June 2
ACHTUNG- AUSSCHAULTEN- GANGSTALTEN- EINZIEHEN- UNTERBODENSCHUTZMITTEL
These are the words that glare at me from the dash of our recently arrived 6-wheel drive Pinzgauer Ambulance. We are very excited about this new addition. It’s old and its tough. It is a former Swiss army ambulance that’s been refurbished and sent to us by Jeff Hageman from Toronto. It took 3 months of agony at the customs and insurance departments to get it cleared, but now we have it in our grubby mitts. Hooray! The container also had tonnes of misc things like dried soup mix, bed mats, exam tables, med supplies and many other things to help us do our jobs here. A HUGE thank you to all who helped put that together and get it sent here! You have no idea how important these things are here, and I wish you could see how the Haitians have tears in their eyes when they see help arriving like this! They remember the days when people died like flies here. Especially women and babies. Did I tell you all that I did a community survey that showed that a full one third of children born to these mothers have died? That’s bad! Even for Haiti. With God’s help we hope we can help change that.
Ashley Dirks went home April 25th , so Heather Issac from Alberta is our new full time nurse. Dallas’s girl Rachelle Koehn is full time translator for her. Heather is on fire, not scared of anything, is a very hard worker and is doing well. She is a joy to have around here. The Haitians love her already and they say she is very beautiful. J She has delivered babies and seen some pretty interesting situations already. A couple days ago a 20yr old lady came on a 3 hr donkey ride to get help. She was about dead from anaphylactic shock. Her breathing was almost closed off and she was grotesquely swollen. Today she is alive due to Heather’s quick responses and care. Our mindsets are so used to counting our time here as worthwhile or not worthwhile depending on patient numbers and success rates, and there are many cases we could relate to you, but when I sit back and reflect on it all... I just rest in a peaceful confidence that we are where God placed us for His own reasons, and as we serve Him and mankind we don`t need to justify things, to be proud of accomplishments, or be ashamed of lack thereof. Sometimes I need to remember that each individual is of innumerable value, and that if I have to spend all day in Port with some poor mama and her 7 yr old abused child.... going from one hospital to another... advocating for them and trying to find someone who will help... that is not time ill spent. And maybe our efforts here are as much for our own good as it has been for others. I need to learn to trust God like these Haitians do. We thank you for your support that you`ve shown, in donations, in prayer, in calling, or email, or by looking after our things back in Ontario. May God bless you as you feel part of HIS work too.
It tears us up to see so many “poverty orphans” here. We just don’t know what to do sometimes. We have a half dozen moms now who are struggling to be able to feed and look after their children. The dads are not in the picture, and these young moms are offering us their children, saying that their love for them is making them give them away so that they can be better cared for. We have hunted for foster homes, for orphanages, also for ways to help them keep their own kids... and all to no avail so far. These kids are not getting what they need, but how can we help? Helping them get institutionalised may not be “help”. Every time we think we have seen the poorest of the poor... there is another family that we become aware of that is even more wretched. We visited a house that was made of banana leaves with a mud floor. It was raining so we ducked our heads into the low building and sat around inside with them. Picture this in your mind... mud floor with water puddles, 5.5ft high roof that leaked, the whole house was 7x11 ft and that was divided up into two rooms, the back half (5 ½ ft x 7 ft) was bedroom for 6 people, so we all huddled in the front room where all the rest of the household stuff was. In this 5 ½ ft x 7ft room was 14 people AND a little warming fire of sticks in the middle of the room. This smoky little fire was the only thing warm and dry. This is the home that our little foster daughter Ketli comes from. She is about 18-20 months (nobody remembers when she was born) and she has been with us now for 5 months. If God wills... then we will be happy to keep her for another 150 yrs! When she came to us she couldn’t walk, she was 12 lbs, and full of worms and other various sicknesses and infections. Very literally on deaths door. Today she is the happiest little thing, is talking Haitian and English, and walking very well. She is almost completely recovered and is a real charmer to us whites and Haitians alike. If she was the only person that was helped or saved by us being here, then it would still totally be worth it!
Trev, Zack and I spend about a week in Port awhile ago. We were trapped down there because half way up the mountain the people were blockading the road in protest. We couldn’t get home. We tried to get thru one time but they got riled up and that’s when we realised they had strategically placed men up on the cliffs above us who then started rolling rocks down towards us. We quickly realised we were in their control. After some quick negotiations they let us meet Ashley on the other side of the trenches who had come down from Oriani and was waiting for us to take her to the airport. Sure shows the volatility here.
We are very much hampered by the size of our little clinic so upon consultation with the Clinic Committee, the local Mission Committee and a group of donors back home, it was decided to get a piece of land and build a clinic that better suited the needs. We have started this project now and it is going well. The block walls are going up and the cistern is about done. I placed our son Trev as the overseer of a lot of it so that I can still spend time at the current clinic.
Some of you have been concerned and interested in how the hunger problem has been here, and I am happy to say it is now starting to turn the corner. The gardens are producing again, and even though the crop is mediocre... it is not a failure like all of last yr was. The longer we are here and as we allow these people to become our people, we can see how these times of hunger have serious effects on them not only physically but also mentally and spiritually too. They are stressed! and as they hear their children cry from hunger, they struggle mightily against depression, against frustration, which then sometimes spills over into fighting between husband and wife, neighbour to neighbour and even with fellow church members. The heat is on! And the devil smiles. Recently a neighbour took all his wife’s belongings, like clothes etc, and burned them all in their front yard. Then he proceeded to beat and whip his kids till the blood flowed from them. Tonight I heard he chased her into town and was threatening to kill her with a knife but others intervened. They say he was a good man that just snapped recently because his wife wasted all his last 2 yrs worth of savings on gambling. (she was trying to get ahead too). Another man came to the clinic today and had been in a knife fight over some small debt some guy owed him. It’s awful. These are a smiley and friendly people who often amaze us with their happiness despite having so little. But we are learning that this behind the smiles and laughter there is deep desire to be able to better live, and to better provide for their families. Pray for them! They are a very giving people who give each other food and care in special ways and circumstances that make us ashamed of our cautiousness. Their lives in relation to their fellowmen is best described in the words of one dear Haitian church brother... ``we are a people who like to beg, but also love to give to others, even to the point of giving our daily food away!``.
Last Sunday we had over 200 people in church and quite a few were new faces too. It’s interesting how they make all first time newcomers stand up and introduce themselves. We had 56 children in Sunday School. We have had up to a hundred children before. These kids are the future, and my heart swells with joy to see them coming to church, memorizing verses and singing etc. Dallas Koehn is still teaching doctrine class to a group of 20 people. It sure is good to have a minister like Dallas here. We enjoy their company alot too.
Lacy is now done teaching school for our children. We had our program Fri night under the banana trees, with an almost full moon rising in the evening sky just above the children’s heads. Was the most amazing and beautiful setting imaginable. The children re-enacted Tom Sawyers whitewash job. Was really good. We do not have a teacher nailed down for next year yet. If God touches any of your hearts to come spend some time here in Haiti with us and teach several children, please get in touch with us asap. Lacey has amazed us many times and has done a tremendous job. We are sad to lose her. She taught the previous year too and so she has been living and working with us for a long time. She is loved, and will be missed by all of us when she goes home to Pincher Creek soon.
Candace is out picking green beans and peas. And visiting with Ketli’s grandma.
Trevor is cutting 2x4s for the clinic
Zack is in his welding shop fixing somebody’s motorcycle fender
Cam is riding bike out by the gate
Chase is laughing and talking to his friends
Christina is reading and swinging her legs
Ketli is outside doing what toddlers do best, toddling around checking things out.
And I... am heading out to do some maintenance on the truck
Keith Toews
Administrator- Confidence Health Center
Oriani, Haiti
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