We finally made it home. It was hard to leave but it is good to be back. Our last night in Haiti was relaxing. I managed to not leave anything (that I know of). Paix came in Friday morning while we were preparing to leave and I was so happy we got to say bye. He doesn't speak Enlish but we could say bye and give him a hug. He stayed with his family the night before and they woke him up and fed him at 3am just to make him eat and try to avoid his blood sugar dropping. We finally figured out that he had been given the NPH insulin and was supposed to be taking regular insulin. He doesn't know there is a difference and we thought that was the same insulin he was on the whole time. I hope that is all it was.
We arrived at the airstrip at around 820 on Friday morning. There was another team there that was leaving so we had to split in 2 groups for us to fit into the planes. Bob and I went first. Alena, Chrissy, and Benji went with us to see us off. I started crying when I was hugging them bye. Especially when I was hugging Benji. It was so bad that some lady from a medical team from Tampa was hugging me and consoling me. Benji was not crying because she thought Jenna, Stephanie, and Jennifer (mommy) were staying so she enjoyed watching the plane fly off. But they other half of the group told me that when she realized that everyone else was leaving on another plane she started really crying. That was when she realized her mommy and everyone else was leaving. But she will be ok because she is staying with Bill so at least everyone didn't leave her at once. Also, those 3 girls got to make a list of stuff they want Jennifer to bring back. That helps them cope. The lists were hilarious. Alena's list had about 20 things on it and everything had the word "beautiful" in front of it.
We arrived in Port au Prince and were shocked to find out the airconditioner was on. It was not on the previous Friday when we sat in there for 6 hours!! It also helped that we were getting used to the heat. That airport is sadly the place I believe I left my camera. I had it there and then when we got in a taxi and went to the 2nd airport it was gone. I was really bummed out!! But, fortunately I had uploaded most of my pictures the afternoon before we left. So it could have been worse. So at the airport in Port au Prince I finally got a good frisking. I two of the them but the 2nd one was worth writing about. At least it was a female both times. On the airplane to Miami I literally screeched with delight because they came by with drinks and I got a diet pepsi!! And, the airplane was so air conditioned it was cold. They gave us a snack to eat with crackers, cheese spread, raisins, and a chocolate piece. On the way to Haiti I was not even interested in the snack, but on the way home me and Jenna destroyed the snack (same exact snack) like we hadn't eaten in a month!!!! It was funny. In the Miami airport we finally split from Jennifer who was headed to Dallas, then to Kansas City. She is staying for 3 weeks and came to watch her son Jesse's graduation from high school. He lived in Haiti with them for the past 7 years but came home to do his senior year in the states. We then rechecked our bags and took a cab to a resteraunt and had seafood. Then we came back and did a little airport shopping and waited for our flight to STL. I think I came close to overdosing on diet pepsi while I was at the airport. Even though there were storms we made it close to on time. Although, the ride got so rough at one point that I felt like we were in a movie and was waiting for the oxygen masks to fall from overhead. The boys rode to the airport with Travis. They were tired but were glad to see their Mommy. I was so happy to see them. Not so happy to see the puny little mohawk that Travis gave Drew while I was gone. The worst part is Drew loves it so I guess it will stay. At least he knew better than to touch Isaac's curls.
I didn't get in bed until 230am because it was very necessary that I take a long bath after that trip. Then Travis and I looked at all the pictures I took and he was remembering things from when he was there and we were comparing notes. I slept until 10 this morning and also took an afternoon nap so I guess I was jetlagged a little. Both times I dreamt of Haiti. Thhis morning Isaac came in and crawled in bed with me and I was so tired I thought it was Benjalina (Benji). I have been trying to imagine what America would look like to someone who had lived in Haiti their whole life. It would be close to what we will think of Heaven when we see it for the first time. So many beautiful things to see, and things we never even imagined possible. I imagine it would be overwhelming to say the least.
I am happy to be home and not ready to jump back into real life. Thanks to everyone for following this journey with me. I hope that you were as rewarded, enlightened, and fulfilled as I was. I want to leave this blog with the knowledge that although there is sadness and poverty in Haiti, the Lord is very much at work there and he is blessing those people through the Campbell's work. And this experience has blessed my life.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Last day in Pignon
It is bittersweet for me to be leaving. I have fallen in love with these kids. There are a few that I have fantasized about taking home with me!!! Why can't it be that easy? We are leaving here at 8 am and flying to Port-au-Prince, then to Miami, then STL. That is depending on whether it rains tonight or not. If it rains tonight, we seriously cant leave tomorrow. The plane can't land on this grass strip because it will be too muddy. That would be crazy if we had to miss all of our connecting flights and stayed here until who knows when! I am, however, ready to see my family and enjoy some American comforts (ie, air conditioning, bath, not wearing skirts everywhere, diet pepsi). I feel terrible admitting that I am craving these things after what I have seen just today, but it is truth.
This morning we woke to the knocking on the window AGAIN because Paix was not waking up. Is this Groundhog Day or what?? His blood sugar was 29 but he was at least able to take food. It takes forever to get his sugar up. So we spend a few hours getting him up and functioning. Last night his monitor said HI which means he was over 500. SO, today he went to the hospital and they drew blood and told him to come back this evening for the results. We just took him up there and the Dr was a jerk and told him to keep taking the insulin the same way. They wouldn't admit him. Paix will have to go stay with his family while Jennifer and Bill are gone because there is no one here that can care for him. He is such a sweet, sweet soul. I am very saddened that he may not make it until the Campbell's return. When he left tonight he told Jennifer to tell us that "after God, you are the reason I am alive and thank you". I never get thanked like that at my regular job. Please pray for him and that his diabetes will be under control.
The hospital was very, very disgusting. I would describe it as a courtyard with tall walls around the perimeter. The main building is 2 stories and made out of concrete. Beds are lined up along the hall way with every kind of patient in them. Mother and baby in one bed, man dying of AIDS in next bed. Beds are touching. There didn't seem to be many "hospital rooms". Maybe if you were rich you could get one of those. We walked outside to the front of the building and there was a truck pulled up with a woman in labor in the back of the truck. There were no less than 20 people around the truck just watching and pointing at her. I'm not sure how many of those people were her family and how many people were just "rubber necking". Jennifer said that it is very acceptable for people to just stand around and stare like someone is a freak show. After about 10 minutes of discussion between the men (while the woman is in the back moaning in pain and holding her own umbrella to keep the sun off) they decided to lift her up over the tailgate on to the stretcher. Initially they brought out a wheelchair but one of the men had enough sense to say that probably woudn't work. They finally got her inside but Jennifer pointed out that if she was coming to the hospital to have a baby, then she probably had been in labor for quite sometime. Women don't come to the hospital to have babies unless there is a problem. So, the chance of the baby surviving is low and the mom probably will be very sick. Then we walked around the outside of the hospital to the "pediatric wing". This was horrifying to me. No wonder Jennifer doesn't ever want any of her kids going there. The kids all had a WHOLE liter of IV fluid hanging with just a roll clamp tubing. That in itself is so so dangerous and actually deadly for a small child. Nurses here get 6 weeks training. I am pretty sure I spent 6 weeks learning how to wash my hands and make a bed. Then to make it worse, the morgue is right outside the screen door and there is a trench were people go and squat to use the bathroom. All of this is literally right outside the door where the sick kids are. Then people walk past the morgue, through the trench, and right in and through where the sick kids/babies are. Nice. I wanted to film it, and make all of the patients I see watch it during triage and then dare them to complain or demand anything. Seriously. Americans have no idea how wonderful we have it....in all spectrums of our lives. To top it all off....when we first walked in the "ER" area the 2nd ranking Dr walked past us and literally goosed me and Jenna!!!!! It happened so fast, and I said "that guys just pinched my butt!" and Jenna said "Yes! me too!". Jennifer said that he was one of the main Dr's there. So, to all my Dr colleages in the states, you are apparently missing out by practicing in America. But, that is definately not the first time I have had my hiney pinched this week. People just love walking by and pinching and touching our hair.
After we got Paix up and moving this morning, we went on some home visits in the "country". All of the home visits Jennifer does are only to the people who come to either her feeding clinic or to her milk clinic. She likes to drop in on them and see what kind of living conditions there are. Also, while she out checking on these people, she sometimes finds other malnourished kids that she invites to the feeding clinic. So, we went to see a set of twins that she has been following for about 1 year. Rose Carmel and Rose Carnel. The trip was insane. Bill said he was never going back last year because the road is so bad. We talked him into going back and I think he might regret it! The roads are absolutely terrible. We drove about 8 miles out in the mountains and it took us all morning long to go there and come back. The most unfathomable part of it is ALL these women that come to the clinic not only carry a baby or child, they have to carry back the 4 lbs of formula or the rice. They walk the whole way. Up and down mountains, across a river, 8 miles in the intense sun and heat. And usually the women that come with the child are the baby's Grandma. I rode the whole way in the back of the truck (except the last 20 minutes because I was so hot I thought I would stroke). It was exhausting riding in the truck, I can't imagine walking it!!! The roads are so bad that we had to get out of the truck about 5 times and let him get through narrow or treacherous areas. Then we would pile back in. The whole trip there were people yelling and running after us because we were a very rare sight for them. I am sure that many of them have never seen a white person. Some of those kids ran for about 1/2 mile or so just chasing us and waving. I took a lot of pictures up there and some video of the house the twins and their family were living in before the Campbells helped them with a new shack (er.... house?). The old one was the size of a bathroom with one room for 8-10 people and built out of sticks. On the way back we gave a super cute old man a ride in the back of the truck with us all of the way into town. He literally smiled ear to ear the whole way. He would yell and wave at all the people he knew because he was so proud that he was riding with us. He was cute and he smelled pretty awesome, not. Evidently deodorant isn't on the list of necessities like it is with Americans.
Please pray for traveling mercies for us. We will travel with Jennifer all the way to Miami so that will be nice. I am leaving with a melancholy heart, but I leave here knowing how blessed I am and how great my Saviour is.
This morning we woke to the knocking on the window AGAIN because Paix was not waking up. Is this Groundhog Day or what?? His blood sugar was 29 but he was at least able to take food. It takes forever to get his sugar up. So we spend a few hours getting him up and functioning. Last night his monitor said HI which means he was over 500. SO, today he went to the hospital and they drew blood and told him to come back this evening for the results. We just took him up there and the Dr was a jerk and told him to keep taking the insulin the same way. They wouldn't admit him. Paix will have to go stay with his family while Jennifer and Bill are gone because there is no one here that can care for him. He is such a sweet, sweet soul. I am very saddened that he may not make it until the Campbell's return. When he left tonight he told Jennifer to tell us that "after God, you are the reason I am alive and thank you". I never get thanked like that at my regular job. Please pray for him and that his diabetes will be under control.
The hospital was very, very disgusting. I would describe it as a courtyard with tall walls around the perimeter. The main building is 2 stories and made out of concrete. Beds are lined up along the hall way with every kind of patient in them. Mother and baby in one bed, man dying of AIDS in next bed. Beds are touching. There didn't seem to be many "hospital rooms". Maybe if you were rich you could get one of those. We walked outside to the front of the building and there was a truck pulled up with a woman in labor in the back of the truck. There were no less than 20 people around the truck just watching and pointing at her. I'm not sure how many of those people were her family and how many people were just "rubber necking". Jennifer said that it is very acceptable for people to just stand around and stare like someone is a freak show. After about 10 minutes of discussion between the men (while the woman is in the back moaning in pain and holding her own umbrella to keep the sun off) they decided to lift her up over the tailgate on to the stretcher. Initially they brought out a wheelchair but one of the men had enough sense to say that probably woudn't work. They finally got her inside but Jennifer pointed out that if she was coming to the hospital to have a baby, then she probably had been in labor for quite sometime. Women don't come to the hospital to have babies unless there is a problem. So, the chance of the baby surviving is low and the mom probably will be very sick. Then we walked around the outside of the hospital to the "pediatric wing". This was horrifying to me. No wonder Jennifer doesn't ever want any of her kids going there. The kids all had a WHOLE liter of IV fluid hanging with just a roll clamp tubing. That in itself is so so dangerous and actually deadly for a small child. Nurses here get 6 weeks training. I am pretty sure I spent 6 weeks learning how to wash my hands and make a bed. Then to make it worse, the morgue is right outside the screen door and there is a trench were people go and squat to use the bathroom. All of this is literally right outside the door where the sick kids are. Then people walk past the morgue, through the trench, and right in and through where the sick kids/babies are. Nice. I wanted to film it, and make all of the patients I see watch it during triage and then dare them to complain or demand anything. Seriously. Americans have no idea how wonderful we have it....in all spectrums of our lives. To top it all off....when we first walked in the "ER" area the 2nd ranking Dr walked past us and literally goosed me and Jenna!!!!! It happened so fast, and I said "that guys just pinched my butt!" and Jenna said "Yes! me too!". Jennifer said that he was one of the main Dr's there. So, to all my Dr colleages in the states, you are apparently missing out by practicing in America. But, that is definately not the first time I have had my hiney pinched this week. People just love walking by and pinching and touching our hair.
After we got Paix up and moving this morning, we went on some home visits in the "country". All of the home visits Jennifer does are only to the people who come to either her feeding clinic or to her milk clinic. She likes to drop in on them and see what kind of living conditions there are. Also, while she out checking on these people, she sometimes finds other malnourished kids that she invites to the feeding clinic. So, we went to see a set of twins that she has been following for about 1 year. Rose Carmel and Rose Carnel. The trip was insane. Bill said he was never going back last year because the road is so bad. We talked him into going back and I think he might regret it! The roads are absolutely terrible. We drove about 8 miles out in the mountains and it took us all morning long to go there and come back. The most unfathomable part of it is ALL these women that come to the clinic not only carry a baby or child, they have to carry back the 4 lbs of formula or the rice. They walk the whole way. Up and down mountains, across a river, 8 miles in the intense sun and heat. And usually the women that come with the child are the baby's Grandma. I rode the whole way in the back of the truck (except the last 20 minutes because I was so hot I thought I would stroke). It was exhausting riding in the truck, I can't imagine walking it!!! The roads are so bad that we had to get out of the truck about 5 times and let him get through narrow or treacherous areas. Then we would pile back in. The whole trip there were people yelling and running after us because we were a very rare sight for them. I am sure that many of them have never seen a white person. Some of those kids ran for about 1/2 mile or so just chasing us and waving. I took a lot of pictures up there and some video of the house the twins and their family were living in before the Campbells helped them with a new shack (er.... house?). The old one was the size of a bathroom with one room for 8-10 people and built out of sticks. On the way back we gave a super cute old man a ride in the back of the truck with us all of the way into town. He literally smiled ear to ear the whole way. He would yell and wave at all the people he knew because he was so proud that he was riding with us. He was cute and he smelled pretty awesome, not. Evidently deodorant isn't on the list of necessities like it is with Americans.
Please pray for traveling mercies for us. We will travel with Jennifer all the way to Miami so that will be nice. I am leaving with a melancholy heart, but I leave here knowing how blessed I am and how great my Saviour is.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Another day in paradise
Yesterday we had no more problems with Paix other than trying to decide how much insulin to give him as his blood sugar was too high the rest of the day. Jennifer took Stephanie, Jenna, and I to Madame Francious' sewing center to buy some souveniers. We spent a lot of money there because her place is actually a sewing school and she provides a good service to the community. To say she was ecstatic would be and understatement. She was kissing us and squealing with delight. Jennifer said she had never seen her make such a big sale in one day. All of her stuff is hand stitched and very pretty. Last night we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes!! They managed to find some ground beef and so we had an American meal last night. All of us have had a little stomach issue this week. They got a new filter system for some of the water and they are wondering if maybe it isn't doing the job. Oh, the joys of being in the mission field!
This morning was like a time warp to yesterday. We had a knock on the window at 0530 saying that Paix was sick again. He was at least responsive today but it took us about 2 hours to his blood sugar up to where he was able to function normally. He says he doesn't have any other diseases that he knows of (AIDS, Hep C, etc) but we think he must have something else going on for his blood sugars to be so all over the place. He just came and showed me his monitor and his blood sugar was 315 before lunch. I am seriously just guessing how much insulin to give him. Yikes!!! He ate lunch and I have him 10 of Novulin N. He will recheck before dinner and let us know if he feels bad in the mean time. He may have to go into the hospital for testing and to try to get his blood sugar regulated. But no one wants to go to the hospital here unless it is absolutely necessary.
I saw all the kids this morning before school. They ride a bus to school and wear uniforms. You cant go to school if you can't afford the uniforms. They had Haitian spaghetti for breakfast. So weird seeing people eat that for breakfast. I had nutella on a piece of bread so you know I am in heaven!!! The ladies are making lunch right now. I'm not sure what we are having but I know it involves rice, beans, and some kind of fish sauce. Yesterday for lunch we had pate'. That is a fried meat pastry like thing. Kinda tasted like eggrolls (only made out of goat). Jennifer has two ladies that come in and make lunch M-F. The meals take about 4 hours to prepare. They are so good. But, they don't like anybody (blancs) watching them cook and they don't share recipes.
Milk clinic is going well. I will have more to say about that later when we are done.
Lots of Love,
Leah
This morning was like a time warp to yesterday. We had a knock on the window at 0530 saying that Paix was sick again. He was at least responsive today but it took us about 2 hours to his blood sugar up to where he was able to function normally. He says he doesn't have any other diseases that he knows of (AIDS, Hep C, etc) but we think he must have something else going on for his blood sugars to be so all over the place. He just came and showed me his monitor and his blood sugar was 315 before lunch. I am seriously just guessing how much insulin to give him. Yikes!!! He ate lunch and I have him 10 of Novulin N. He will recheck before dinner and let us know if he feels bad in the mean time. He may have to go into the hospital for testing and to try to get his blood sugar regulated. But no one wants to go to the hospital here unless it is absolutely necessary.
I saw all the kids this morning before school. They ride a bus to school and wear uniforms. You cant go to school if you can't afford the uniforms. They had Haitian spaghetti for breakfast. So weird seeing people eat that for breakfast. I had nutella on a piece of bread so you know I am in heaven!!! The ladies are making lunch right now. I'm not sure what we are having but I know it involves rice, beans, and some kind of fish sauce. Yesterday for lunch we had pate'. That is a fried meat pastry like thing. Kinda tasted like eggrolls (only made out of goat). Jennifer has two ladies that come in and make lunch M-F. The meals take about 4 hours to prepare. They are so good. But, they don't like anybody (blancs) watching them cook and they don't share recipes.
Milk clinic is going well. I will have more to say about that later when we are done.
Lots of Love,
Leah
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Update on Paix
When we went to check on Paix he was sitting up, fully dressed, reading his bible. He was so appreciative of us, although I think he was a little embarrassed. We pulled the NG tube and rechecked his blood sugar and it was 97. We told him to eat lunch and that he was ok. Stephanie and I are going to try to work out a regimen for him to keep up with his diabetes and to write everything down. We even are going to have to educate him on what s/s to look for when his blood sugar might be getting low.
Update on baby yesterday (Jackinzie). He has been happy with the American family, eating, smiling, and crawling. They rocked him to sleep and he slept all night long.
Update on baby yesterday (Jackinzie). He has been happy with the American family, eating, smiling, and crawling. They rocked him to sleep and he slept all night long.
Hypoglycemic morning
This morning I just finished my coffee when the workers came and told us one of the guys wasnt waking up. His name is Paix (Pay) and he stays here so the Campbellls can help him regulate his diabetes. We went to check on him and he was unresponsive and incontinent. His blood sugar was 24. We tried to take plain sugar on our fingers and rub it in his mouth for about 30 minutes and that wasn't working. We didn't have a way to take him to the hospital b/c Bill is out of town this morning. There is no ambulance. And the hospital is a terrible place here. We all put our heads together and we formulated a plan. Jennifer got some baby NG tubes and we tried that but they were too short, then she found some old IV tubing and we cut it to appropriate size and put it down as a NG tube. It was so hot I was dripping with sweat and so was Stephanie. She is also a nurse on oncology at St Johns. She and a pastor that came (he brought his truck in case we did have to take him to the hospital) pushed him into sitting postition while I dropped this tube down. I didn't want to do it with him lying down b/c I was afraid he would aspirate. With all the praise to God, the tube went down and with syringes that Jennnifer had we gave hem sugar juice. That only brought him up to 37 after 30 minutes so I asked if she had any boost or ensure. She did and we gave that down the tube and it worked! He finally (after 2.5 hrs) woke up. He was very disoriented and probably scared with all the white people in his room. We got him cleaned up and he is now left with a grandma worker and we will recheck his sugar in 1 hr. He was able to drink a little, also. However, we havent take the tube out yet. I think he may have overdosed his insulin last night as he is just learning to regulate his diabetes. Everyone that works here was thanking us and saying 'God bless you' and crying and praying. They thought he was going to die. I think he easily could have. He is young but he is very brittle diabetic. I'm not sure how he has lived this long ( he is around 25 yrs old). Anyway, it was an exciting start to the day with a good outcome. Definately a little different than being in the comfort of my ER!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
House visits
Another rewarding day here at the Haiti Home of Hope. We woke up to Haitian eggs and Haitian coffee. Words can't describe how awesome that was! All the kids go to school during the day so Jennifer took us out on some home visits. We went to the home of a family that has 2 blind boys and one visually impaired daughter. They are taking the daughter next week for surgery to remove a cataract. They boys eyes are not operable. They keep them inside most of the time because they cant see so the younges boy looked about 2 or 3 but was about 7 and he has rickets and cant walk due to vitamin D deficiency. He was dirty and both of the boys looked pitiful. Then we went to a childs house that as pallegra which is a deficiency in niacin. He had a rash all over, and he couldnt open his eyes and he was very lethargic. Jennifer said she would give him some supplements on Wed. Then we went to the home of a baby that the Campbells have been trying to get for a while. He has been coming to the 'milk clinic' that Jennifer provides but Jennifer is sure that the family has been feeding the food to the other baby in the family. The baby's mother is crazy so the aunt had to take him in. Now she has a baby of her own and doesn't really want to care for this baby. Jennifer offered to take the baby with her and the whole family was in smiles and said 'bye bye' while laughing. No one kissed him bye or even touched him again. He was naked and so so tiny. He was weighed 10 days ago at the feeding clinic and he weighed 16 lbs, today he weighed 14.5 lbs. Do the math. The other baby they had at the house was 3 months old and clearly weighed more than this one. He is about 15 months old and wears 3-6 months clothes. Another missionary family that lives here from the states came and took him home with them and they will keep him for as long as necessary. He will hopefully be adopted by a neurologist from the states.
We did so many crafts with kids today. All the kids love doing any activities. It is quite the mob scene!! I am learning a lot of Creole. It is an easier language to learn. For lunch we had the best food. Rice, beans with a sauce to put on top, then fried bananas and some kind of fried chicken legs. Benji was so excited and squealing the whole time we ate because of the chicken. She saved it for last because it was her favorite. Jennifer said she had probably never had chicken, and if she had, she had certainly never had a whole piece to herself. I was so satisfied watching her eat that chicken!!! Then we had some for leftovers at supper and she was elated! She also blew out a candle for the first time tonight. She makes the cutest noises. I took a picture today of her standing next to a normal size child that is close to 3 yrs old and she was the same height as Benji. Benji is 6 or 7 yrs old. Fortunately for her, the malnourishment didn't cause her any developemental problems.
All these kids have such HORRIFIC stories. Each one is terrible and unfathomable. The Campbells are frequently forced to turn kids away. They are at the max amount of kids they can have. How hard would that be to have to turn kids away? They take the ones that there is no other option. Jennifer tries, through her clinics, to help the kids stay with their families and to teach them how to care for these kids. She only takes the ones that have dead mothers (with death certificate), the mother has AIDS and is going to die (and they have a form from the hospital that shows this), or there is a serious failure to thrive issue that isn't being corrected through the clinic. Otherwise they would have to take everybody in, because everybody is so poor.
I have learned a lot of cultural things that just blow me away. These are not a very compassionate people. I guess death and poverty are so rampant that they don't bother themselves with attachment. They will just cut off the weakest link. I also forgot what it feels like to truly be a minority. I am getting used to the staring. I know remember that feeling from my first trip out of the country to Brasil.
Wednesday will be milk clinic and Thursday (if it doesn't rain) we are going way out into the country for more home visits. That should be very interesting. Then Friday we head home. We will be laid over in Port au Prince for about 3 hours and Jennifer is going to try to find us a taxi and drive around the city. She is fluent in Creole so I hope we can do that.
Love, Leah
We did so many crafts with kids today. All the kids love doing any activities. It is quite the mob scene!! I am learning a lot of Creole. It is an easier language to learn. For lunch we had the best food. Rice, beans with a sauce to put on top, then fried bananas and some kind of fried chicken legs. Benji was so excited and squealing the whole time we ate because of the chicken. She saved it for last because it was her favorite. Jennifer said she had probably never had chicken, and if she had, she had certainly never had a whole piece to herself. I was so satisfied watching her eat that chicken!!! Then we had some for leftovers at supper and she was elated! She also blew out a candle for the first time tonight. She makes the cutest noises. I took a picture today of her standing next to a normal size child that is close to 3 yrs old and she was the same height as Benji. Benji is 6 or 7 yrs old. Fortunately for her, the malnourishment didn't cause her any developemental problems.
All these kids have such HORRIFIC stories. Each one is terrible and unfathomable. The Campbells are frequently forced to turn kids away. They are at the max amount of kids they can have. How hard would that be to have to turn kids away? They take the ones that there is no other option. Jennifer tries, through her clinics, to help the kids stay with their families and to teach them how to care for these kids. She only takes the ones that have dead mothers (with death certificate), the mother has AIDS and is going to die (and they have a form from the hospital that shows this), or there is a serious failure to thrive issue that isn't being corrected through the clinic. Otherwise they would have to take everybody in, because everybody is so poor.
I have learned a lot of cultural things that just blow me away. These are not a very compassionate people. I guess death and poverty are so rampant that they don't bother themselves with attachment. They will just cut off the weakest link. I also forgot what it feels like to truly be a minority. I am getting used to the staring. I know remember that feeling from my first trip out of the country to Brasil.
Wednesday will be milk clinic and Thursday (if it doesn't rain) we are going way out into the country for more home visits. That should be very interesting. Then Friday we head home. We will be laid over in Port au Prince for about 3 hours and Jennifer is going to try to find us a taxi and drive around the city. She is fluent in Creole so I hope we can do that.
Love, Leah
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The day of the Lord
Today we went to church. It was a few blocks away and there were about 60 people and 1 truck! Fun times. Anyway, I don't have too much to say today so I am not going to write much. I will blog more tomorrow. I will say that we had pumpkin soup for lunch with goat meat and it was fantastic....very spice and sort of curry tasting. Wow, it was good. Love you guys and think of you all often. But, there are 48 kids here and let me tell you, they are keeping us busy!!
Leah
Leah
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