tractor accidents and machete fights...

okay...so this is going to be a long blog, i can tell you that right now! Hmm…how do I even begin to start… yesterday was quite the eventful day around here to say the least and I ended up getting to experience the renown Albert Schwietzer Hospital. I guess I’ll start by explaining some of the culture here. I don’t want to be presumptuous since I’ve only been here for a month & a half, but to preface the story, I’ll just say that anything going on draws a crowd. There are many people who just seem to stand around on the streets all day, so i guess it gives them some entertainment. Well, in the process of mixing the cement for the new school, much water is needed. So, the boys have been driving the tractor through town to the local spring (where people bathe, do laundry, swim, you name it…) and gather water in large barrels and then drive it back to the school ground. Everytime they leave, a crowd of people from town follow them and watch. So yesterday at La Suse (the name of the spring, and I have no idea how it’s really spelled) the boys did what they always do. They shut the tractor off, got off and started filling the barrels by hand. Well, yesterday while they were filling the buckets, apparently a person from town reached into the tractor and messed with the switch that operates raising and lowering the bucket and the bucket fell onto a little 9 year old boy’s feet. This was the story I got when they brought him to the clinic anyway. Of course, I only got bits and pieces that I could actually understand in Creole. So, they called me over to the clinic and I unwrapped the shirt that was around his feet and instantly knew we had to get him to the hospital. Working in the NICU I’m not really used to seeing traumatic injuries, etc. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that I could actually see his bones in his feet. So I wrapped them tightly with gauze to provide pressure for the bleeding and we got him to the hospital here in Dessalines where they said that we needed to drive him to the Albert Schwietzer hospital in Des Chappel. So two hours later we arrived there. They debrieded his feet last night and are determining today if they need to do a skin graft or what they will do. They are planning to keep him there for at least 3 days. Oh yeah, and we got home around 9pm... and let me tell you that riding down haitian roads in a rickety old van, after dark, and in the pouring rain is an interesting experience in and of itself!!

That’s the basic story, but so many interesting details happened along the way. First of all, I described the crowd that gathers around anything out of the ordinary. It drove me crazy yesterday while we had him in the clinic b/c everybody “and their brother” from town were hovering around to watch. Then this one lady comes in and starts screaming, of course, I assume it’s his mom. She’s yelling and trying to grab the kid, he’s bawling, a couple of the people that work at EGO were trying to calm her down, while i was trying to calm him. Finally the van comes and she picks him up and climbs into the van. Well, apparently she wasn’t even his mom or any relation b/c his mom shows up then and the two women are fighting over who is going to take him to the hospital. Meanwhile, the poor little guy is getting pulled in every direction, crying b/c of his feet, etc. So, I reached around from the front seat and carried him/pulled him up onto my lap while the 2 ladies went at it. Finally the women stopped fighting and the mom came with and the other got out. So, we get to the hospital and I went in with him (i'm not sure where his mom went) and while they were giving him shots for pain and antibiotics he was crying. I leaned down close to his face to talk quietly to him, telling him that it was going to be alright and he was a good boy, and he reached up and wrapped his free arm around my neck and just started hugging me. It just about broke my heart. I can still hear his ‘little boy voice’ crying and asking me something that I couldn’t understand… I just kept saying in Creole, "Ou Cone, Jezi renme ou anpil, anpil, anpil?" Which is, "Do you know that Jesus loves you so, so, much?"

When we got to the A.S. Hospital, we stood around for a while waiting amongst many sick people(although they did give us an empty bed for Rickelson, so no one had to stand holding him). We saw a ‘white girl’ walk through and the two people from the orphanage told me to talk to her and see if we could get help. Her name was Marianne and she was a nurse educator from Switzerland. She was very sweet and gave me her phone number in case I needed her to translate anything for me. Anyway, apparently she went and found a doctor for us and that got the ball rolling. Don said today that usually Americans get waited on right away. It doesn’t seem right, and I'm sure it’s probably “money related”, but ultimately & selfishly, I was glad for Rickelson’s sake and ours that we didn't have to wait around any longer for him to be seen.

Another funny story from yesterday… actually not humerous at all, but to give you a little glimpse of the difference here… apparently, 2 men from town had been working on the school. One loaned the other one of his gloves, and when he asked for it back they started to fight, which of course drew a large crowd. Fights probably aren’t that different here, but the weapons these guys used were! One had a machete and the other had 2 large rocks! Crazy! Anyway, apparently the issue was solved without anyone drawing blood! Thank you, God! I can't begin to imagine the wounds they would've inflicted with those weapons!

Anyway, tomorrow, I'm heading to P.A.P. with the team. We are going to try to get up to the Haiti Baptist Mission, which is apparently absolutely beautiful. I'm excited to get to go along! Then the team flies out friday morning. It'll be pretty quiet (and probably a little lonely!) at the guesthouse without them! It's been fun to have them here!

second series of pics...

i thought this was a beautiful shot from the fort...

the top of the school (taken from the walk to the fort)...

a sweet shot of EGO...

Marco...what can i say? he's so precious.... (this pic is for you, sherrie!)

this is one of my favorite pics of some of the kids so far... it captures their personalities perfectly!

you can't see it well in this picture, but dennison has an upside-down smiley-face sticker on his forehead!

some random pics...

some beautiful kids calling, "blanc, blanc!" for me to take their picture...


the road between the orphanage & the school...

Abraham is starting to "talk" and smile more!

a 'market day' scene on the road from port-au-prince...

not the greatest quality b/c it was taken out of the toyota window, but i thought it was beautiful nonetheless...

happy post-memorial day!

Jon S. teaching one of the guys how to use one of the finishing tools... (do i sound like i know what i'm talking about?!)


the bucket brigade...

the guys on the roof (don is in the red shirt)...

the whole production...

hi! so, a friend wrote me yesterday and mentioned her disappointment at having to work a holiday and for the life of me i couldn't think of what holiday it was! i usually look forward to memorial day and this year it completely slipped by me! haiti seems to have a funny way of doing that, time seems different here somehow... in some ways i can't believe that i only have a month left here, in other ways i can't believe that i've only been here for a month & a half! it seems like i've been here forever!

the guys have been working on pouring cement at the school yesterday and today... it's quite the production to say the least! people on the ground shoveling and carrying buckets of rocks, some shoveling sand, some dumping the concoction into the cement mixer, some gathering up the cement into buckets, then there's the "bucket brigade" that pass the bucket of cement up the ladder and those who send the empty buckets back down via a rope... it's interesting to watch! our american guys are up on top of the building with trowels & various "machines" doing their thing... obviously i'm not a knowledgeable concrete girl! anyway, it's hard work... blisters, sunburns, the intense sun/heat, etc.

sunday i got the opportunity to sing a couple songs in creole with 2 girls (ti-rose & ketla) for church... we sang 2 in creole and then one in english, it was fun to get to participate and i love harmony, so that was great too! talante, the nurse i work with in the clinic, said that if she hadn't seen me she would've thought it was a haitian singing! i'm not sure if she was being serious or just trying to encourage me, but it was sweet regardless! :)

i'm going to try to post some more pics later... we hiked up to the closest fort (there are 4 or 5 total) on sunday afternoon. it was beautiful! then we walked down one of the roads out of town toward the rice fields. at one point we had to jump a little creek, and me in my usual coordinated way ended up practically sitting down in the mud after jumping across... the kids thought it was pretty funny as i walked back into EGO with mud covering the back of my skirt! good times... anyway, it was a fun day!

hi all! just wanted to send out a quick update! we made it back from p.a.p. with the american team and doris made it safely to florida. she is heading to the doctor today... we're all anxious to hear the diagnosis.

the american team is great! it's been a lot of fun already! the only girl on the team is 23 and is such a sweetheart! and it's been fun having another girl that i can talk to in english! :) although, i have to say that today one of my favorite memories of the trip happened! while the team is here, some of the older girls that work here (most of them are around my age) are cooking for them every night. so i just went over to the guesthouse and it was like a crazy party going on! tons of laughter and singing, we were all joking around and having a great time and the language wasn't even a barrier! it really struck me how much i've missed 'comraderie' since i've been here!

anyway, i'll post more later! thanks for the continued encouragement and postings and e-mails, it means so much to me to hear from all of you!
love, jill

so, i can't write long but wanted to update b/4 i go into port tomorrow b/c i don't know if i'll be able to for a couple days. we're going in to pick up the american team! the bad news is that doris has injured her leg and so now will be traveling with us so she can catch a flight into florida... she's been in extreme pain all day, so she needs to have an MRI or scope of her knee in the states. she will be traveling to port with us tomorrow and then flying to florida on thursday. so, as of right now it looks like i will be here without her for the rest of my time here. if you had told me that last week i probably would have freaked out, but i guess God has prepared my heart, b/c although i will miss her dearly (i love her so much!), i'm really not nervous about being here without her. just a little sad! but i know that she needs to go and i'm glad that i will be here to help out with stuff in her absence. i guess it's pretty cool that our omniscient (i think that's how it's spelled!) God knew in advance that this was going to happen and maybe that's partly why i'm here...only He knows, I guess! it's also amazing b/c the nurse that was on maternity leave is now back, so i will still have help in the clinic. she is great at what she does and is a great teacher as well! i know i'll learn a lot from her!

anyway, i'd better get going... still have lots to do b/4 leaving at 5am! thank you for praying!
love, jill

hello all!

so, this morning i got to help doris do stitches for the first time! we were going to stitch up Peter's head a few weeks ago, but took him to the hospital instead because it was so deep. so this was the actual first time... one of the boys came in yesterday to have his thumb cleaned and bandaged b/c he cut it while he was out working, then today he came up to the porch holding a towel around the same hand. apparently he was cutting something in the shop and he cut his hand! it was pretty deep, so i called doris up and i held while she stitched. she offered to let me try, but i told her i'd rather watch her do it this time! :) call me a chicken if you will, but his hand was so callused i don't know how she got the needle through it! it was a challenge... poor kid! we did insert some lidocaine under his skin to help numb it, but according to his reaction it didn't help much!

well, apparently we are heading into the 'rainy season' here in haiti, so it's been raining most afternoons/evenings which i have to say has been amazing!! but then, i've always loved a good storm! :) it brings in wonderful cool air which makes sleeping much more enjoyable! usually i stay indoors while it's raining, but yesterday i decided to venture out to deliver the evening medications before the rain came and i didn't quite make it in time! i was in the girl's dorm when it hit and rachelle lent me her umbrella to head over to the baby dorm. i gave out the rest of the meds and decided to stay & play with the little ones for a while under the cover of the porch. then i saw a couple of the guys carrying my drinking water thermos over to the guesthouse for me and they needed me to unlock the gate. so, i headed over and the sky just opened up and poured! it was hillarious! i ended up getting drenched, but i couldn't stop smiling! it seems like a few other people enjoy the rain just as much, one lady came running into the baby dorm sopping wet with the biggest grin on her face, she looked like a little kid! and apparently the boys like to play soccer while it's raining, so they were all out in the field playing! so, on my way back from the guesthouse to don & doris's i decided to just forego the umbrella (which by that point was pretty much pointless anyway) and just enjoy being soaked! :)