Clinic number one was a long day. 8am to 9 pm. at the Church in LeJeune. Being our first one we only treated 140 people. There was much sickness, but it was a wonderful and blessed day. Alex, petite mwen, seems to be having the time of her life giving out suret (candy) to the children. She is definately the center of attention. Her attitude is phenominal for a sixteen year old woman. We sent one man to the hospital with what appeared to be appendicitis. We found out later, it was not, but he still had some sort of surgery. It cost us $575 US for them to even look at him. Over the week it was notable the number of stitches (most infected) that we removed. Folks will go for surgery, but have no money for followup. That evening the Pastor asked to speak with me privately. He explained that his wife had worked with organizing a sewing circle to help the women have a vocation. Since his wife had gone home to be with the Lord he asked if I would be a member of the circle to encourage the ladies in their work here and help distribute their embroidery. I told him it was an honor to be asked and I would work on keeping the group encouraged. All said through tears :)
Tuesday at 4 a.m. the dogs were barking and the roosters crowing. Roosters crow every hour there, rather than in the morning like here. Makes the betrayal of Peter and the three crowing roosters even more real. Being in Haiti is like being on another planet. Everything is at a slower pace and much more "real" than here. No fakery there. There is a true and apparent fear and respect for the Lord. Anyway, Diane and I went out to the potty at 4. Coming back across the yard we heard a piano and hymns being sung. (At least we knew the tunes.) We knew then we were protected from all harm, even in this foreign place. As I looked up the stars seemed so very close. I don't know if it's because we were near the equator, or because it was so dark, but the stars seemed close enough to touch. It was an amazing sight.
The 2nd clinic resulted in over 125 being treated. But this time the patients were, by and large, not Christians. You could easily tell that from their attitudes. Greetings were less enthusiastic and they seemed, well, numb when you looked at them. The weather was a bit more humid, so my feet started swelling. Our "boys" were with us, of course. Renel was our interpreter, Bonne is Pastor Geordany's adopted son, Delion was our other helper with blood pressures. My ears started getting sore from taking all the blood pressures. WE stopped at 2:40 to eat. Wonderful kabrit with our rice and beans. Kabrit is goat. It was very good, even though the poor thing had been petted by me before its demise. The food was very, very good. Rain started in the afternoon, so as it progressed and night fell, we took our soap and took a good shower under the spout (thoughbeit with our clothes on). It was wonderful. Church was canceled due to the rain, so we sat and played zilch and spoons.
Wednesday morning we had "stew" for breakfast. Didn't appeal to me, with all honesty. Because of the rain the roads were impassable for us, so we had another clinic there at the church. We saw more cancers, MS, broken limbs, etc. Lunch again was very good with rice and beans. Today I read the creole bible often with Renel. We talked alot about certain scriptures and he read my english bible. That evening we had the Ladies meeting and their "show". Beautiful items on display. Ivonne had embroidered a dress and Bonne had made these lovely cross necklaces.
On a side note. Each day our team met for Bible study before breakfast. It was on finding contentment. Each lesson seemed to speak to us directly for the day. I had picked up the study at the bookstore before I left and it was amazing how well it suited our situation on the Island.
More to come, later.
No comments:
Post a Comment