Britt had another chopped off "digit" show up last night. It was late and none of her tools had been sterilized so she scheduled the finger amputation for this morning. Hopefully that did not give the lady the chance to disappear with bone exposed, leaving an exposed bone can cause infection that leads to a lot bigger problems. We're waiting on her to come back.
Britt had been bored in March and April with a major lull of nothing much in the way of exciting or challenging medical cases. She wished out loud that she would be busy once she came home from Florida on May 1. Her wish has been granted. :)
Paige finished her one-page information sheet about the Formula Program. If you asked for it you should have received an email from her last night. Giving a new baby (with no mom) flour-water is very normal here. It took Paige convincing the girls who are taking care of Emmanuel that they should not be giving him straight water OR flour-water. That is just what they do here and they think it is an okay substitute for formula/breast milk.
I recently attended a class at Beth McHouls Women's program. I learned that Haitian women throw away colostrum ... they do not think it should go to the baby. The majority of the class was spent telling the four pregnant ladies that the colostrum is the MOST important thing they could give their new babies. The disbelief on their faces was easy to read. It is very hard to change the way a culture thinks. We often get the feeling that everything being said is going in one ear and out the other. What can you do but keep trying? Haiti has room for 1000's of people solely devoted to health education.
There is a group coming from Michigan in August, they've been here multiple times and are getting the hang of mission work and accomplishing things in Haiti. They're a fun group to have. We've made some friends along the way with this group. Yesterday they wrote to say they want to have a baby-shower for us while they are here. They asked if we would register somewhere. I think there is some rule that baby showers are for first born situations, but I guess they're not all about rules in Michigan. The whole idea opened up a fun evening of looking at registry sites on the Internet and Troy spent the night trying to convince us all that the baby really wants an ice-maker ... ice cold beverages are of great importance to this unborn child. Troy makes a very convincing case.
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Just as an exercise, to teach yourself how important ice is to you... Try not using ice for a week. It works better if it is hot outside. Trust us, you have no idea how much you love ice.
I guess that is it for news ... if you're willing - you could pray that we find a way to get Britt a spot to re-take the June 9 ACT in Florida. Her writing test got messed up somehow and they threw the test out so now in order to apply to her schools she needs to find a way to take it again, of course there are all sorts of reasons and rules why it won't work --- we're just hoping to find a "yes" person that is not difficult for the sake of being difficult.
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Do you know anyone important that works for ACT? Knowing Davis Zachary does not help with ACT in Iowa ... but maybe knowing YOU could help? (She missed the registration deadline and it is supposed to be 60 days between tests but this would be 58 days ... we just need someone to help us by overlooking those two small details.) If your sister works at ACT, email us.
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Off to solve the worlds largest problems,
;) T & T
