2 weeks left...

so, i've only got 2 weeks left here at EGO... i leave for port-au-prince 2 weeks from monday... nothing really new to write about so i thought i'd upload some photos...



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i love this picture of little carla! she was so excited to get her rice... she kept following the worker around clapping her chubby little hands in glee until she set finally set the bowl on the table!


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this is me & anne carvel taken after church today... she has a twin brother named kevens who also lives here!

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i absolutely LOVE this picture of dahanna & marco looking up at me! so precious!

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this is Rikelson, the kid from the tractor accident, sitting in the clinic after i'd changed his bandages the other morning... he wouldn't smile for the picture and then his mom said something to him and he started laughing! i love it! he's a great kid!

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this is a pic of me and ketla from a few weeks ago... when the team was here she helped out with cooking the dinner meal and cleaning up afterward, so she spent most evenings in the guesthouse.

chillin' in the sun...longing for ice cream!

Hi all! Things have been going okay here at E.G.O. This past Sunday as children were celebrated world-wide, we celebrated our own here! “Bonne Fete, TiMoun!” A bunch of tables were moved under a big tree and some of the women spent all morning preparing a delicious meal for everyone! It included some special treats from a donor organization that the children especially enjoyed; Pringles potato crisps and Oreo cookies!

Yesterday, I was really struggling with physical and emotional exhaustion… Sometimes I don’t know how Don and Doris continue to do it! Anyway, I decided to just take the afternoon and spend by myself reading and praying and just being quiet! I sometimes feel ‘guilty’ taking time away because I don’t want to waste my time here, but I guess Jesus gave us the example of isolated time alone to pray, so I shouldn’t feel guilty for doing the same! Anyway, in the evening, feeling much better, I came back over to Don and Doris’s to make dinner. The kids must've seen me coming, b/c a huge group of them came up wanting medicine for one ailment or another! Their antics made me smile though, especially when a little toddler, Carla, came wandering up holding her hand out for medicine like the big kids!

We all really miss Doris! She’s still in the states for therapy on her leg and it sounds like she is making some good strides in walking on her own again. She has been busy there with therapy as well as coordinating everything for the little girl with the tumor to come to the U.S. for surgery. She and her mom and E.G.O.’s director, Ruben, are in Port-au-Prince currently trying to get emergency medical VISA’s, etc. It can be a long and frustrating process to get everything coordinated here in Haiti.

Rikelson, the 9 year old from town, still comes to the clinic every other day for me to clean and bandage his feet. I actually look forward to his coming! His mom brings him in, carrying him on her back, and they are both so jovial! His mom told me that he ‘loves me’! That made me feel good considering what i do causes him pain everytime he sees me!

Don took me on a tour of Dessalines the other day… even took me by the Nazarene Church in town (since my dad is a Nazarene minister) so I could see it. We drove past the prison, the hotel and stopped in for a “tour” of the town’s bakery! “Tour” is kind of a humorous word to use considering it’s a small room (probably smaller than most of your kitchens!) with a huge wood stove in the middle. The owner was kneading huge amounts of dough preparing for the next morning. One of the other workers there kept asking Don for food, saying he was hungry, all the while chowing on a juicy, ripe mango! That seems to be somewhat typical in some areas! Kind of makes me laugh!

Anyway, nothing else out of the E.G.O. norm is really going on for me to write about, so I’ll end here! Hope you are all doing well! I still love being here, but have to admit, I’m getting excited to see everyone at home again too! That, and enjoying a big bowl of ice cream!!

more photos...

i think this is one of my favorite shots so far, it will always remind me of haiti... we went for a walk a couple sundays ago and these kids passed us on the road...

this is a picture of Rikelson, the little boy in the tractor accident, getting x-rays at the albert schweitzer hospital. he spent about a week there. they performed a skin graft on his right foot. he's now home and comes to the E.G.O. clinic every morning for me to clean the wounds and change his dressings... the risk of infection makes me so nervous here...

this is my friend & abraham's other "mom", Rachelle! i've written some things about her previously and my mom thought from some comments that i'd made that she was only 12 years old. so, just in case anyone else is under the same assumption, allow me to clear the record! she's actually 34! she's wonderful, kids & adults alike all love her! :)

this is my girl, dahanna! she's such a sweetie, but got a lot of spunk as well! here she's all dressed up for church with ribbons in her hair!

my bilingual little guy, Abraham! rachelle and i laugh that he's going to be able to speak both english & creole fluently since his american & haitian moms are speaking to him in different languages! he's smiling a lot and starting to "talk" to me, he's gotten so much more interactive these days! it's going to make it harder to leave him in a few weeks...


here's a pic of wadson & john sony getting the rat out of the bathroom window for me with a rag & a broom handle... interesting tactics, but it worked!

this is jack & jeanne (from FOHO in port-au-prince) at Chez Woo, the chinese restaurant they took me to for my birthday! it was beautiful & clean & the food was delicious!

a picture of jon & steve riding in the back of the pick-up on the way to the airport! i thought it was kind of a fun pic and pretty typical travel, Haitian-style!

this is a picture at the haiti baptist mission! wish my camera could've done it justice... it was kind of a hazy day, but absolutely beautiful!

BONJOUR! It’s been a while since I’ve written… to catch everyone up to speed, I was inadvertently stuck in Port-au-Prince for 6 & ½ days! (I got home to E.G.O. last night around 6pm). Last Thursday we brought the American team down from E.G.O. to Port-au-Prince. In the afternoon we headed up the mountain to the Haiti Baptist Mission for a little excursion. Well, about half way up the mountain the transmission went out on the van (again, not an auto-savy girl… “went out” is the best description I can come up with!). Anyway, they ended up having the van towed up to the mission to work on it. So, 7 days later and the van is still in Port waiting to be fixed… after 6 days there I was ready to come back to E.G.O., but it really was a nice “vacation” staying at the FOHO mission in Port. The missionaries there, Jack & Pastor Jeanne, are wonderful and I enjoyed getting to spend some time with them! They took me to a Chinese restaurant for my birthday, which was actually an amazing place! I thought a Chinese restaurant in Haiti might be a little on the ‘sketchy’ side, but it was beautiful and clean and the food was great! With the calming atmosphere, I almost forgot I was in Haiti for while! I also went to a church in Port with them on Sunday and Pastor Jeanne preached the message via a translator. That was the first sermon I’ve heard in English since I’ve been here and it was great being able to understand! Pastor Jeanne was speaking in Creole at the beginning of the message and she introduced her husband and me. She had me stand up and told them that I was a nurse, etc. Well, apparently, the word “nurse” in French/Creole sounds similar to the word for “smoking a cigarette” and she got a little confused! She quickly realized what she’d said and explained, and everyone got a laugh out of it!

It was good to get back “home” to E.G.O. last night though! It was so good seeing the kids again, even after just a week away… I know it’s going to be hard leaving them at the end of the month. I don’t know if I’ve talked about my new friend, Rachelle, or not. She & her brother (Ruben) & sister (Ruth) [they’re triplets] were some of the first orphans with Don & Doris. Anyway, she speaks enough English that we’ve been able to get to know each other a bit. She’s great! She always has a smile on her face and is laughing about something! I think the term “jovial” describes her well! Anyway, she gave me a birthday gift when I got home last night. She’d copied a book on learning Creole for me and also gave me a tablecloth & set of napkins that another of the girls had made! it’s beautiful!! I’ll try to post a picture of that later too (aunt gwen-- miraleine made it, so I’m sure you’ll want to see it!).

Interestingly enough, the spiders, bugs & small woodland creatures seemed to be somewhat rare findings in the guesthouse while the team was there, but apparently they are back… woo-hoo! This morning I wandered into the bathroom and on the floor was a big cockroach (they call them ‘palmetto bugs’ in florida…practically sounds sweet, doesn’t it? Ugh.), then I looked up above the door only to discover 2 beady-little eyes staring back at me… There are rat traps set everywhere in there, but apparently the Haitian rats are more intelligent than the American variety b/c the peanut butter is eaten off of all the traps without any other evidence of their visit… well, either that or the ants got it first! J anyway, 2 of the older boys came over, caught and ‘disposed’ of the rat for me! Of course I had to get a picture with them & the rat, I’m sure they think I’m insane… but, what’s new?!

So, we got some amazing news while I was in Port!! Dr. Enrique, the doctor who came to visit and work in the clinic a month-ish ago, was able to find a surgeon to perform surgery on Chrislee, the little 2 year old girl from Dessalines with the tumor on her face. So, now the race is on to get passports, VISA’s, plane tickets, etc. for her and her mom! I’m so excited! Wish I could hug Dr. Enrique! J

Alrighty, I’m sure that there’s more I could write, but I’ll try to post again soon! Thanks everyone for everything!! Love, jill