Big week and catch up

So this week has been busy and interesting.  Bill was back to being a student this week with his module on research methods every afternoon from 1-5pm aswell as teaching Monday, Thursday and Friday. he was scheduled to preach in chapel on Friday but needless to say he swapped with someone.  Bill is glad this week is over and he can get back to being a teacher, although he does have homework to do.

Yesterday was day 11 of someone in our house being sick with vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Sam started last Wednesday, Joel followed a couple of days later then Jacob a couple of days after that.  This week they are all on round 2 of what seems like the same virus.  Bill was also unwell Monday and Friday night.  Seemingly I am the only one in my house who managed to avoid anything even
Altidor, my PT tech was throwing up on Friday morning.  After that Bill began calling me typhoid Mary!  We would appreciate your prayers for everyone to get better and stay better and thankfully today they were heading in that direction.

Its much more fun when the boys are like this!

Things are busy in the clinic and Altidor and I barely even get a break for lunch we have so many patients.  On Friday I had a patient who was in Port de Paix last weekend when the earthquake hit.  He had a stroke on Friday and was in the hospital over the weekend.  The hospital was full and once they felt the ground move, all the families ran outside and left all the sick people lying in bed!Thankfully the hospital was not damaged but my patients family told me stories of people who lost their homes, who are sleeping in the street and many who were injured.  They came to Vaudrieul to visit friends and are heading back to Port du paix next week.


Again and again we see patients who just should not be dealing with the pain and disability with comes from not having a good health care system.  One lady in particular stands out from this week, Altidor passes her on her way to work everyday and told her to come and see us.  She is 44 and has been unable to walk or stand for at least the past year and a half.  Getting a history in Haiti is very difficult so the story of how she got to where she is is a bit sketchy but she has been to many different doctors, had X rays and even a MRI scan and from every doctor all she has been told is there is nothing wrong with her.  She is extremely weak and has some neurological symptoms in her legs, Altidor and I have no idea of a diagnosis but we are going to try to treat her a best as we can.  She is being looked after by her three children, aged 22, 15 and 12.  I am always sharing with Altidor that having a disability in any country is difficult, but in Haiti where there is a lack of wheelchairs, poor roads and no footpaths, no hoists and no equipment etc life must be so so difficult.  Yet what we see again and again is resilience from our patients.

Its been raining every night for the past few weeks which, after months of drought, has been great for the farmers.  Unfortunately it has been awful for the road which is getting visibly  worse every day I drive it.  This is my commute to work... anything like yours??