Let's catch up

***Don't scroll down if you can't do blood and guts

I have sat down to write an update several times since Friday and each time something more important came up. The weekend was good. I got to work with the community group in their nursery on Saturday cleaning up and filling sacks where seeds will be planted to grow trees that will eventually be planted in the community. That afternoon we went up to the new land to see the progress of the new Cholera Treatment Center which will open very soon. It was overcast that day, but from the back of the CTC you can see this beautiful landscape and the Caribbean Ocean on the horizon. I love the peace and quiet in that place and look forward to many more evenings watching the sunset from this spot.





We have a kiddo who was burned over the weekend after he pulled a pot of hot cereal on him. Sweet thing is the stinking cutest kid and he is already healing nicely but would you continue to pray for his pain that it would be minimized and that he his wounds would continue to heal.



Saturday night we lost sweet Pearalson who was admitted last week. He had severe kwashiorkor and even though all of his fluid came down, his little body had just been through so much that he was unable to recover.

Sunday was spent taking care of the ICU kiddos and a few cuts that came in, and working on an education project I will share later.

Monday was the day of nasty cuts to be sewn up. First thing was a bad machete cut to the hand that a visiting doctor worked on. This little lady fell down and it her face on some kind of branch or stump. That long skinny piece on the left side of the cut is a vein. She busted through all the way to her gums and it took quite some time to clean out all of the pieces of wood inside the cut.










The day was crazy busy and as we finally sat down to do some work last night, an old lady came in who had fallen at her home. She knocked her head pretty bad and kind of made us worried she was having a stroke. She follows here in the clinic for high blood pressure so we kept her overnight and she was well enough to go home this morning.




And the best news of all is that while I was doing some teaching this morning, Licia came and told me that one of her ladies who works in the RC was in labor and she was going to come over. A few minutes later I saw an uncomfortable pregnant lady heading for the toilet. Let's just say I have learned enough to know that means grab your gloves and follow her. She was already pushing and by the time we got her up on a bed the head was on the perineum and we had a beautiful baby girl just a few minutes later! In true Haitian style she recovered and got up and walked home an hour later. This was baby #51 for me and my first baby as an official Nurse-Midwife.

I walked back up to the house to eat lunch after the baby was born and when I walked past the ICU I saw a woman sitting in a chair with empty arms sobbing. She came to visit her baby and found that her Pearalson had died over the weekend. Such as life is in Haiti, the land of contrasts, that in a moment you are celebrating life and the next you ache for the starving child and his mother who simply couldn't feed him. This doesn't ever get easier. Pray for his sweet Mama who goes to sleep tonight without her baby.

In other news, Trey found a baby chick and adopted it for a day until the owner came looking for it.