hand. Poor kid. L But, Ashley`s getting lots of good experience. J
The church here is still growing. Growing both in spiritual stature and in numbers. It is so awesome to see the illumination of the Gospel dawning on people. A young man named Jeano has been especially inspiring to me to watch. Even his face seems to light up with the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit. There is a nice sized group getting ready to start doctrine classes with Dallas. What I like about Haiti is how alive the Gospel message is here. It is always alive everywhere, but here it seems more obvious, or something. We feel blessed to get to be here and be reminded of how alive and real God is.
Love Keiths
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