Sophia & Samson Update

Sophia and her 20 year old sister Maude came to visit yesterday. She looks great and seems to be gaining weight.



Samson is not doing so well. He injured his eye and now a cyst has formed. Troy has tried to direct him to a few clinics but as is the case often here, he did not get help at the places he went. Please keep him in your prayers. As you can see, he is a big MN Gophers fan now. ;-)

 

Entertaining Video

Three people have sent this link to us. Called "Treadmills Rock - Here it goes again."

Check it out. It must have taken forever to pull off.

We are only seven treadmills short of putting together a similar routine.

Experts Needed

Day three of homeschooling three kids at once, I need help.

Isaac and Hope are not at all at the same level. If I show alphabet cards Isaac can identify 90% of the letters and Hope can identify none, as of now.

Mothers of multiples, help me! Do I seperate them and work with them independently? I don't want Hope getting down on herself when Isaac shows her up.I could see watching Hope today that she was not too thrilled that Isaac knew them all. I don't want to be the cause of her giving up or just letting him answer for her.

Hope is very good at holding her pencil and copying letters. She has Isaac beat in that area. How do I encourage their strengths and help with the weak areas without making the other one feel sad/inadequate.

Email or comment here if you have suggestions or wisdom to share.

They are supposedly three months apart in age, we have always questioned that. Isaac is 11 inches taller than Hope and has always seemed older. They both have little tiny birthmothers so it is hard to know if maybe Isaac is a giant because of his birth-dad. If he is older, we would guess it is by about six months -- not a huge gap.

A Productive Monday

By: Britt, written Monday night.

Last Monday, I posted about it being Medical Madness Monday. This could be called the second installment, but somewhat diminished & without the large lacerations.

The day did not start too well, I woke up last night around 2am. What woke me up, you ask? The heat. I am not one to complain but it had to have been pretty stinkin hot to awaken a normally heavy-sleeper. It has been increasingly hot the last few days. Waking up in your own sweat is not cool.

The second start of my day was much better. I got going on my school by 8:15 and accomplished a lot. The way that the curriculum is set up is in week-long lessons. They give the list of things to be completed in each lesson/(week) but then I do them on my own time. I like that. I think it's good to be forced to practice time-management & planning skills. Plus, then I don't have to read all 29 or 14 or 44 pages in one day. It looks like my life will now consist of reading, reading, and more reading all the while trying to retain the information. I knew college courses consisted of a lot more reading but I guess I will just have to take it one day at a time & not go all OCPD on myself & figure out how many pages that is per day per class and all classes combined. Seriously, I do that.

My dad spent the day building a desk for my room. Right now I'm using a standard school desk, so the new desk will have room for a few books to be laid out and also the computer. Isaac & I painted it this afternoon, in-between seeing patients.

Today, I started a new rule. Upon my mom's suggestion, I've set up a timeline for when I will be seeing patients. If you live in the La Digue area and have a cut or sore or burn, you can come anytime after 3pm. If you attain a new cut or burn before 3 pm and it is something that cannot wait ... you are free to come anytime. Today was the first day of this structure. I really liked it. I didn't have to feel irked about being interrupted from my school stuff because it never happened. And when people did come, I had more time to spend with them. Excellent idea, Mom; you are always right.

In-between painting the desk, we saw a whopping 10 people today. Most of the patients were return-patients. I've had a very constant flow of people whose bandages need to be changed everyday. In America, most of those things could go a few days but bandages fall of because the tape literally melts in the heat and also they get really sweaty & dirty & just fall off. Here's a run-down of who & what came today:

~Mirmose, a LL cook, came saying that she had 'tension' which is what they use to refer to blood pressure. I don't know how to take blood pressure yet (hint hint, Jamie & Sharon) but I felt her pulse and it was faster than normal. I went and got the Where There Is No Doctor: a village medical guide and looked up the symptoms for heat exhaustion. Turns out that she had every symptom. We sent her home & told her to lie down in a cool place with her feet elevated & also to drink salt water. That is what the book said; I'm really glad I have that for a quick resource. It is very hot right now and working in the hot canteen around hot stoves seems to be the perfect setting to get heat exhaustion or heat-related cramps.

~Odnuel, the 14yr old son of a LL employee, came with these sores:

He says they started 15 days ago, but just recently started opening up and leaking pus. There are 5 little sores, and the skin seems to have peeled off around the area. He says they don't hurt or itch. His ankle
is quite swollen. I cleaned the sores out & told him to come back Wednesday.
I really don't know if they're just infected bug bites or something more serious.
Maybe you guys: Drs. Jen, Jamie, Sharon, and Nik have some ideas.



~My 'assistant' (as shown in a previous post) Akim came with a chunk of his fingernail cut off. I've seen a few people with this problem. Ow!



~Keeping with the owie fingernail pattern, Rena came for a dressing change. Below is a picture from yesterday. The finger got crushed when a motorbike fell over on his hand. While I clean it and change the bandage, it does not bleed. But everyday (he first came last Friday) when he returns, the bandage is soaked in blood. Is it normal, (health professional friends), for it to continue to bleed like this? With the other broken-off fingernails that I've seen, it usually bleeds a lot the first day but stops after that.





~Silfana first came on Friday (I am enjoying maintaining my medical log - it makes for an excellent resource). She burned her thumb on a hot pot. (shown below right)

~Titi, the owie eye laceration, came for a bandage change. I will take his sutures out tomorrow. It is healing up very well, even with the less-than-perfect suture job.

~Aida, the heel sutures patient, had her stitches removed today. I took them out sooner than normal because her skin was starting to grow over the sutures. We are trying to allow more air to get to the bigger area where the skin was scraped off, but at the same time not permitting dirt to enter.



~Krispe came for a bandage change, he seemed very discombobulated and was acting just, well, strange. I think he as well might have been suffering from heat exhaustion. I thought he was going to throw up or pass out on me, so I was pretty freaked. I had him sit and brought him water & fruit snacks. This is just confirming for me how hot it really must be, if Haitians are being affected by it, then it must be bad. The remainder of the ulcer is scabbed over (as shown to the left), but I don't want to just let him go. I am afraid that it will open up again. What I really need is compression stockings, but I still need to find/buy/attain a knee-length pair.




Ahhh .... everyone hates this toe. I know, stop posting pictures of it already, right? Well this is Rosius' toe and it is healing up very nicely. The white stuff on the right looks infected, but his toe was kind of wrinkly today, similar to how your fingers get after sitting in the bathtub too long - in his case, wrinkly from sitting in a sweaty bandage too long.
I am actually very pleased with how quickly it is closing up and new skin (the bubbly/wrinkly white stuff) is forming.


Last, but certainly not least is Kamita. She is 5 and is Rosius' daughter. He mentioned something about her last time, so I said I'd like to see 'kisa li gen' (what she has). What she has is a birth defect. Kamita was born with 12 toes and 12 fingers. One of the extra toes was removed at birth. The other one has been giving her problems when she needs to wear closed-toe shoes, mainly for school. Obviously I am not in the business of amputating toes, but I suggested a clinic to go to & that maybe we would be able to help with the operation costs. Rosius is a great guy & exceptionally joyful; he's never asked for anything ... which is rare for return-patients. We'd love to be able to help out his daughter. Please pray that the clinic will be able to do the operation.

Continued

You can see how this might make wearing anything other than sandals
rather painful and difficult.

This is my new desk. The computer will go on the right corner.

Have a great day!

~Britt

Brush Your Teeth and Pray

By Paige-

When I went to America, I bought Bethany Hamilton's book.

So far I think it is awesome. Reading her book has really been making me think deeper about a lot of things. She lost her left arm on Oct. 31 and is still trusting God. She knows that God is with her. She is not angry at God She’s just trusting him.

She talked about the words "what if"

I find my self saying that a lot. But... I know that it is a total waste of my breath. Why waste our breath saying what if?

We should just be just thanking God that He has a plan. That was one of the things that stuck out to me. Again, she says that there WILL be hard times in our lifes, but guess what?? God is ALWAYS with us always helping. Always being our great father.

One of the poems that I really like is the footprint poem. It talks about a man waking with God and seeing his life again. For most of his life he saw Gods footprints walking right by his. When the hard parts of his life came, there was only one set of footprints. The man said... Lord, why did you leave me when I needed you most? God said, that was when I was holding you.

A few nights ago, I was reading Bethany's book in bed but before I went to bed I got a piece of gum. My mom was like “before bed??” “OK but remember to brush you teeth again.”

So then I got to thinking....

If we don’t brush our teeth --- what’s going to happen??

They will get really GROSS!

So, a lot like that, if we don't read our Bibles and pray and stay close to the lord --- what’s going to happen to our lives?? We will have lives full of sin – really gross. And we will stop seeking God.

I do know that we still make mistakes even if we read our Bibles BUT --- If you don't want cavities what do you do.... you brush your teeth every day. Same thing... it you chose to live you live for the Lord and don't want a sinful life.... seek HIM by trying to know him better every day.

Have a good day,
Paige
paigeinhaiti@yahoo.com

Never Alone

Ginny Owens - If You Want Me To





We love this song. For any one going through some dark or difficult thing, (walking through a valley) it speaks directly to the heart.

He never said it would be easy, but He did promise we would not go alone. We hope you like it too.

Happy Labor Day Americans.

Some Photo Favorites - The Sights

Some Photo Favorites - The Family

Some Photo Favorites - The People

Press On

Selah -

Saturday

Quick Rundown of the day-
This morning Troy delivered love bundles with Noah in tow. The rest of us cleaned up, ran on the treadmill and got ready to go for the day. We went to some friends who run a ministry called Clean Water for Haiti. They live on the beach. The kids swam and we ate dinner together. It is fun to get out of LaDigue once in a while, we had a good time. Leslie knows how to cook so the kids were all excited to eat something other than my five item rotation.

Troy takes the camera everywhere and pulls over when he sees something good, that is why there is such a variety of shots already. He took a lot of photos of the beautiful turquoise water, our kids and boats today, maybe later he will put his favorites up.

For this group of photos- The old man up top lives on our road, the second photo is of people getting ready for market, the third photo is of Pastor Rony's daughter.

On the way home tonight we were discussing something that we thought was a "Haitian" quality and I said to Isaac and Hope, "Who in this truck is Haitian?" Noah screamed, "MEEEE!" Isaac said, "Uh, I am "Amiracle" --- He meant American but said " A-Miracle." We assured him that he IS a miracle! God's leading to Haiti brought us Isaac, and Hope and they are indeed miracles. (And Haitian and American.)

Paige has invited her buddy, Kerolin (Caroline) to church tomorrow, we are going to Port for church this week. Kerolin is the girl in the first photo from Friday afternoon, pictured with Paige. They're pretty cute together. Time to put some tired kids to bed. Have a good night.

 

Generous God

From "He's the Boss" at FaithFront Archives:

Matthew 20:1-16a

He said to one of them in reply, “My friend, I am not cheating you…. Are you envious because I am generous?”

We are often at a loss to understand the mysterious ways of God. This gospel, which might sound an awful lot like a government program, is one such instance.

Through His parable, Jesus teaches us that the fundamental task of building up the Kingdom of God is ongoing, which means the Lord isn’t concerned with when someone joins the effort, but that they join the effort.

It is useless to expect God to abide by our perceived rules of justice and fair play, because His generosity and compassion are boundless and far greater than our ability to comprehend.
What we do need to realize, though, is that all of us stand as beggars before God, because everything we have is a free gift of His love and mercy.

So before we look around and start scratching our heads wondering why the Lord is so generous to certain others, we might first want to look at our own lives and consider why God has been so good and generous to us.

Picture Post

 

Britt Hired an Assistant

 

What Did I Tell You?

5:30pm Friday - Who is this guy and what did he do with my sane and normal husband?

We are tailgating long-distance for you Matty. We are speculating that you have a serious case of opening night jitters along with a serious case of Haitian Hapiness.

We expect you to talk to us in some sort of code during the half time interview. Or, skip the code and just give us some love.

Love, Prayers and Congraulations!

From your Haiti fan club, and the weirdo with the camera.

Portraits

 

Hurricane Isaac?

2006 Atlantic Storm Names-

Alberto Beryl Chris Debby Ernesto Florence Gordon Helene Isaac
Joyce Kirk Leslie Michael Nadine Oscar Patty Rafael Sandy Tony
Valerie William

This site says they predict 12 to 15 named storms this year.
Isaac is very likely to make a name for himself.

Isaac and Hope managed to stick with structured "school" time for 2.5 hours. They are both very excited to "be like Paige." The major realization for Ike today happened when he asked, "What number grade is Paige in?" Followed by, "What number grade am I in?" Followed by, "PRE-SCHOOL is NOT a number!" He is bummed out about this news but we'll help him through it. ;-) When I asked if they wanted to work on letters or numbers first, Isaac screamed "NUMBERS" at the exact time Hope said "Letters." It should be a fun fall.

Paige woke up, ate her eggs, got dressed and got busy. She is currently deep into pronouns and thrilled at the variety of ways she can re-write a sentence.

On an unrelated topic, a few have asked why Haitian women have five, seven, ten kids when they cannot provide for them. The answer is complicated. The reasons are many. Cultural norms cannot be underestimated. In the USA people who have five to 12 kids are the freaks. (I say that because it is how society views them, not me.) In Haiti people who have one or two kids are weird and unusual. Cultural norms.

Below is a response from a friend who has lived here many years, just to graze the surface of some of the reasons. I don't post this to cause trouble with anyone, good people disagree on birth-control. I assume we will.

The Catholic church has taught them that birthcontrol is wrong. The Bible teaches children are a blessing. (And they are!) There is status in having as many as possible. If you have 10 maybe 6 will live and 2 will have jobs and take care of you when you are old (insurance). Ignorance, lack of education, lack of understanding how one actually gets pregnant. They also have the ability to give away those they can't raise (give to auntie, grandma, orphanages etc).

I am amazed by large families. (Go Sarah!) I support my friends with 4 - 12 children. But when you cannot raise and feed your children, I think it changes everything. At that point it is time to look closer at the issues and try to figure out a solution.

Kennedy - Missed Opportunity

This post cannot count as installment three because it was a failed attempt. But, on the morning of the first football game of the season for our Brother in law in MN, it seemed fitting. (Homer is for him too - he has a very Homer like quality.)

This Kennedy was a good one. The photo was impossible to take because we were sitting still in traffic. It is a little risky to take a photo in traffic, if the person is mad, you are stuck there to deal with the outcome. Plus, the man who was wearing the shirt kept moving around. Wisdom prevailed, even though a good Kennedy is hard to pass up.

For Matt, our football coaching brother...

The guy's shirt said:

Dance, if it were easy it would be called football.

We love you Matt. Good luck tonight. We are hoping you are not too nervous. Know that we are with you in spirit and we'll will be listening on the internet.

Go Rangers!

Before we officially launch our first day of school, thought you might enjoy these thoughts. We can relate to Ruth's feelings.


Have a good Friday and a great long holiday weekend.