Saturday March 21, 2009

The last week has been pretty busy with the medical team in here. Mary, Diana and Alicia have been all over the place helping people and it's been fun to help a little. Mary is a doctor from West Virginia, Diana is a nurse and Alicia is her daughter. They came in last Friday, and Saturday they went out into the local community of McDonal to see patients, including some very sick kids and a man who died 2-3 days later of liver failure. We found Peterson during this trip, and his story is the previous post. Sunday was mission meeting, Monday was more clinic in Mountrois, Tuesday was working at a church very near City Soleil, Wednesday/Thursday was in mountain villages. Friday they came to school for awhile to see the kids and then did a small amount of shopping in the local market, and today Mary and Alicia went back to the States. Diana is staying another week, then she and Caroline will leave together to go back.

Seeing people in so many sites is very taxing for the team, it involves travel on very bad roads, in some cases a few hours of walking to get where they are going, once the road ends. They did great. I was not in on all of it, as school is still in session so SOMEBODY has to actually teach some! It is amazing what you see though. So many people have such advanced cases of things that in the States would have been caught very early and not been any kind of big deal. One poor man has a...something...growing out of his neck. He can't talk and probably will die from it unless he gets help. Dr. Mary didn't know what it was, but she took pictures and will consult as soon as she is back to see if other doc's can identify it for treatment. It very well may be a very treatable form of something that just didn't get treated.

Next week Diana, myself and Delson, the interpreter, will go up a mountain for an overnight stay at a village. This is apparently very remote and they almost never get visitors, let alone medical care. Diana will do what she can with the medicine she has. It makes me want to have a billion dollars or so to set up medical clinics all over the place, not just Haiti. Poor people...I mean, really poor people, have so little access to what we take for granted in the States. There is no grocery store down the street; there is no clinic or doctor office or emergency room available, and even if there was, likely no road going to it. I have come to know that the US is not the norm, it is by far the exception. The rest of the world does NOT live like we do, which is why so many want to come to the US. We've done such a poor job with the riches God has entrusted us with, think what kind of very comfortable lives we could have had without the greed and laziness, and what we could have done for the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong, I love being an American, but part of it is being able to look in the mirror and see where we've messed up. The US has done more for others than anyone...but we could have done so much more. Seems like a heart issue.....again. Time is flying, school ends in 10 weeks, I can't believe it. Ten weeks from today I will be packing for a trip home for summer. Maybe I'll even have my taxes in by then. :(

There is so much to say and I just don't have the words for it all. I can't explain the times when I just want to scream...and those times when you find a Peterson and know why you're here. I hope this blog has helped someone have a better understanding of Haiti, missions, and more importantly, themselves. It's our hearts that have to change, we have to begin with ourselves and change that small part of the world. Some others will follow, most won't, but it's the call we all have.

Djebenis tout moun