you MUST read this .... if you want to
My friend, G., wrote about a recent airplane ride. I loved this story.
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The happenings in Haiti are somewhat bleak feeling this week.
Chikungunya is an utter jerk and we flip in and out of fighting it with courage and feeling like it may never end. It is not linear in any way. Starting and finishing is how we like our illnesses, but this seems to be start, finish, start again. Two steps forward, one step back. It is frustrating to say the least.
Our Noah currently has a worse case of it than his little sisters had earlier in the week. He loves to win, but maybe not at this competition.His fever beats the others, he cannot move, he has been throwing up. It is hard to throw up without moving, but he is even perfecting this. Some (not all) others that had it a week or more ago are facing night fevers and restlessness and sore joints. As if Haiti doesn't make you feel old and tired enough already.
Yesterday Beth asked for a show of hands of those women that had already had "the fever". 80% of the women gathered raised their hands. Maybe Port au Prince will be saturated and finished with (the first finish of)this nonsense soon?
The Maternity Center had a rough Monday with a baby that aspirated meconium, but the rest of the week went by without huge dramas; we all really needed that.(For those that don't know, meconium is shit. Welcome to the world, you inhaled your own poop.Things can only improve from here.)
We have three women due and overdue. We are all hanging out nearby in anticipation of their labors/deliveries.
My niece, Whitney, is in Haiti. She is preparing for her MCAT and is studying when we are not at work at the Maternity Center. She is supposed to motivate me to study for my next test. That's sort of happening. I cannot even explain how fun it is to have her here.
Paige is coming to Haiti next week. There are a handful of folks that are super stressed out by her decision to come. She and I talked at length in Texas when I went to take my skills test (I passed!) and I assured her that she did not need to come to Haiti this summer.
Because this is her home, she was unwilling to to cancel and said it is important to her to come. Her boyfriend (Michael) is coming later in the month to do a five week volunteer job as a driver with Heartline Ministries. She so wants him to see her home and learn about her life here. They are starting to talk marriage and this visit is important to her heart. I don't want her sick of course and realize there is a decent chance she could be ill while she is here.
Thankfully she is second trimester and at a safe place in her pregnancy. I will be slathering her in bug spray and fumigating her room daily. The biggest danger with Chik V. is in very early pregnancy and right at delivery.
If you are one that is wrapped up in concern for Paige, I want to say - THANK YOU for loving her. At its core, your worry is kindness, I know that. Please use your concern to fuel your prayers. She wants to come.
This Mojo (granny)and Tito (grandpapa) will be doing Paige's prenatal care and enjoying the rare chance to get to spend a bunch of weeks with her and our future son-in-law.
(If you missed the news of our first grandbaby, you can go back to this post. It is a boy!)
My friend, G., wrote about a recent airplane ride. I loved this story.
~ ~ ~
When he started back in on non-profits and how they were all money grubbing thieves, I said, You know, I run a group like a non-profit, and we give back 100 percent of what we raise. No overhead. We all work for free.
He raised his eyebrow and didn’t respond for a minute.
He looked out the airplane window. He was remembering something. His tirade stopped. His voice changed a little.
Then he turned back and said, “I haven’t given a penny away for fifteen years. I used to. Every Christmas I used to buy ten turkeys and deliver them to the homeless shelter myself. But I don’t do that anymore. I don’t give anything away anymore.”
What changed? I said.
He looked out the window again and I thought- HERE we go. HERE we go- here comes the real stuff. Here politics die and the person behind them introduces himself.
Scruffy angry man said, “When my daughter was little, we left a candle burning in our house and the whole house burned down. With all of our things. We had nothing. We lived in our car for seven months with our daughter and no one reached out to help us. Not our neighbors, not our families, friends. Not even our church. No one.”
Read the post in its entirety HERE.~ ~ ~
The happenings in Haiti are somewhat bleak feeling this week.
Chikungunya is an utter jerk and we flip in and out of fighting it with courage and feeling like it may never end. It is not linear in any way. Starting and finishing is how we like our illnesses, but this seems to be start, finish, start again. Two steps forward, one step back. It is frustrating to say the least.
Our Noah currently has a worse case of it than his little sisters had earlier in the week. He loves to win, but maybe not at this competition.His fever beats the others, he cannot move, he has been throwing up. It is hard to throw up without moving, but he is even perfecting this. Some (not all) others that had it a week or more ago are facing night fevers and restlessness and sore joints. As if Haiti doesn't make you feel old and tired enough already.
Yesterday Beth asked for a show of hands of those women that had already had "the fever". 80% of the women gathered raised their hands. Maybe Port au Prince will be saturated and finished with (the first finish of)this nonsense soon?
The Maternity Center had a rough Monday with a baby that aspirated meconium, but the rest of the week went by without huge dramas; we all really needed that.(For those that don't know, meconium is shit. Welcome to the world, you inhaled your own poop.Things can only improve from here.)
We have three women due and overdue. We are all hanging out nearby in anticipation of their labors/deliveries.
My niece, Whitney, is in Haiti. She is preparing for her MCAT and is studying when we are not at work at the Maternity Center. She is supposed to motivate me to study for my next test. That's sort of happening. I cannot even explain how fun it is to have her here.
Paige is coming to Haiti next week. There are a handful of folks that are super stressed out by her decision to come. She and I talked at length in Texas when I went to take my skills test (I passed!) and I assured her that she did not need to come to Haiti this summer.
Because this is her home, she was unwilling to to cancel and said it is important to her to come. Her boyfriend (Michael) is coming later in the month to do a five week volunteer job as a driver with Heartline Ministries. She so wants him to see her home and learn about her life here. They are starting to talk marriage and this visit is important to her heart. I don't want her sick of course and realize there is a decent chance she could be ill while she is here.
Thankfully she is second trimester and at a safe place in her pregnancy. I will be slathering her in bug spray and fumigating her room daily. The biggest danger with Chik V. is in very early pregnancy and right at delivery.
If you are one that is wrapped up in concern for Paige, I want to say - THANK YOU for loving her. At its core, your worry is kindness, I know that. Please use your concern to fuel your prayers. She wants to come.
This Mojo (granny)and Tito (grandpapa) will be doing Paige's prenatal care and enjoying the rare chance to get to spend a bunch of weeks with her and our future son-in-law.
(If you missed the news of our first grandbaby, you can go back to this post. It is a boy!)
