the same Haiti

I am here in Haiti and I want to spend the next week or so telling you some stories, but I need you to know something first.

I need you to know why I have kept this gut-wrenchingly personal but deliberately public journal through the years.

I have written for myself as a means to process all that I have experienced. I have tapped out my joys and sorrows on a keyboard just to put them somewhere outside of my heart. I also write for you too, because I think it is important that you know about this place. I write to connect you to the amazing people I get to serve with, to tell you about the atrocious things that happen to the people here in Haiti and to tell you about how I experience God in ways I never have in America. I write to advocate for the Haitian people, because to keep the injustices of everyday life here a secret would be wrong. I hope to be a voice for those whose stories should be heard and I hope you’ll ask questions like why are things like this happening in the world and what can I do about?

But more than anything, I write and share all of this to make most of our God. If all this blog does is make you think “oh those poor people, what a good person she is to go help them” then I will have failed. I invite you to read and engage and be so moved that you must take another look at Jesus. You may know nothing of this person Christians call God, but I hope to show you a glimpse of Him through these beautiful people. That’s really what I need you to know.

So, I’d like to tell you some stories…

It’s been a year and a half since I was last here and some things have changed but most are still the same. The same feelings of excitement I have felt each time I have flown over that crystal blue ocean and landed on this island came flooding back. The sites and the smells and the faces brought so much joy as we drove the same drive out to Cazale I have made dozens of times. There are a few new landmarks, but I still remember each curve of the road to get here. After saying hello and hugging my favorite people I went to get some water upstairs which of course means I have to walk past the ICU kids. And as quick as the excitement had come so it left, and my heart sunk into that deep place I don’t even know exists most days. Twenty or so precious little ones whose bodies fight severe malnutrition, TB and HIV suddenly before me. My eyes are immediately drawn to a small one standing next to the bed of a critically ill teenager here recovering from TB. The teen girl is writhing in pain and wrapped under three blankets in this ninety degree weather. The small one stood and stretched out a small limb and small fingers wrapped around the hand of this teenage girl, as if dying for any human connection. You see the small one is called Nadia and she was brought to the clinic on Tuesday and admitted for severe malnutrition.



    

Her eyes are sad and her solemn face doesn’t begin to tell the story of what is going on in her body. Her thin, fragile hair reveals how long she has been hungry. She is small but her molars give away her age. She is 2 years and 11 months old and weighs 16 lbs. She has 2 sisters and one brother that has died from diarrhea. The day before she was admitted she only had cheese puffs to eat. Her parents brought her to Real Hope for Haiti in faith that she could be healed.

 

I would love for you to pray with us for Nadia, that God would restore her health and she would know how much she is loved. I am so grateful for the nannies in the Rescue Center who love these little ones like their own and I pray for sweet Nadia’s heart while she is here away from her parents. I can’t imagine the sad and scary place she is in right now, nor can I imagine what her parents have experienced leaving their child near death in the hands of other caretakers. She has an awesome appetite and I quickly discovered that she is a sassy little thing, praying that it will help her to fight.

Thanks friends.

Carrying on.

I'm back in the States.

I HATE leaving Haiti. There is never a good time to leave and I am never ready. There are still so many needs and so much to be done. Mackens is fighting hard for his life today and I'm not there.

Thankfully, there are some who have committed their life to this. Licia will fight alongside Mackens today. The rest of the staff will continue to fight everyday for their community in the clinic, the Rescue Center, the Cholera House, the Community Group, School Sponsorhips and more. From here we can join them in prayer and spirit. We can advocate for the poor and we can give our time and our resources so they may carry on. Let's carry on.

I'll leave you with this video I was unable to upload while in Haiti. This is about an hour after Jesula was born. Such a sweet sweet memory!

Untitled from Caroline Tigner on Vimeo.

And now back to my regularly scheduled un-blogworthy life. Until the next trip, y'all....

Sunday Sewing

Yanick has the education of a 4th grader. And she can suture like a boss.


*heel caught in the chain of a motor cycle

critical kids, critical prayers.

WARNING: I don't have password protection capability on this blog, so I am telling you right now if you don't want to see a severe burn, please stop reading, move your mouse to the X box in the corner of this page and resume your normal web surfing activities....

Last week Licia and I were talking about how God has been so good to us because things have generally calmed down since Lori and all of the other volunteers left. We have had fewer patients and more help in the cholera house and virtually no critical kids. It was a blessing to have so many extra hands when we had lots and lots of sick kids a few weeks ago. Now don't get me wrong, God is still just as good to us as He was last week but we now have several very sick kids who require lots and lots of care. I am writing about them today to ask you to get on your knees on their behalf.

We have had several bad days with Macken, he won't eat anything and wouldn't drink anything at all so I (painstakingly) decided to put an NG tube in. He HATED it and he hated me for putting it in. I wanted to try and get some calories in and get his Kwash down and not let his sugar drop. Instead, he puked violently and could not get used to having the tube in. He got super dehydrated and I had to put an IV in his scalp because his limbs are so swollen from the Kwash. I took the tube out yesterday morning and he has done a little bit better, keeping down some liquids. He has also had high fevers off and on. Please pray specifically that Macken will start to eat.

He's kinda cute, huh?



This is Rose Marie. She is a 7 month old who was in the Rescue Center and then got cholera 3 weeks ago. She recovered from the cholera and was back down in the RC, but got really sick on Thursday. We are really not sure what is going on with her except for high fevers and severe respiratory distress. She is on oxygen and is not doing well at all, I was really shocked she made it through the night last night. Please pray for that her fevers would stay down and her lungs wouldn't have to work so hard. Also, those are frozen water bottles next to her, to keep her temp down.



Ludes was being treated at the cholera house and came down with something last weekend and is very very sick. He has had severe seizures and has basically been in a coma for the last week. His Mama and Papa have been close by his side all week. We are working with Dr. Jen on a plan for his care so will you pray for wisdom for us and pray that he would respond quickly to treatment.



This little girl came to us on Thursday night. She lives very very far away and traveled 17 hours by foot, tap tap and moto with her mom and aunt to come see us. 6 Days before she was in her house and her older brother was playing with matches. He burned his finger on a match and threw it out of his hand. She was laying on the ground with her little sister on her stomach and the match landed on top of them. She threw her sister off and her dress caught on fire, she jumped up and tried to put it out with her hands. Her mom came running in and threw water on her but not until a large portion of her trunk had been burned. They tried to treat it with some homemade medication up in the mountains but heard about a place in Cazale that helps children who have been burned and decided to head our way. Praise God they did! This burn is very severe and is showing some signs of infection so we are getting her covered and will be glad to have Dr. Jen here next week to get us going on a long term plan for her. She is really doing fantastic considering and has the sweetest spirit. When she told us the story of what happened, she said "I saved my sister, you see she is so little she would have died. God chose me to burn and that is okay." Please pray for her recovery, pray for her pain to stay minimal and pray for no complications in her treatment.

The first night she came in.



After her second dressing change. You can bet I wouldn't have a smile on my face.

one day last week when things had calmed down we went for a walk.















I love being out here in the mountains where the people live such beautiful, organic lives.

Macken

I hate Kwashiorkor. I hate malnutrition and I hate the poverty that causes it.

Macken and his Papa came to the clinic today. Macken lives with his Papa, his parents are no longer together and Mamma has moved on. He was seen back in March in the clinic and had mild Kwash in his feet so as procedure goes, his Papa was given all the education about what to feed him and how to care for him. He was told to feed him foods high in protein, eggs, beans, peanut butter etc. He went home and he did what the nurse asked and Macken got better for a little while. In the last few weeks his Kwash got really bad and Papa tried some herbal medicines and then took him to see the voodoo doctor. The doctor gave him no answers so he carried Macken down from the mountains to his Mama, who declared that she didn't care what happened to Macken, she is now pregnant with another man's baby and doesn't want anything to do with him. Papa told us he brought him to Real Hope for Haiti today to "see what God could do."







Macken is adorable and my heart aches for all of the pain he is going through. His arms and legs are so incredibly swollen and have open sores in many places. He was totally distraught when his Papa left today and kept walking around the clinic looking for him. I had to stop letting him walk in real fear that his feet were going to bust open.

Please, please pray with me tonight for little Macken. Pray for his little organs to recover from this severe disease. Please pray for his little heart, that he would know how much his Papa and all of us who are caring for him love him. Pray for his Papa, that his heart would be moved to know God more through this. And I'm going to pray to our big God who can do big things that his Mama would have a heart change.

Fabienne