Driving

      Recently, I have started learning to drive in Haiti. If you have ever ridden in Haiti (or ridden with me in the States), you know that it is, for lack of a better term, an adventure. Traffic expectations are different in Haiti than they are in the States, which can make driving here as a foreigner a bit nerve wracking.
     This morning I drove from where I live to the MOHI main campus, which is on a major road. The drive involves crossing a bumpy, mostly dry river bed and I was a little nervous to try this for the first time. I'm a  South Florida girl and I don't drive well on hills. My knuckles were pretty white on the steering wheel, and I had a moment of concern when a large truck was passing right by us, but we made it. The goal is that I will be able to be quite a bit more independent once I can drive without instructions. We shall see.

Now I just need to conquer the mountain roads!

Open my eyes

          The last few weeks have found me so caught up in the day to day workings of the clinic and life here that I have hardly taken time to breathe, let alone notice the things going on around me. I have allowed daily challenges, frustrations, distractions and plain old busyness to keep me from really seeing the people and events surrounding me. I don't say this with pride, especially since these have been the weeks surrounding Easter, one of the most important days of the years to me. As I was praying my way through how to reorient myself, I stumbled across the following prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, and was instantly smitten.

“O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

        This has so been the prayer I would have put into words if I could have. Lord, let me behold You in all Your redeeming work. Teach me to see beyond the day to day struggles to the ways You are in action. Forgive my distracted heart, and open my eyes to see the ways You are already on the move here. Amen.

         

Born yesterday

      Well, I have a new personal record for youngest patient seen in the MOHI clinic. A beautiful (healthy!) day old baby girl came in this morning for a consultation. We were pretty excited. I picked her up and we called a couple of other people to come in and admire her. Then we all stood around and discussed how perfect she was and how delighted we were to meet her.

      After a bit, a couple of other people offered to take her from me so I could finish my work. I declined. Accusations of "baby hog" may have been tossed around. The thing is, I obviously had to hold her the entire time I was charting. It was vital to the record keeping process.  At some point during all the excitement, she fell asleep in my arms, at which point I melted into a puddle on the floor. All in all, it wasn't a bad Tuesday in the clinic.

                              

First day in the clinic bus

     It was a whirlwind week with the Bless Back medical group. Wednesday and Thursday we went to St. Etienne, up in the mountains and held clinic. We got to use our mobile clinic bus, which I was beyond delighted about.

      Will you join with us in prayer as we prepare to expand clinic services? We are hoping to get to St. Etienne weekly, to improve our follow up care and help meet the medical needs of the community. I am tremendously excited about the opportunity!

Clinic Update (with pictures!)

      We have a medical team in this week. To my delight, the new medical and dental rooms are ready, and we were able to hold clinic in them yesterday and today. It has been so exciting to watch the changes and improvements being made- we're starting to look so official! Here are some pictures from the last few days.

If you look closely, you can see our new examining tables and shelves!

The dental room in use!

      This afternoon after clinic we visited a local neighborhood. The team did blood pressure screenings and included a teaching time with the kids. My face in the picture below pretty much summarizes my thoughts on the matter.

     Tomorrow and Thursday we plan to hold clinic in the mountains, and look forward to using the mobile clinic bus. I am so excited to start using the bus, as we expand our clinic services with our sister church. (Bonus: as I am demonstrating on the pictures below, I can reach ALL the cabinets in the bus without assistance!)

       Will you join with us in prayer for this busy clinic week? Will you pray with us for wisdom, compassion and discernment in serving our patients, and for joy in serving together as a team? Thanks!

School Nurse

                One of the more entertaining parts of my job at MOHI is my role as school nurse. Being the school nurse means Band-Aids and antibiotic cream for skinned knees. It means reminding students daily that they really are required to produce the clinic pass from the school director in order to be seen (so that I know they have permission to be out of class). It is sharing a smile with a preschool teacher over her student’s vocal need for a Band-Aid for the minute scratch on their leg. It’s saying over and over and over “go drink water” in response to a variety of ailments and then laughter when students gives me the same instructions. It is surprising myself by shouting across the yard “Don’t put that in your mouth! You’re going to get cholera!” It is counseling high school students about their acne. It is a six year old with a toothless grin announcing that last week’s injury feels much better now. It is wrestling to keep a straight face as fourth graders dance at my doorstep when they are supposed to be going back to class.

                  Lately, it is seizure precautions and ushering gawking students out of a room.  It is conversations with another student where I tell them that, as happy as I am to see them, they cannot in fact come to the clinic again today because they were here yesterday, every day last week and three days the week before. It is preschoolers peeking in the clinic, curious about what's going on. It is a happy dance in the office when the health department comes and immunizes our students for tetanus. It is pausing on an errand to watch the youngest preschool class dancing in their classroom, or listen to them recite a lesson. It is quiet rejoicing as kids outgrow school uniforms. It is a little boy with a tummy ache, legs swinging as he perches in the chair, telling me that the only time he ate was at school yesterday. It is joy and heartache, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Santo Domingo

     A couple of us took a long weekend trip to Santo Domingo this weekend. Milkshakes, hot showers and many delightful salads were involved. So was a six hour wait at one border crossing, and a motorcycle trip while holding my bags at the other. I'm still processing all my feelings about it.

April Fools!

       Yesterday was a long day in the clinic, as Mondays usually are. Tammy and I stayed late to catch things up and to prepare a special first day of April surprise for Tammy's husband Kevin. We wanted to be sure and mark the day in a way he would appreciate, but couldn't think of anything appropriate. Then Tammy had the brilliant idea of filling his brand new office with tokens of our appreciation for all he does. So we did. We put wicker furniture, a rocking chair, various things we found lying around and (with permission) some flowers from the church. 

     After sharing the joke with many of the other people we work with, and feeling particularly pleased with our efforts, we waited in anticipation for the morning. Since Tammy and I are on a health kick, we initially decided to walk to the clinic. Then Kevin passed us on the 4-wheeler so we bummed a ride. We'd hate for him to find his surprise without us there.

        As Kevin walked to his office we gathered all the people who were in on the joke, and some other people who were around at the time to come watch his reaction.

     We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

As I believe I've mentioned before, I so enjoy the people I work with.