Never published Haiti trip!!!

I was cleaning my bedroom and came across some letters I wrote from my trip to Haiti in 2015.

I of course had to stop my cleaning and read the whole thing.(A little ADD 😊) It's quite long, but I found it interesting.

It was this trip that God changed the course of my life again! He's good and directing my life and just when I think I'm content where I am, He opens a new door, even better then the one before!

I do find that fear can hinder His plans. He wants us to live in that full, peaceful trust. When we let fear and worry in the way, we get stuck where we are at.

I find myself falling into that fear now and then and I have to fight at times to climb back into my Fathers arms who I know has a good plan for me.

So I still remember the day sitting on my front porch, enjoying the beautiful place I live. My home, the forest with the deer and birds etc. My little garden and fixing things up. I just felt so content!

In the past I had always, always wanted to be a missionary. No matter what I tried, it never worked out. So I was sitting on my porch telling God, that it's ok, I don't need to go anywhere. I came to realize that mission work is where ever you are. I found lots of God's work right here in Libby MT. I told Him I'm content with that now.

What do you know, when you finally get to a place of complete surrender and contentment, God opens the doors of your dreams!

Once I took this trip God revived my desire for missions and this trip was the beginning of a new journey for my life!

So here we are in Haiti!

Haiti isn’t somewhere I always wished I could go. But when I saw a request on the “His-midwives” e-group about a missionary in Haiti needing a midwife, I thought why not check this out. It turns out they would be willing to pay for my trip down. So after many emails back and forth and an agreement that they would pay Monica’s flight also, we started planning. It’s always hard to plan dates around births. You never know if they will come early or go over-due, so we do the best we can.

Jon and Dannie’s baby was over-due, so while we waited for baby Noah, We were getting plane tickets, figuring out what we would need to bring etc.

We ended up deciding we will leave the 25th arriving in Port a prince on the 26th of Feb. Her due date being March 6th we hoped that would be enough time.

So we left Libby Wednesday morning heading for Spokane. Got to see baby Noah before we got on the airplane all set for a long flight; first to Seattle, then to New York on an all night flight and then to Port au Prince in the morning. Even while on the plane I began to question myself and wonder, what am I doing? Is this what I should be doing? I thought I felt this was God’s plan, his will, but it was crazy stressful to get ready for this trip and now I was so tired and uncomfortable I began wondering if this was wise!

We arrive about 11 am and instead of being met by Dave and Nicole we were met by some other men from the Christian Aid Ministries. They greeted us with the news that we missed the birth! What!! Really!?! Nicole went into labor early and delivered at 4 am. We had just been emailing at the Seattle airport. There were no signs of labor at that point. I missed the birth by hours and now I really was questioning myself. Why am I here in Haiti? In my head I keep saying: I know God has a plan and purpose. It’s not what we thought it was, but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t have another plan. Right? But what is it? Well I can help around the house, cook, and clean, check baby and mom, but surely there is more then that. We started asking around if another clinic needs some help.

Saturday morning we heard there was going to be a bible study and meeting up in a town not too far from here. It could take as little as 90 min to get there or as much as 4 hours depending on traffic. Here was a chance to see some of Haiti from an air-conditioned car.

So after 3-hour drive through an amazing amount of people, markets, and car traffic we finally got to our destination.

This bible study was being held on another mission compound. I’m learning there are many, many missions in Haiti. This one is also run by Mennonites. Christian Aid Ministries has a large distribution center and one other clinic and mission base, but Mennonites have many missions in Haiti, along with many other Christians. It’s a blessing to see how the missions of all the different denominations work together so well.

So we arrived and went up to a second story large porch like structure with a roof and open windows. Had some time singing beautiful hymns.

It always amazes me how Amish and Mennonites can pick a song in the hymnbook they never heard before and without any instruments can just start singing the hymn. Just by following the notes. They don’t sound like they struggle with it; they sing it beautifully in 4-part harmony! No practice sessions, no planning ahead, just jump in and sing.

So we sang for about 30 min and then had a bible study on Mark chapter 7. One new thought hit me was from a story where Jesus touched a man’s ear and tongue, the man was deaf and possibly tongue tied, how Jesus was reaching out touching other senses, since this man was deaf. Sign language of sorts, explaining to the man what he was doing in a way he could understand?

Afterward we had a meal together and got to visit. I started visiting with these young girls. 20 and 22 yr olds that were basically running a clinic. The couple that normally runs this clinic had to go back to the states because of complications with their pregnancy. So these girls are running this clinic alone. When they heard I was a midwife, they all quickly said, could you come up and teach us? We do births all the time and we have no training at all. The one girl had been there about 2 yrs and has now done 88 births, and never was trained. Come to find out most of the workers at these clinics are untrained volunteers, learning as they go. There was one LPN nurse there. Others had gone through a short term training program or such. The need is great and they are just willing souls doing what they can to help save lives and help people. The girls I was visiting with live in the mountains. You drive about 2-3 hours on normal crazy traffic roads and then you drive up the mountain. Although it’s only 14 miles up the mountain it takes 2 hours to drive. This is where they have a clinic where they take care of people as they can. They showed us a picture of a baby they had cared for the day before. It was a few weeks old and had not eaten. The baby was almost dead. The mother was having trouble nursing and so the baby just didn’t get any food. In just one day of feeding it teaspoons of milk, it was starting to cry and act normal again. The poor baby was starving mostly from lack of education then anything else. I met several other people who run or help at other medical clinics all over.

I’m still not sure what Monica and I are doing in these next couple weeks, but I feel at peace knowing God has a plan for us. We have a few options of opportunities from sorting medications in a mountain clinic to doing prenatals. At this time we are in a lovely guesthouse on the CAM compound. It’s a safe fenced compound with beautiful planted trees. Outside the compound is more of a desert and the world of Haiti, but in here except for the heat it’s quite pleasant and modern with fans. The heat and the humidity is always a challenge to deal with. Mark is at home dealing with the broken furnace and getting the replacement and we are down here and can’t imagine ever needing a heater or even a blanket! Even the sheet is too hot to use at night!

This CAM compound is a distribution center. They get in around 55 containers a year of supplies. They supply missions all around Haiti with medications, schools with supplies and food for the children. They don’t run the clinics or schools but just help supply and support other Christian missions. Right now they stock 45 clinics with medicine and medical supplies. They pay the salary of Christian Haitian teachers; give the mission schools food so they can feed the children while they are at school. They do this for about 50 schools at this time. They send material to different missionaries that have sewing classes, etc. Herb-a-life donates 100’s of lbs of protein powder to CAM. They in turn distribute this to malnourished children and pregnant women at the different clinics. By orchestrating the donations from the states, they can distribute and help the other missionaries do their jobs. A fantastic ministry!

Haiti Part 2

After a very restful Sunday (March 1st) on the CAM base, we had a nice little bible study under the stars Sunday evening. We sang hymns using our cell phones for flashlights. Embarrassed by accidently hitting the button and it said, “Seri not available, you must connect to the internet” Right in a Mennonite meeting it seemed pretty loud. But the embarrassment soon faded when a couple benches over after the next hymn ended I hear the same thing! LOL

So Monday morning came and after a hot night we got up and washed clothes for Nicole and us in the wringer washer. I remember my Grandma had one in her basement. She also had a regular washer, but she loved her wringer washer and thought they did a much better job. We hung the clothes out on the line and within an hour they were dry. We had a hot breeze that was faster then the dryer!

After our Haitian lunch of saucy chicken pieces beans and rice and cabbage salad, we were just waiting for our ride to “Zach’s clinic” We kept hearing about Zach’s clinic and “they probably need help up there”. So soon Zach was there to pick us up. Zach is 68 yrs old and has been in Haiti for 21 yrs now. He kept us entertained with telling his testimony and the story of how he came to Haiti. He had been a drug addict for 22 years when God saved him! It was about an hour drive to this clinic on a very rocky road. I think the best way to describe the road is it’s like driving on a dried up riverbed. Rocks jutting out every which way, big deep crevasses. We were on the main road for only a few miles when we turned off onto this “river bed”. Strangest thing was, there are lots of cars driving on this riverbed, up into the mountain. There are shacks and homes, graveyards, even stores (stands with people selling something) all along this “road”. You never seem to drive anywhere in Haiti where there isn’t a lot of people still. You feel like you are going to the wilderness, where there would be no one, but there are still LOT’s of people everywhere. Here we drove the “river bed” for an hour or so and finally come to the clinic. I’m thinking; people come way out here to a clinic? But there are so many people that live on this mountain that they would never get any help or care if there wasn’t a clinic up here. Some have no ability to “get to town”. We often saw 4 people on a motorcycle pass us by. Most homes we passed were about the size of my bedroom or maybe Monica’s bedroom. They have no water. It’s just a big bathroom out side. They carry water and supplies on their heads. Can you imagine carrying a 5-gallon bucket of water on your head!! It’s a common sight here.

So my first question when we got up there was “do people come all the way here to this clinic?” He said we have 38,000 charts here. They generally see about 220 people a day. At one time they were seeing as many as 550 in a day, but had to limit the amount since they didn’t have enough nurses. They charge them $1 for adults. Nothing for children, HIV or feeding days. The $1 covers their visit and all their meds. A Haitian $ is not very much.

Notice I said nurses. They don’t have a Doctor, but nurses run most clinics here.

So tonight after dinner we had to measure out these “mamba” packets. It was these packets of peanut butter flavored stuff that is made for malnourished children. They have a feeding program for kids whose weight and arm measurement is under normal, showing they are not getting enough food. Each night we will squeeze this stuff out of the packets and prepare this mixture so it’s ready for the Nanny’s to feed the kids in the morning.

This place actually has 4 sections: ICU, regular care, Cholera clinic, and the regular clinic. In the regular clinic we will do prenatals and well women care.

Tuesday:

We started our day in the clinic. Monica and other volunteers divided 1000’s of pills in little bags for distribution. They hand out lots of vitamins and medicine. They bring people in the clinic is groups of 50. They teach a little bible study and an educational lesson on health, eating, cleanliness etc. Then everyone gets weighed, BP, pulse etc. If they are malnourished they go on the feeding program, which gives extra food. They often put them on the mamba program. Which means they take these peanut butter type stuff in packets home to supplement their diet. It’s not really peanut butter, but it has that consistency. They can make it into a soup, put it on crackers or eat it straight out of the package.

In the ICU there are the kids you see in the pictures starving. One little girl crying in her crib was 2 yrs old, but looked like she was 1 mo. Most of the kids in the ICU have IVs in. When a child has not had enough protein, the child swells up. Their skin gets taunt and shinny because of the swelling. There was one little girl still in that state, and a few that were on the road to recovery.

The next building over has the regular care clinic where the kids that are getting better stay. They feed everyone 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. They have one hired nanny for each 15 kids. The kids are hungry for attention and this clinic always needs volunteers to come and cuddle with the kids. Every time the children see us they are waving at us or hanging on us. They are not shy but quickly come sit on your lap. They think our white skin is pretty. The whiter the better! LOL

We went to a small market today. No one has tables. They have a blanket they lay on the ground and lay their items around the blanket. A pile of beans or a pile of noodles. Veggies, or clothes. Some people were cooking over open fires. Donkeys everywhere as this is one mode of transportation to market if you didn’t walk.

People were polite and little kids seemed happy to see us. Market

Wednesday:

It’s hard to believe it was just a week since we left home. It seems like we have seen so much, learned so much that in this week seems like a long time.

Today I again went in to help the nurse with women care. She thought I didn’t enjoy working with her since I didn’t come back in the afternoon yesterday. I thought I wasn’t very helpful and she didn’t need me. She said she really liked having a white midwife in her room! LOL

So today I did many prenatals and checked over lots of newborns. Measurements were way off on a couple of ladies. They either are having twins or their dates are off. They do have someone that can come do ultra sounds once a month. I had two breech babies and one lady, as soon as she walked in she had the look that showed she was malnourished. Their head is disproportionate to their body. She weighed 100lbs, being about 6 mo pregnant and obviously needs to eat more. We sent her home with 2 large bags of Mamba. One baby came in all chubby and happy. She smiled at us and let us take her pictures. Come to find out she has been on the feeding program since she was 8 weeks old. Such a difference compared to the malnourished children. They don’t smile, and act lethargic.

There is a lot of STD’s, and infections. The nurse was telling one lady you cannot have many partners, but if you do, come back because we can help you. We saw one baby that had Malaria! Thankfully there is a sink in the room and I can wash my hands after ever patient.

Overall the nurse we were helping saw approximately 50 people today. We were all really tired by the end of the day.

Cholera clinic:

We were told in the morning that if we wanted to see the cholera clinic we could go at 4 pm. I said is there room in the car for all of us? She said yes so I thought, great I want to go see it. I heard there are 35 cases up there right now. I guess there was a couple months when there was none and they thought it was wiped out of Haiti, but that lasted only a couple of months. During the rainy season it’s worse. At one time they had as many as 150 at once.

So 4 pm came and our guide was a Haitian man named Gordon. We were told we should bring some water and I thought that was strange, but I didn’t realize the plan had changed and we were now walking to the clinic. When I hesitated our guide said, “it’s ok, I know a short cut!” LOL

Haitians walk everywhere. One lady in the clinic said walked 4 hours with the baby to get her checked. It wasn’t the new mama, it was an aunt. So does this mean that baby went 8 hours without eating while the aunt brought her in for a check? Or did another nursing mom give the baby a snack? So off we went on a hike, up a mountain!!!! I have never been someone to hike much anyways, let alone in very hot climate. It took us 1 hour to get there, all the young people ahead of me where wondering what was taking me so long!

We got to see up close a lot of Haitian homes and some beautiful views.

Cholera clinic

We finally got to the clinic and took me a while to catch my breath.

There was a locked gate and a guard. You walk in and you have to step on a bleach soaked sponge. The place was spotless clean everywhere. They have long rooms of beds. Only one dorm was filled. IV’s hung everywhere. Mamas and children in the same bed.

We stopped and sang a couple of songs and made them so happy! The smiles were huge!

Cholera is a disease that is very treatable. The problem is from the onset of the sickness you can die within hours from dehydration. So when you find your neighbor who you were talking to just hours before, now lying in the garden passed out, by the time you get him on a motorcycle or get neighbors to carry him on a stretcher to help, many die. They have lost 4 people in the last month that died on the way to the clinic. They usually use about 12-15 liters of IV fluid per person. Sometimes more, and I read one time they used 35 liters on one person to keep him hydrated. That’s over 170 lbs of fluid they put in him through IV’s. The hard part is getting good IV’s in when the person is so dehydrated.

So after they showed us around and answered all our questions, they told us to wash up with soap and water. I’m not sure if the water had bleach in it. Bleach kills cholera, so everything is bleached. Then to our shock they sprayed us all down. We think it was bleach water. They sprayed all our clothes, the bottom of our shoes with a light spray (like a garden sprayer) We were all a little wet when we walked out. Back to hike all the way back! We took the main road back, which was longer, but still took an hour because it down hill part way. It felt like the old saying “up hill both ways!” Lol

Glad we made it back to the clinic, where we were greeted with a lot of happy children reaching up to us wanting to be held.

We are going to miss all the great young people we have met here, Martha and Mary are sisters, planning to stay in Haiti for 6 mo working with a mobile clinic and putting on children’s clubs. Mary has been my translator while doing prenatals. The language here is Creole, close to French. Once in a while I catch a word that sounds like Spanish.

You meet people from all over the US down here. So many missions, it’s a great place for young people to volunteer. If you live in the East it only costs about $200 to fly down here. Nathan (another volunteer) painted cribs all day. Girls sorted clothes, bagged pills, made an educational poster. Held, fed and played with children! Always children to love on.

We were sitting on the porch and the little kids yelled up to us on the second floor, where is Mary? Mary went home we answered. “Where is Monica?” She’s sleeping. Tell Monica to come down” “Please tell Monica to come down” “Please”

Monica with children all trying to get on her lap!

I had another day with the nurse today. She is giving me more jobs now. Giving shots, filling in paper work, bagging pills. I saw so many cute babies today. I check over the baby while the nurse asks the moms all the questions. I speak to the babies in English and they smile so big at me with their big brown eyes.

Friday was a last day at the clinic. It was sad to leave. Monica came in and worked with the nurse and I today. I taught Monica to do blood pressures and she had lots to practice on.

So we are now at the CAM base again for one day and then off to another Mountain clinic tomorrow.

Haiti part 3 March 7th, 2015

We left the CAM base about 9:30 Sat morning. We heard it was a ruff ride to LaSource, but I wasn’t prepared.

First it was about 2 hours on crazy Haitian roads. Like through markets and traffic, with giant trucks getting so close to you that they bump your mirror, (literally) where at times I had to close my eyes because it was so scary! Then when you finally get to an area that you’re not creeping along, they have these giant speed bumps in the middle in the hwy. They are actually called “sleeping policeman” (translated)

So after about 2 hours on those crazy roads we got to the dirt road. Again I would describe it as a dried up river bed, but the funny thing is we crossed 2 dried up river beds while we drove and they seemed a lot smoother then what we were driving on, LOL! The rocks jutting out, the dips and constant bumping up and down. Monica was next to the door and was getting so bruised up by bumping the door that she finally curled up on my lap. Besides being so horribly bumpy, it was windy and up hill, so it was easy to get nauseated too. So you can handle a road like this for 30 min or so, but 3 and half hours of it! We were comparing it to labor! LOL

There were some beautiful views too, as we were driving by the ocean. As we climbed higher their were still huts every so often, but not constant. Children outside waiving. When you finally got to LaSource (pronounced La Susz) you couldn’t tell it was a village except for a covered shelter for a market. The government started to build this shelter for the community and never finished it. When there was a Cholera epidemic a few yrs ago, CAM needed a shelter to make into a Cholera clinic. So they offered to finish the roof and cement work if they could use it. They put blue tarps on the side and used it until the epidemic was under control. Now the community has a nice place for a market.

There is also a church, school and clinic here ran by CAM. Monica and I will be working in the clinic this week.

We had a nice dinner with the missionary families. They made homemade pizza for us and after dinner the kids all went on a tarantula hunt. Sure enough they came back with one and all the kids were passing it around, letting it walk all over their hands.

One of the families is trying to adopt. They have 2 beautiful little girls. One they were given in December. Her Dad came to the clinic and wanted to give her away. The mom had been gone for a long time. They tried to fix the problems, but in the end this couple is going to adopt her. The only problem is the Haitian government makes it very hard to adopt here. They have strange rules and they change all the time. Like you have to be 30 yrs old and married for 5 yrs. Then they changed it to having to be married for 10 yrs. I hear it ‘s very common for people to ask you to take their babies. They probably want a better life for the children then they have. This little girl, the dad had no idea how old she was. He said,” I remember she was born on a Wed in Sept”. Because of malnutrition it’s very difficult to guess. So she could be anywhere from 5 yrs old to 10 yrs old. She did just loose a tooth, so that gives a little bit of an idea.

This morning we went to the church meeting. There were about 100 people there and Haitians sing nice and loud. Someone translated for us as the Haitian preacher spoke a great sermon on love.

The church building has no screens or glass windows, just open holes. No fans, just wooden benches. One 75 yr old man had come on a donkey. If he had walked it would have been 2.5 hours, but today he had a ride on the donkey.

Church in LaSource

Monday:

Went to sleep last night knowing there was a Gecko in my bedroom. They seem to be afraid of people too, but it’s not very consoling when you hear something moving around in the bedroom with you!

Got our tour of the clinic this morning. It is a very well organized clinic. I like how they spend so much time with each patient.

One little girl today was brought in by her father. The mother died of HIV when the baby was 18 mos old. She did contract HIV from the mother before she died. So the little girl has been on the HIV program getting medication and food. She looked very healthy and happy. They have a 12.5 mile walk to come to the clinic, so they start early in the morning to get there. The nurse said they might have a donkey to help them get there.

The world health organization used to say for the HIV positive moms not to nurse their babies because they can rarely get HIV from the breast milk. But now they realized more babies died without breast milk, as they would be fed unclean water and end up with cholera or malnutrition. So being it’s a small percentage that actually get HIV from breast milk, chances are better for the babies if they continue to get breast milk. Monica sorting pills

I’ll continue soon. Good night for now!

Haiti part 4

Chickens. Goats. Tropical birds. Geckos, wind, the sounds of Haiti. It’s not quite relaxing. If you’ve ever heard the sound a gecko makes it’s slightly unnerving to hear above your head. It’s surprising what a loud noise a little gecko can make. We wake up to all these noises plus loud talking on the trail below our house. Haitian’s walk for miles in the mountains. One trail behind our house and the voices carry in the early morning so clear they sound like they are just out your window.

Today I learned that eating hard-boiled eggs while pregnant will make your baby bald! Or how about when someone yawns it’s because they are hungry! So if a baby is yawning they need food, not just breast milk. You can’t fan mom in labor because you don’t want to cool down the labor. Superstition runs high here! Some are funny like that, but most are not. Many people have more faith in the witch doctor then medical doctors.

They believe a mom that just has had a baby cannot get cold. So even though the temperatures are very high here (humid and hot 90’s) the mom doesn’t leave the house for 2 weeks. She stays covered up, wearing pants under her skirt, blankets etc. Since the baby still needs to get a check up, someone else brings the baby to the clinic. The walk can be 2-4 hours long and so by the time they get to the clinic with the baby, wait their turn (which they always put the babies first for this reason) then walk back home, that poor baby has gone a full day without eating.

Today we saw a mom with a possible placenta abruption. She came in carried on a stretcher type bed. (There were actually 4 people that came on their beds today) Their family or friends put sticks in the ends of the bed and one person on each corner carry the person in the bed to the clinic. I can’t imagine. We have a half-mile hike from the house to the clinic each day. I get out of breath and have to stop and catch my breath. That’s just the start of their walk. They hike way past our place up over the mountain. Can’t imagine carrying a bed with a person in it for miles on mountain trails!

As I was listening to one little boy’s heart I noticed it was skipping a beat. She said there is nothing that can be done here to get it checked further. We saw a women today, the mother of 12 children. She had fallen off her donkey a month ago. She must have had spinal injury because she lost feeling in her arms and legs. Things like this cannot be repaired down here. We also saw a boy with a hydrocephaly. They had seen him at 3 months and didn’t notice anything unusual, but at 7 months his head was obviously large and they asked them to come back. The nurse was going to research to find out where to send them. But they never came back till now. Now he is over a yr or more and his head is 57 cms. There is so little they can do in some cases, but on the other hand, they do so much. Lives are being helped and changed because of their work here. So many children nice healthy weights because of feeding programs. Giving protein powder or Mamba packets to pregnant women to prevent the myriads of problems. Although there are goats everywhere here, they don’t milk them. Dairy products are not something they use much of. So the Protein powder they just generally eat out of the container straight!

People in the US make these Layette kits. They are a light blanket, cloth diapers, onesies, and a sleeper, diaper pins, plastic pants etc. The parents can have one of these kits if they get a birth certificate for their baby. The birth certificate will help the child be able to go to school. The parents are so excited to get a kit. Often the parents don’t have any diapers for the babies. Sometimes they use a towel, but most often they don’t have any diaper on the baby. One mom during the babies check got her whole skirt wet, as the baby had no diaper on. So diapers and clothes aren’t just another outfit, but a basic necessity they don’t have. We also give out birth kits. A birth kit is a piece of gauze, a new razor blade, 2 pieces of heavy string, This is because so many infections were taking place because of cutting the cord with something dirty. So it’s a very basic kit, but it has prevented so many infections.

So this is the end of our trip to Haiti. God sure did have other plans then delivering one baby. Instead he gave Monica and I a love for mission work, a love for Haiti, the joy of helping in a clinic and getting to watch as desperate lives were being helped. He gave me a different view on our life style and what’s important. I know I’m going to go through culture shock when I arrive in America. I know it will be harder to have 4 wheeler conversations with James, or hear how someone wants a new phone, going back to my busy, busy lists and phone calls. I’m not sure how to balance our busy life styles with what is truly important. God has given me much to think about. It’s been a life changing 3 weeks!