Our trip was amazing! The team I went with were primarily nurses and since I am not a nurse I started praying right from the start that the Lord would just use me. I was willing to do anything, I just wanted to be used. And I'm thankful to say that He found just the job for me: Keeping a straight line. Yes that's right that was my job, to tell people where to stand. For those of you that know me, telling people what to do is not really hard for me, but keep in mind I had to do this in a language I know NOTHING about. Thankfully I found that I can also be animated if necessary and it worked out wonderfully, except for the one time I pointed to the ground to show a man where I wanted him to stand and he bent over trying to see what I was showing him on the ground, now that's funny in any language!
The first clinic was at a place for handicapped people. The people in this place are outcasts in Haiti, but the man that runs this place is handicapped himself. About 30 people live in the place and he also helps around 300 people in the community.
This child more than likely had cerebral palsy but his mother has no idea, she wrote down that he couldn't sit, stand or talk.
This man peddled himself around with his hands.
All we could do to help this man was give him some Tylenol and Advil but it's more than he had
This little girl crawls on her hands and knees most of the time and wanted some knee pads to help. Some of the supplies were taken to create something to help her
This lady lost part of her foot in the earthquake and came in with a boot that was worn out. Charlie one of our interpreters cut part of a new boot off and it was just what she needed.
On the way home from clinic we stopped at "The Basket Lady's" house. She sells beautiful baskets made from banana tree leaves. She charges hardly anything for them but with makes enough to send her four daughters to school. The largest basket she has she only charges $12, in America that same basket would be over $100.
The next day was Sunday and we were able to worship in the church in Saintard. It was a beautiful service and I was amazed at how even though we couldn't understand a word they were saying you could feel the Holy Spirit so clearly. Part of the church participated in communion and you had to be carrying a blue card to participate because there was not enough for everyone.
Here is a picture of the pastor and his wife
After church we went over to visit the orphanage that is on the same ground as the mission house, where we stay. Miss Phyllis runs the mission house, the orphanage and oversees the hospital that is all at the same place.
These little boys are twins, Charlie and Jake and are the same age as Ethan, one of them is still not able to walk. Their father died in the Cholera epidemic and their mother had several other children. Miss Phyllis said the place they lived before coming to the oprhanage was so steep you literally had to crawl to get to it.
Here are some of the girls from the girls dorm.
Here's Miss Phyllis with one of the twins. She visited Haiti in the 70's with one of her friends from Bible College. She felt the Lord leading her to move there and his lived there over 30 years.
That afternoon we went to City Blue to hand out food. These people were moved into little huts built by Samaritan's Purse after the earthquake and have been there ever since. The children would swarm you and you couldn't hardly move, especially if they thought you had candy.
This was some people bathing outside the village. The water they're bathing in will go on down the line and someone else will use it to cook with.
Here's what the huts look like.
Some of the children
The last day we were there we also did another medical clinic in a place called Lily. This was the saddest place, for me, that we visited. Many, many teenage girls with babies, many pregnant again. Miss Phyllis said the girls wanted children because then they had something that was truly theirs. I can truly say it was a life changing experience for me. We had Haitian men that went with us everywhere we went to keep us safe and at this place they earned their money. I never felt unsafe but occasionally you could hear the crowd get loud just wanting to get in and see the nurses. We treated lots of people with worms, "Grip" which is a reoccuring cough and just simple things that Tylenol will help but is not available to these people.
Here's Kim listening to a patient
Here you can kind of see how the crowd starts getting closer and closer. They get really nervous if they think you're running out of medicines or they're running out of time.
This is the "Pharmacy" where my job was to maintain my "line"
This lady had cataracts and wanted to try a new pair of glasses.
This lady's child had a thorn in it's eye that had been there a month. Miss Phyllis was very upset at the mother because there was a free clinic in the area the mother didn't take the baby to. Miss Phyllis said sometimes the mother's get tired of the children and intentionally try to hurt them.
After this clinic we handed out more food bags and went to see the Caribbean. It was amazing to see.
Yes the water really is this clear!
Here is our group
This trip has changed my life forever. I was blown away by how 700 people put on their "best" clothes, walked to church at 7 a.m. in 90 degree weather and happily worshipped the only One who can ever give these people any hope. I was amazed at how a bunch of people from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee came together in one accord to do whatever needed to be done from moment to moment. And most of all I'm thankful, thankful for the opportunity, thankful for my wonderful husband who carried my load while I was gone, thankful to my church who gave so that I could go, and thankful for Jesus who came into my life when I was 8 years old and changed me so that I can take the gospel wherever I go.
I will NEVER be the same after this trip.
