A wee blessing

Meet Dalundy........

On Tuesday just after devotions in the clinic Ms Ketelie called me over to see a wee baby who had just arrived with her dad. She was crying and crying so I lifted her up to try and calm her down and we sat and talked to the dad, He told us he left his house at 3am this morning to come here, the baby's mum died about 2 months ago and he was left with the baby and he didn't know what to do anymore, he didn't know how to look after her. We asked if she was sick, seeing it was a clinic he came to. He said no, he didn't think so she just cries alot. So we asked him why he came here to our clinic we are here to provide medical care, we don't have an orphanage or anything like that. So we got the baby some clothes and I fed her a wee bottle of milk, the first few times I tried to give it to her she could not use the bottle at all. So we asked what the dad what he had been feeding her, he said cows milk with a spoon, butter and flour. We kept her for a while to feed her and calm her down, meanwhile Dr Rodney had come over to see what was going on and he said to me I will take the baby, I said what about Vedane (His wife) so he told me to phone her and get her to come over to the clinic. Immediately she said yes and came to see the wee baby. Vedane talked the dad and they went to sort out the legal side of things, the dad had brought everything with him he needed to give the baby away.

That was it!!I asked Dr Rodney how did you make such a big decision like that so quickly. He said he knew by the way the dad was talking that he wanted to give the baby away and he felt like he should look after it. After I asked Vedane the same question, she told me just the night before she had a dream she was with someone and there was a baby there for her to take, however someone came along and asked for the baby so she didn't want to fight she said 'ok take the baby, God is going to send me a beautiful baby girl.' So when Dr Rodney told her about the wee baby in the clinic she knew straight away that it was from God.

They are going to change her name to Alisha but for now she is Dalundy or just 'tibebe' (wee baby!!) She is such a blessing to their family already, everyone who comes to see her loves her and she is so good. She smiles all the time, eats well and sleeps well. And even after what her dad has been feeding her she is healthy. Obviously Vedane didn't have any baby stuff in her house but already some of our missionaries had some old baby clothes and stuff and Hannah just got back from the states yesterday and she brought back stuff for the baby. Here are some photo's of her...........

Three girls for your prayers

I have three girls who I would love you to pray for. The first is Tania.

I just met Tania over 2 weeks ago in Milot she was admitted with Breast Cancer, she has had 4 operations already but the tumour keeps growing back. They told her at the hospital she needs to go to the states for chemotherapy but so far has no possibilty of doing that. She came to me to ask for help and see what I could do. Haitian's know that alot of times when they send patients to the states its the 'white' teams that come in who organise it and being able to speak Creole often they come to me. I really didn't even know how to start doing anything like that, but I have been in touch with a few people from Milot and we are trying to see what we can do. Please pray that things get sorted out, without the treatment she will die, surgery is not an option anymore because the tumour just keeps growing back. Alsp pray for Tania, she is a christian and is really trusting in God to help her, pray for strength and courage.

The Second is a girl from Balan, Her name is Wistna she is 28 and was in Port during the earthquake at school. She was trapped in the building for a while, slept in the road for a few days before returning to Balan(which is here in the north about 20 mins from where we are). She had broken both her wrists however had no money to go to a doctor so she didn't. After a few months her family noticed she just wasn't the same, she was very quiet and withdraw, she missed her friends who she lost in the earthquake and then in June she drunk a bottle of bleach and washing powder. They took her to a hospital for some medicine but she is still not coping. There is not really any psychologists in Haiti and she hasn'thad any counselling or any help in how to cope with how she is feeling. I have a friend who lives in Balan and it was him who brought her to me last week because of her hands. We did X rays and thankfully her both wrists have healed well even though they had no casts on them, I knew to look at her she still wasn't well psychologically and everytime I asked her a question her mum answered. I had to take her over to X ray and I had a wee chat with her on the way so see if she would tell me how she was really feeling, I explained she needed to see a doctor and we have one here if she agrees so I sent her over to one of our Doctors Dr Rodney who is a great doctor and a wonderful counsellor. Please pray for her as Dr Rodney counsels her and helps her recover from the trauma she has been though. One of the difficulties with psychological problems in Haiti is that voodoo and Devil worship is so prominent here that is anyone is will psychologically people assume it is Satan and an evil spirit they have within them which is not always the case.

The third girl I would like you to pray for is Sterlina. Sterlina has left Cap Haitian and gone back to live with her family. When they found her family (which she thought were dead) she didn't know if she was even going to be able to visit. Now seeing her mum and dad are both alive she cannot stay at the orphanage as it is for kids who have no parents. Then they told her she is going and not coming back, she left 2 weeks ago and I have been chatting to her on the phone, she is glad to see her family but she is not overly happy. Her dad is ill and cannot work and there are 6 or 7 other kids so she doesn't always eat and she won't be going to school this year as her family don't have the money to send her. Pray for her just to settle, she wasn't happy in the orphanage either I think she is also trying to still cope with what she has been through this year.

Special day number two....

This Saturday we headed out on a mobile clinic in an area called 'La Violete' which is actually just about a half hour drive from where we are. Initially I asked ms Prudence, so do we need to walk to get there or can we go in the car? She replied ' No we can go in the car.' The area is very close to the town centre of Cap Haitian, however the picture below is the view from where we were and we definitely did not drive up there in the car!!After a good wee walk up to the top we arrived at the church.

For being so close to Cap Haitian the area is very very poor, the church is a mud floor under a tarp. Alot of the kids we saw had the red tinge to their hair which generally means they are malnourished. When we arrived at the church there was around 50 people waiting patiently for us, we started off introducing the team and told the patients the reason why we were there and what we were going to do which was to provide medical care for people also we had 4 of our seminary students who were going into the local area to pray with people and evangelise. We sang together and prayed before we started anything. It always amazes me how open Haitan people are to the gospel and to singing and praying before everything.

The church

Part of the pharmacy

We saw around 250 patients and were able to give each patient bread and butter and a tampico (Haitian drink which is just like sunny delight!!). Before the clinic started we also did some education about TB, HIV and other diseases. Kate and I were in the pharmacy which was a tiny wee table and a box of medicine, it was pretty crazy and things got a little chaotic at one time, but then we are in Haiti and it wouldn't be Haiti if there wasn't chaos!! We were also able to give out worming tablets to nearly heaps of people, I can't remember but I think between 250-300. Our seminary students, Gesner, Devacoeur, Nicole and Yolene went out into the local community to evangelise and pray with people. They found 34 people who accepted Christ as their Saviour that day which is really the main reason why we were there aswell as providing the medical care. The local pastor is then able to follow up with these people and disciple them.

One of the things we did was HIV tests for 100 people. This wee girl tested positive, she is just 8 years old both her parents are dead from AIDS. Things like that are really sad and difficult to see but now she knows we can get her treatment. Please pray for her. Also we were just about to get into the car to go home and a lady called me over to talk to her, she has a wee boy in her who is 9 years old, she took him in because he didn't have anywhere else to go he is HIV positive but she hasn't told anyone else in the area. We told her to send him to our clinic because we have a HIV programme there and we can get him started on medicine. And he came on monday so we were able to put him in the programme and get him started on medicine.

Evidence of the mud floor!!although part of that is my lovely tan!!

On the way down we stopped outside a house where a mum was giving her wee daughter a bath, the wee baby must have been about 8 months and she had 2 necklaces around her neck, which in Haiti is very often a sign of voodoo. Ms Prudence stopped to talk to the mum, asked her why she was putting necklaces like that on her wee baby. The mum told us she was born into a christian family but it was the baby's father who put the necklaces on to protect the baby from sickness. Ms Prudence and Nicole continued to talk to the mum telling her she is basically handing her child over to satan and what was she going to do about it. The mum quickly ripped the necklaces off and said she wasn't going to put them on again, Prudence and Nicole prayed with the mum and the baby asking God for his protection against voodoo and satan.

I had spoken to a lady who had a little boy who was 15 months and wasn't walking yet so I told her to come down and see me. She brought him yesterday and I had a wee look at him. In Haiti mum's really worry if their child doesn't walk by the age of 1 they think something awful is wrong. Anyway she brought him in to the clinic to see me and he was so cute. He just is developing a little slower then some other babies but thankfully nothing serious. So many of the other kids I get like that have cerebral palsy and its difficult to tell their mum's that. This wee one is just not quite ready to walk, it was lovely to be able to tell his mum she doesn't need to worry just keep encouraging him to walk and stand.

The view from the top