Diagnosis: Exhaustion from Grand Goave

We've just returned from accompanying Chris as he led a team to Grand Goave with "a door to hope". The week was full of fun and sweat and laughter and tears and sweat and humidity and sweat. Did I mention we sweat(ed) a lot? Man, we are spoiled living up here in the mountains of Haiti! It was miserable. Totally miserable. The only thing that made it not completely terribly miserable was the team members that we joined with for the week. What a refreshing week to get to serve alongside, sweat alongside, laugh and cry alongside and grow alongside these precious people.  The team consisted of 14 of us Americans: a doctor, a preacher, an ER nurse, an OR nurse, a caregiver, a dad, a mom, a grandma, a great grandma, a guitar player, a card shark, a pancake maker, etc... etc... We had a tough week. Did I mention it was deathly hot?

We had a small team that ventured up the mountain every day shifting in and out of 4 wheel drive to a different location to offer a medical clinic under Nurse Jenny Jenkins' direction. Each day they saw just under 30 patients and Dr. Doug (from Caruthers, Missouri) gave diagnosis' as we had a makeshift lab and pharmacy to help give tests and meds to those who needed it. Before each patient left his care he prayed for them. If it wasn't for the medical team who worked tirelessly all week long most of these patients would not have been able to get the medical care they needed. In addition to these 25 or so patients were also about 15 that were returning for blood pressure monitoring. Many, many people suffer with high blood pressure (it's very common here in Haiti) and are on medications under Nurse Jenny's continued care.

ER Nurse Megan and Fonfon with a patient

OR Nurse Colleen measuring growth

Dr. Doug listening to the heart of a child

We also had a team who built a home for Wilson and Madame Wilson and family. They had a 17 year old daughter that I asked if I could take a photo of as she was cooking lunch on Tuesday. She immediately said, "wi" and wiped her forehead. Her name was Kinslea. I'm not sure how to spell it, but that's how you say it. Many Haitians I've found are shy about getting their pic taken. Not at all for Kinslea. She asked me something in Kreyole and I completely didn't know what she said, but "Pastor" (our translator on the job site) was just walking by. So, I asked him to help us communicate. She wanted to know if I'd print out her picture and give it to her. He asked if she had Facebook so I could tag her in it... the lazy American way... but, she did not. We had brought our printer for a project for later in the week, so I knew I'd most likely be able to do it for her. So, I told Pastor to communicate to her that I would try my very best, but I couldn't promise. She was very happy and looked for me every day to see if I had it. I knew I didn't want to bring it back to her the very next day or it may be contagious... other people may want their picture taken and we didn't really have any paper with us. I was glad to make a friend with her because all through the week she would grab a chair and have me sit next to her while she cooked and talk with me. I was able to really test out some of my Kreyole on her and try to hear what she was saying, too. It was very good for me. She was perfect because she was young and patient and let me mess up plenty and then would smile and correct me.

Kinlea

Family we built a home and bunkbed for this week

The medical team left by 8 each day and didn't return till late afternoon, but the home building team worked all morning until around 1 each day and then went on to another project in the afternoons. One day they did prayer walking, another immersion, another VBS.

Thursday the home building team worked around "The Villa" all day - Nurse Jenny Jenkins' new place. We "zincomated" (de-termite chemical) all the wood furniture around the place - shelves and bunk beds, etc. And then sanded and poly-urithaned what all we could. A small team built a nice bunkbed for the family we were building the home for. I got a super charged headache from the fumes. We also sorted, counted, divided and stuffed bags for the widow's ministry we were going to go to on Friday morning. Each widow received a BIG bag full of spaghetti noodles, cans of tomato sauce, oil, peanut butter, canned fish, rice and beans (that we divided up from huge bags). I think each bag weighed about 25 lbs. No lie. We prepared 70 bags.

Friday, the whole team was together as we went to join in with a widow's ministry in the community. There was a worship service and we took photos of each widow with their name so that Nurse Jenny and the community effort ministry can track them better. At the end of the service we distributed the bags and watched them all walk out beaming with joy.

Colleen (the OR nurse) and I were assigned to get the photos of each widow. They were brought out to us in a side little entrance and we had a sheet hung up and had them sit down and smile. It's a funny thing to get a Haitian to smile. Especially anyone over 30 or so. They just don't smile for the camera. So, it was kind of a joke for me to think that I could get them to smile. But, guess what? I found that these widows had so much joy that it was literally leaking out of their faces. They had each AT THE LEAST lost a mate to death and who knows how much other sorrow they had seen in their lives.

We greeted each one with a "bonjou" in our best American/Haitian voices and over half of them wanted to hold our hands and kiss our cheeks greeting us right back. I fought back the tears more than a dozen times as I looked into their faces and they radiated with hope. I looked at them with such pity trying to imagine what they had walked through and they looked right back at me with loads of joy and hope.

There were several different widows who were blind. One gentleman in particular came in and I didn't realize he was blind. I greeted him and motioned for him to "chita la" - sit here. The translator had walked in just a second later than usual. He quickly reached over to guide him into the seat. The translator told me he was blind. I said, "someday you will see Jesus" and the man immediately said, "I believe it with my whole heart!"

Blind man who believes he'll see Jesus with his whole heart!

It was such a treat to worship with our team each night. I don't think they'll ever understand how much of a treat it was for me, but it truly was a huge bonus to sing together under the stars as the ocean crept in and the sweat trickled down (and the rain fell more nights than not!). Music is what I'm really missing these days. I'm afraid to play music on my phone because I never know when we will or won't have electric to recharge. So, it's been one big void in my life I'd like to remedy soon. But, for last week - I'm thankful that Justin led us each night in worship.

Each night after our nightly meeting, Brynna found much joy in playing a new card game with some fellow team members. She'll have to tell you all about it. I never could catch on to it. Euchre? Or something like that... Maybe she really just enjoyed someone else besides her parents' company for a change! She'd sneak in the "Ward" room right at curfew time and we'd both already be sawing logs.

I posted all my photos on Facebook if you're interested check them out.

Man, it was miserably hot. I'd take a shower, dry off and immediately be sweating again. Never once cared that the water was cold. It actually felt good. But, it just never lasted. We went through probably four times as much laundry as usual. Poor Jerard has some really, really stinky clothes to do right now. We'll be paying him double as a bonus for all the nasty clothes he had to wash! Chris only has one pair of long pants clean right now. LOL. I only have 2 skirts clean. So, we are just trying to recuperate and readjust to being "home again" on this nice, peaceful, cool mountain... I think we all enjoy mountain life.

Chris has already been back to work on "a door to hope" paperwork and continuing to be ready for the next team while Brynna and I are looking forward to jumping back into some Kreyole lessons and getting back up to the Godet orphanage to love on some sweet kiddos! Sure did miss seeing them this week. Thoroughly enjoyed meeting Dave, the president of the Heart of God Haiti Ministry yesterday and today who was in from NY and talking over the exciting possibilities of me and Brynna working with them. Pray for us as we seek God's direction.

"Anyone who robs father and mother and says, "So, what's wrong with that?" is worse than a pirate. A grasping person stirs up trouble, but trust in God brings a sense of well-being. If you think you know it all, you're a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others. Be generous to the poor - you'll never go hungry; shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses. When corruption takes over, good people go underground, but when the crooks are thrown out, it's safe to come out." Proverbs 28