8 orphans and the missionaries

Thursday, May 12, 2011

We had quite an interesting day here in Haiti.  The day started out with a  question....do you want to stay here at the house and clean up a bit, do some laundry and help here or do you want to go with the teams to build homes...Oh and if you stay here you may be called on to take kids to the Dr for their adoption labs and xrays.  Hmmm....supposed to be 100 degrees today and I am beginning to look like a lobster so I’ll take the clean up, laundry and house duties for the day...but just in case I have to do the Dr thing I better put a skirt on.  We finished with devotions and breakfast and the decision was made that I would be a dr visit helper but it wasn’t going to take all day because they were only going to end up with 2 kids and I could still get most of the things I needed to get done at the house done.

OK...if you have ever been on a mission trip you know that flexibility is the name of the game.  I was to meet the 2 kids with caregiver at the clinic a block away and help to get them back here and then back home again.  At the appointed time I walked to the clinic and saw over 100 people in line to be seen by a dr and it was still 1/2 hour before the clinic would open...and no caregiver or two children.  After being asked if I would give someone my water bottle, wedding ring, eye glasses and flip flops I decided to ask the only person I saw that may speak English if they had seen a white woman with 2 Haitian Children...alas they were not there.  So I walked home and finished the dishes.  About 10 minutes later as I’m eating a snack I hear the laughter of children...more than 2 children!  In walk a 1 year old, 2 year old, 3 year old, a 14 year old and the baby was put onto a bed because she fell asleep in the car...you say...I thought there was 8 orphans and that is only 5!  The other 3 are sitting at the clinic I just left with a caregiver and they will be here soon!  We were to take 6 kids to the dr and 2 of them were sent along to be our translator and a helper...and we were all to ride in a pick up truck with an extended cab! Now you are all saying...what about the car seats, seat belts and are you ladies crazy?  Plan C had kicked in...of the tthree that were at the clinic near us one is a pretty sick little guy named,. Amasiah.  He has a nasty upper respiratory infection but is getting better.  One is our translator and the other just needs the adoption tests done.  With a line by that time of 200 very ill people what do you think the chances of a few “well child” tests are in a field clinic?  You know it...none!

So, plan D now is in action.  We call to several places to see where we can take these kids for these tests.  They go to court this coming Monday for the first part of their adoption and parents are flying in at huge expense and these tests need to get done.  So...a driver was hired, a clinic was found in one place for the lab work and another 45 minutes away to do the X-rays.  You ask...can’t they all be done at one place?  Again I say...You know it...Nope!  

We loaded up all 6 little kids, 2 older kids as our helpers, 3 adult American caregivers with almost no Creole language skills and a Haitian driver that speaks no English and head off to drop one kid off at the orphanage because he is done and 5 kids to the lab for blood draws.  An hour later we pulled up in front of the lab and checked in.  There was “only” about 25 people in line ahead of us by what the lobby looked like and we had called ahead so we were hoping to get out soon....1 1/2 hours later and 4 crying kids late (one brave little guy didn’t even cry)  we left there with the labs done and the x-ray orders in hand. We drop one kid off at the orphanage and we take off for a 45 minute drive to the Adventist Hospital for the x-rays.  We get there and low and behold...no power.  City power had gone off and the generator was broken but they “might” have it fixed in either 1 hour or 6 hours...so we decide to wait for an hour or two with 4 kids for xrays, 2 kids as helpers with 3 American women.  As we sit in this hall way with several others waiting for x-rays, we feed them pretzels with peanut butter, juice we picked up a at a little store a few blocks away and some Bugles, yes Bugles!  The baby did get her formula though.  We let them play with the toys our daughter, Misty, had so generously sent down with us and all the kids were just awesome.  2 hours later still no power.  So we made the decision to come back tomorrow.  We got ready to walk to the truck and go one but one of the kids had a messy diaper and I went in to change her diaper.  As I walked outside where everyone else was the admissions lady runs out in back of me and says...we have power!  So because of a messy...very smelly diaper...that Michelle had we had not left yet and 1/2 hour later we were done with 4 chest x-rays and were loading back up in the truck for the now 1 hour (rush hour) drive back to the orphanage.  Everyone except the driver (thank you Jesus) fell asleep on the way home.  God took care of the details...we just needed to show up and persevere. 

The next time you have to wait 1/2 hour in a waiting room remember this story.  It takes all day to go to the Dr here.  The hospital we went to yesterday to visit Franski was a basic field hospital. Tents, temporary buildings, bring your own sheets, towels and caregiver and pray that there is a Dr there that can diagnose and treat what you have.  People with open wounds and broken bones were everywhere.  No doors or screens.  Mosquito nets protect you from Malaria and Dengue fever.  The medical care we complain about and joke about every day is so far above this.  Be grateful for the level of care we get in the states. It is amazing.

Sorry this is so long.  Tomorrow is another day. I haven’t even told you about Tues and Wed...like I said.  Tomorrow is another day.

God Bless and keep praying!

Jackie