Friday in Haiti and an update

Prayer request from the prayer letter...

Nov. 12, Friday: Today will be our last formal day in clinic. Pray the crowds do not get discouraged and unruly. Help them to understand that the Terre Blanche Clinic of Hope continues to operate daily. Pray they understand this is God’s loving provision for them.

Here is another update from Kevin...I'm so glad he's giving us a glimpse of what he is experiencing. In case you don't know, Lorenzo is a good friend of ours that lived here for a year and has just moved to Peoria, IL. Kevin and Lorenzo signed up to go on this trip together.

Today was a long day. I'm getting pretty good at drawing blood from dehydrated old veins. These people are all so thin and leathery. The really sick kid Lorenzo had came back from the city 4 hours away...they can't operate on him. So he is lying on the floor with his brother and sister. If he has a perforated bowel he will die. Lorenzo was up late with him putting iv lines in and watching him. Lorenzo is amazing. We now have 3 people with cholera. One is old and is so hypotensive she might die tonight. The community is freaking out about cholera. There are riots in the city -pray we can't get through the roads on Saturday and Sunday safely. We had a malaria case today...malaria actually isn't as common as I thought it would be here, chloroquine is everywhere. The medicine here is pretty boring actually, only a few weird cases. We see a lot of trichomonis and chlymidia. No drug overdoses or pathology consults so I'm more of a nurse and pharmacist still, but it's ok.

We have 5 inpatients tonight. One is a 29 week premie. No one knows when she was born. No one knows their birth date here, some know the year, but many don't. About half can read creole and quarter can read French. The baby would be fine in the states but she is too young to latch on and feed. The mom can't figure out the NG tube so no one knows how she will get fed after we leave. Hopefully Pastor Delamy can find a way. Lorenzo will be up all night with her, he won't let people help much and really no one knows half as much as he does so he has to do it all. The other docs are clueless about kids.

I still haven't decided if I will come back here or not. I can be of help to them by expanding the lab and showing them how to do better microscopy, but you never really know if they are getting it. They just smile and nod and say wee miseur when you try to teach them something. Right now I feel more like going to school and doing a surgical residency -that's what we need most right now. Wish I wasn't so old.

It's sad to think that tomorrow (Friday) is our last day, after that these people don't have any options again, until the next team in March.. Saturday we drive half way home, sleep at a place near the beach (the resort looks like a bad motel 6) but apparently it's the best in northern Haiti.

Its hot now and there are lots of mosquitos around. I took my meds, but I hope the bites I have weren't from infected bugs. Tonight I had a scoop of rice, a coke and a potato and it was fine, without working out I don't need many calories. We eat way too much in America. Then I sat at my microscope and cried a bit.

I'm not looking forward to traveling outside the gate Saturday, out past the guards into the cities again. The flights home are never fun but I am ready to come home. With my limited skills I can do more from home now, gathering supplies and books to send with the next team.

Thanks for the prayers. Pray Lorenzo gets some sleep. And pray that the panic in the cities is calmed.