Leah's visit

Leah has been and gone and it was good to have her here. Sam enjoyed having auntie Leah stay in his room with him. It was much easier to take the boys out with Leah here. Its difficult to take them out too far on my own as Sam doesn't want to walk too far and I can't use a buggy for Joel as there are no footpaths!

We did a lot of visiting with people I knew from before. We were able to spend time with Junior who lives just 5 minutes away from the seminary. Quick update on Junior, we are going to send him to get a CT scan here in Haiti but the hospital is about a 6 hour drive away. He would need to stay somewhere there to so he is trying to figure out how to get there and home. It is a great hospital run by partners in health (http://www.pih.org/pages/mirebalais) and hopefully there he will get some answers as to why he is paralysed and if there is anything that can be done.

We visited Alynx, he was a patient of mine who has microcephaly. He is now 10 and has come on so much in the past 5 years. In 2010 he was unable to sit up and could only say mama. Now he can sit up by himself and is talking a lot. It's great to see how much he has come on but also sad at the same time to think he has so much potential and because of the lack of therapy in Haiti he is probably not reaching his full potential. His parents are good friends of mine, Alix & Astrid and I have seen them every week since we arrived. They have two other children aged 5 & 3 and neither Alix or Astrid work. Please pray for them, Bill & I are trying to think of a way which we can help them start some sort of work so they can provide for themselves.

We also went to visit Mano, another patient who I saw almost every week, he has Cerebral palsy. He is now 16 and is so much bigger than 6 years ago. He still does his exercises and has been doing ok but is not very mobile now. He isn't able to leave the house much as he can't walk far and his parents don't have a wheelchair for him. They are difficult to find in Haiti and I would really love to try to find one for him.

now

in 2010

Sam had his first sleepover too! Dr Rodney & Vedane's kids had been asking when they could come out to play at my house, so we brought them out to play and sleepover. They played all day and watched a film that evening, Sam couldn't handle the pace though and by 7.30pm he was asking to go to bed. It is great to spend time with the kids again they have grown up a lot over the last 5 years.

We were also able to take Leah to the local tourist spots which are the pool and the beach! There is a hotel with a pool about a ten minute drive away and it is Sam's favourite place to go, he loves swimming! We also went to the beach one day where Joel had his first play in the sand which ended up as a face plant!

Supporting the glens all the way from Haiti 

Bill is continuing his language study Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday mornings. He is taking every opportunity to practice his Creole. The rest of the time he is preparing for teaching, his first course is an intensive which starts on 5^th September. He will be teaching OT wisdom literature.

We would appreciate your prayers for the boys (including Bill!) as they all have coughs for almost 2 weeks. We have been taking it easy over the past few days to try and get better. I am also working on something exciting for physio in the clinic which I will tell you about next time.

Junior

I have been visiting Junior every week and we took him for an Xray last week. His X rays are normal and we still have no idea how Junior went from being able to stand alone & walk to now being completely paralysed. The next stage for Junior is to get a CT scan to see exactly what is going on in his spine then we will know whether anything can be done for him. There are two options for a CT scan, there is one CT scanner in Haiti, its in a hospital in Mirebalias which is close to Port au Prince around 7 hours away. The other option is to go to the Doninican Republic however Junior does not have a passport.

We are not sure what costs would be involved in either option or the logistics. Please pray for wisdom as to what to do next and how that will work out. I really feel we cannot just leave Junior as is he but we need to find out what has caused his paralysis and if there is anything which can be done.

Junior & Magalee in 2010 after months of physio Junior was able to stand unaided

Junior, Magalee & Abigail now 

Sam & Abigail love playing together.....even though they cannot communicate!

Auntie Leah is here!

My sister Leah arrived into Haiti yesterday for the next two weeks and I think its fair to say Sam is excited that she is here. He talked the whole way home from the airport and I think I have heard him say 'Auntie Leah' about 100 times in 24 hours! She was able to bring us out some of his toys from home and a few things we can't find here.

Its interesting to try to figure out what is going on in Sam's head, when he got his toys he said ' They aren't in Bangor.' then he said to Leah ' Your not in Bangor anymore Auntie Leah.' I think he was trying to figure out why she is here! We took a drive down to the other OMS compound this afternoon to see Dr Rodney and his wife Vedane. Sam loves playing with their kids too.


Last week me and the boys spent a bit of time with the team that was here from the states. On Friday morning we visited a place called Streethearts. (http://www.streetheartshaiti.org/) its a safe house for boys who live on the streets. They can come and stay, or they can come for the day or they can come just to sleep. I was talking to a few of the boys, they all have sad stories and many of them have been abused or abandoned. One thing that struck me was the age of a few of the kids, there were about 4 boys who were under the age of 10 and many of them were just in their early teens.

 The team were there to spend time with them playing sports & games then running a VBS type morning. They sung some songs, did a drama based on a bible story and one of the team gave their testimony. We also did a craft where the boys made a prayer chain, they were asked to write some things which they can pray for. At my table I asked the boys if they want to write one to say thank you to God and one thing they can ask for. Here are some of the things they were saying

'Thank you God because you gave me life'
'Thank you God for streethearts'
'Thank you God for food you give me'

Its amazing that even though their lives so far have been so difficult they are very quick to answer what they can thank God for.

It reminded me that sometimes even living in Haiti we have no idea of the depth of suffering that is happening all around us.

The boys were loving Sam & Joel, they are used to seeing blancs but there are not very many 'ti blancs' (small white people!) around.

I was just about to leave and one the guys Sony, who works there came over to talk to me, turns out he worked as a translator in Milot hospital where I worked in 2010. I didn't recognize him because he used to have long hair and no beard! Anyway it was great to see him again,it was him along with an Amercian girl Lindsey who set up streehearts and they are doing great work for those boys.