Confidence Health Center: Keith Toews Family Arrive in Haiti

As written by Keith Toews:

I wanted to keep all my updates to a few paragraphs but it is hard. I will try to be more brief next time! J

Its been quite the 3 weeks. We arrived in Port-au-Prince and were greeted by my parents Robert and Sally. We drove up the mountain in the dark and there had been 8 inches of rain in 2 days so things we abit slippery and a few washouts. Anthonys were still in DR with their babe so we just crashed at their house for the night. Next night we moved to our temporary little house. (more on that at the end)

It has rained almost every day, and has been hard to get clothes dried, and get our house ready. Everything is in the sticky mud. But our kids say it is the best life ever, and these are the best days of their lives. J 

The future clinic is coming along nicely and the privacy wall is mostly done and the yard is getting cleaned up and soon we will be ready to start looking at getting it serviceable. Nurse Kim Ratliff from Bonners Ferry, ID, is in Haiti now and is spending some time with a Canadian midwife who is doing some work in Jacmel area. This will give some valuable hands-on experience in the local setting before she moves up here to work in the Oriani center.  

Since we came almost 3 weeks ago, several people have had to be taken down the mountain to hospitals because of serious injury and problems.  We were on our way to a hospital with a man who was the victim of a hit and run motorcycle accident.  After he was hit and knocked out, his friends loaded him on a donkey and brought him to Oriani. Next day after he still hadn’t woken up, they brought him to Anthonys. We then loaded him up in the back of the pickup, laid out on a door and pad, and headed for a hospital.  After about an hour of driving the other passengers alerted us that he had expired. Sure enough, no breathing, no pulse. Then as we sadly turned around to take him back home, the wailing started from the back of the pickup. The wailing,screaming,singing continued all the way back to town. I asked what they were chanting and wailing and Anthony said that they were saying “oh how miserable I am... Only the good Lord knows how terrible this is... etc”.  

We have a 21 yr old guy coming to church that crouches bum on heels all the time. He cant straighten his hips nor his knees. So he WALKS that way! His head is at our waist height and he has learned quite a gait. He “walks” up and down the hills, thru the mud, about 30 minutes to church. The Haitians tend to make fun of guys like him and he has a sorry existence. I found him one day by a fence, alone, and I asked him why he was this way, and for how long. He replied that it was since he was 6 yrs old and that it was because he is a bad person or has a bad spirit.  He was too ashamed to lift his face and look at me so I crouched down at his level and he still wouldn’t look at me. I told him it was a disease (Polio?) that did this to him, and that it was not because of anything else or his fault. I don’t think he was convinced.  I couldn’t keep my tears back. As I looked at him I have never wished so much that Jesus could once again just walk the earth like he did 2000 yrs ago.... touching and healing. That He could just touch a young man like this and say “rise! Stand up and walk!” J. 

I should tell you about our housing plan....

My parents had built a house in Fond Parisian a number of years ago for their use when they often came to Haiti. That house has been completely flooded out and abandoned now. Dad has recently decided to obtain and rebuild a house here in Oriani instead of down in Fond Parisian. This is the house that we will now rent for Confidence Health Center staff housing. The house will be a nice house and the rent is very reasonable, although there is alot of work to do to rebuild it. This arrangement is helpful for us as we won’t have to put out as much capital investment right now. Right now we are living in a 330sq ft building while we finish knocking walls out and get a roof put on the main house. We huddled in this small house during Hurricane Thomas, in the semidarkness, with shutters closed, one lamp burning(we broke the other two), during much of the 48 hours of steady rain. We soooo look forward to moving into the bigger house once we get it ready. It will be awhile yet though as it is mostly bare block walls yet with no roof on.

Pray for us! Pray that we learn the language quickly, and also that Confidence Health Center can get running as quickly as possible. And pray for our health and safety here. 

So long.... Keith, Candace, and family.