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.