To recap my day yesterday. I spent an our or so in the morning playing with the one year olds upstairs. Then, we had three pastor's and a woman come visit. We showed them around and explained what we do here at FHL. Then, I spent the rest of the morning playing downstairs with the two and three year olds. We had a great time! I had them all up running, playing, and singing.
Around 11 AM, I went with Dorothy to one of the hospitals. We took Se Lucianne and her daughter to get blood work done. Her daughter, Nephtalia, has been sick. Nephtalia had no family and used to live here at FHL. Se Lucianne, a Haitian nanny and amazing Christian woman fell in love with her. Lucianne is not married, but she decided to take Nephtalia to be her daughter and raise her. She got a new birth certificate made for her naming Lucianne as the mother. That is an incredible thing here!! Lucianne is living in poverty herself, but because of her love for God, she took this little girl. Lucianne makes only a few dollars a day. This woman is truly wonderful, and she is clearly a great mother to Nephtalia!
In the evening, all the big kids sat on my bed to watch a movie. They love that! Then, I ended my day by praying and worshiping up on the roof under the stars.
Today, I went with Dorothy to take the boys to school. After dropping them off, we went to the HIV clinic. A Haitian social worker (I didn't even realize they had them) called us to come. She had a boy named Fred with HIV. He is three years old, and Fred's mother lost part of her arm in the quake and has been trying to take care of him. However, his body resisted the typical HIV meds. So, the clinic is trying an alternative treatment. If that also fails, Fred will die. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM! He and his mother came back to the house with us to fill out paperwork. He is now going to be under our care. He is precious!
At lunch time, Dorothy went to pick the boys up at school. She came home with an extra boy! She met with the social worker again, and brought home Christian who is four years old. He also has HIV. So, we are back up to 27 kids in the house! Please pray for Christian and Fred's adjustment to FHL. Christian seemed fine when his papa left. Although that may seem better to the nannies, that is a sign that he does not have a secure attachment to his father. Fred, was pretty distressed for most of the day after his mama left. The nannies were not very understanding with him, and it broke my heart. I heard one of our best nannies say, "Bon travay, Christian. Move travay, Fred." Which basically means "Good job, Christian. Bad job, Fred." They just don't understand how traumatic it is for the little guy. Also, Christian is four years old and Fred is between 2 and 3 years old.
The nannies are great, but they sometimes lack compassion for the kids and can be harsh. Dorothy and I have talked about it before. We think that a lot of that comes from being raised in a harsh place. It goes back to my post on Haiti being a "throw away country". The government treats the citizens harshly and does not provide, so they grow up in a country that is very difficult. In turn the people here learn how to survive rather than thrive. When you are just trying to survive, life is hard and harsh. You don't have compassion for others and you tend not to be very gentle. Being emotional is frowned upon. It is a difficult country, and it is difficult trying to teach the nannies to change their ways.
Other news is that it has been confirmed that there is a cholera outbreak here in Haiti. It is in Saint-Marc, a rural area a couple hours north of Port au Prince. When we went to Gonaives, we actually drove right through Saint-Marc. The latest that I've heard is that over 150 people have died within the past 48 hours and around 1,500 are infected. That is a BIG problem here since there are few hospitals, especially in that rural area. I've heard that the fear is people will travel here in search of a doctor/hospital and possibly spread the cholera. That would be a NIGHTMARE for tent cities with thousands of people. Please pray pray pray! I should add, please do not worry about us. As far as we know, it has not yet hit PAP. If it does, we have plenty of antibiotics, clean water, and rehydration salts at the house. We aren't concerned for ourselves but rather the millions of people here that are not as fortunate as we are.
I wanted to upload more pictures, but this was the only one that would load. Sorry!
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| My girl, Gerdeline, on the porch. |
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