Extremes...

One of the big reasons that Kathleen and I ended up in Haiti was because there was a missionary doctor here that I would be able work with and gain some medical perspective. So Global Partners told me that Dr. Kris works in a clinic but there wasn’t a huge focus on medicine. We still came because God just worked it out and I was just open to any medical experience that I could get. I prayed that God would use whatever or however much medicine I got to see to develop a heart for patients without the distractions of also being in medical school or in residency. Little did I know what I would encounter. Last week and this week the Haitian doctor who is doing his year of service for Haiti has been gone. So Dr. Kris and I have been “on call" for anything exciting and we have had extended clinic hours in the morning. To tell the truth, I have rather enjoyed this! Yes I have had less time with my beautiful wife and less time to study my Kreole (which I need to do still ;) but it has been worth it. Last week I saw a two baby boys be born – one on Thursday and one on Friday. Yesterday I saw a baby girl be born. I have taken a slightly different view with each one from just watching to holding the soon to be mothers hand and telling her to PUSH. All very educational. Kris has been an excellent teacher of telling me what to do and what is going on. Personally after these experiences I am more than happy to be a man!!! These women are amazing. They walk into the clinic ready for action, hop on the table (sometimes in very different positions), clench their teeth, grunt, and get through it with no meds, no running water, and little TLC from the nurses. This just isn’t the most tender or caring culture, they are more focused on survival than comfort. So let’s just say that Kris and I have been busy in the clinic while Kathleen has been doing a great job of supervising the education of the two young minds of Eli and Anna. Besides just seeing a lot of patients I have had the opportunity to see several things I just don’t know if I would have seen in such a short amount of time. I have seen the joyous events of three births with moms and babes surviving, but I have also seen the heartbreaking conversation of telling two women they are HIV positive, one of which was pregnant. Tuesday we told pregnant woman she was HIV positive, we delivered the baby girl after several hours of pushing, and got called back down to the hospital for a motorcycle accident. There was one man with huge lump right below his right eye that we sent to Cap Haitian for an X-ray, another man with a hole in his ear lobe, a bummed knee, and several lacerations that needed stitches, and then there was a baby. The baby that was riding inbetween the men on the motorcycle was sleeping soundly in the mothers arms when we got there and all he had was the tiniest knick on his chin that wasn’t even bleeding! Praise God for protecting the little guy. It was a crazy day! I have learned so much here and am so thankful to all of you reading this for allowing God to work in my life through medicine. I am praying that the loving and caring of people will continue to come into focus over the next seven months. It is great to follow a doctor who is a good/patient teacher and wants me to do more than observe. But nothing can beat how thankful I am for having a wife that helps me to process the experiences we have here in Haiti. Thanks for reading :) Have a great day.

Two babies in two days

It's already the weekend again! This week was a pretty full one. One of the doctors down at the clinic is gone for a few weeks so Chris and Dr. Kris have had their hands full with more patients and time spent down the hill at the hospital and clinic. The big excitement for the week was that Dr. Kris delivered two babies! Chris was able to help and witness the births of two Haitian babies, which was a surprising and interesting experience. Chris said it was really cool...slower than he expected. They both returned to the Thede's house after each time tired and hot! But relieved that the babies were both healthy and the moms were recovering well. So well in fact, that they had both left the clinic within four hours of the birth! Giving birth in Haiti is a bit different than in the states. There is no air conditioning, no hospital gowns, no drugs, and water from a bucket instead of a sink.
We spoke with a Haitian guy this week who kept telling us that God is the only one who can change Haiti. That statement seems to become truer everyday. How can we even start to pray for a whole country? It seems overwhelming. We don't understand the power of prayer, and sometimes don't even know where to start. But we've seen some prayers answered, and know that God is more capable and at work than we can realize. One of the boys we asked for prayer for a few weeks ago, Walfy, came to our house a few weeks ago and told us he didn't have money for a school uniform. It is a national law in Haiti that all kids must have a uniform to go to school, so he was unable to go. We were so torn! We wanted to just give him some cash but knew that it wasn't that simple. If we give one kid money, (or food, or anything for that matter) it becomes tricky really fast, because we will never have enough for everyone. How do we give, then? That is one of the biggest struggles and questions we have faced here. So we prayed, and no more than a few days later, Walfy came to our door with his uniform on! We have no idea how he was able to get it, but it was exciting. God is capable of changing a whole country, but cares enough to give one little guy a uniform, such a cool God we serve.
It's been another good weekend. We went on an evening hike yesterday and were amazed again at how beautiful Haiti is! This was one of our favorite pictures from the hike. Friday night was family night with the Thedes so we got to enjoy some brownies and hang out time. Now we are on to another week. Thank you so much for your support and prayer. We can't thank you enough times. Bondye beni ou! (God bless you)

A Weekend To Remember

One of the downsides to blogging is that when you have a busy week you not only don't have time to write one but then you have so much to write about that the task seems overwhelming! I will give it a shot and try to make it short enough to read in under five mins.
Last Friday was our one month anniversary for being on the island. The Thedes were more than kind about it - they made us a delicious cake with marshmallows on top and asked us how we were doing. The answer to that question is - We are LEARNING. We are learning to trust that God will give us enough for each day. We are learning to live out our faith in a new place without as many words. We are learning about love and life. We are learning about the heart of God. After dinner and a Friday night movie we headed to bed to get up on Sat for a hike with Cory. Kathleen, Cory and I started up a nearby hill at about 6:30 am before the sun was too hot. As we hiked the ridges around the campus and gained an elevation several hundred feet we saw the ocean in the distance and the two valleys that the mountains we were climbing on separate. It was amazing and refreshing. The beauty here is hard to match. I think what makes it so beautiful is the contrast that a green forest full of trees and plants and the difficulty of life that the people live. You tend to forget about tin roofs and dirt floors when one is overlooking the sea, but when we stopped and listened it was not hard to hear thousands of voices rising up the slopes to our ears. Haiti is heavily populated. It is hard to tell because you don't seen apartment buildings or huge cities. You see a tin roof here and a tin roof there that each hold a family with an average of about 6 kids, and everyone is related it seems. So we walked up and down along the ridge and learned about all the plants, tried several different guava (none of which were very good), and took in the scenery. It took us about 2.5 hrs with plenty of pictures and stopping in the shade, but it was a great way to get the blood flowing in our legs and to remember that we are small people in a big world.
Sunday was a rough day of sitting! Not because our legs were sore from the hike, no it was from the bumpy roads that we drove on for 2 hrs to get to a church that Cory and Kris needed to visit. It was not a bad trip there for us in the cab of the truck, but for the four who were sitting in the bed of the truck on a 2x6 must have really felt the potholes and rocks. The church service was crowded with women on one side and the men on the other. Our coed group sat on the women's side without being yelled at so I think we were okay. Kathleen and I got up and said, "Bonjou! M'rele Chris e sa se Kathleen. Meci pou fe nou bien vienne. Nou kontan rakontre ou." Then we said God bless but I already forgot how to say that haha! After church we walked around the school and it was beautiful. The town has an amazing overlook of the mountains and hilly bricked streets. It was really a nice place. We were then given lunch of goat meat (reminded me of chinese pork - heavily seasoned and very good), fried cooking banana (banann pese), a pasta salad, and beans and rice (which was very good!). I had two helpings. On the way home my rear went partially numb. Ya know... that feeling where it is throbbing but you don't really feel anything when you move around. I am a wimp when it comes to sitting still for hours on end. We drove through a rainstorm in the mountains and the water was flowing over the road. The people in the back tucked themselves away under a tarp and Kris showed Kath and I that we are as close as family ;) But we made it home and spent the rest of the night relaxing and reading. Now we are on to the next 7/8 of our trip and we are more than curious as to what God has in store for us.

Random bits of life in Haiti

Living in a different country, we get to experience lots of random things we didn't expect. We've only been here a little over 3 weeks, but already have had many random little experiences to remind us that we are definitely not in the U.S.!!
--One of my favorite things-the beautiful flowers. Anna is always bringing us clusters of the prettiest and brightest tropical flowers! Hibiscus, heliconia, and there are tons of tiny hot pink flowers growing all over.
--Another is a bit less cheerful...the animals. They aren't exactly house pet material...most of them are way too skinny and kind of sickly looking. I made the mistake of naming one of the dogs and thinking about his lot in life a little too closely, which of course made me depressed! So this is Bitsy. He sits by us in church (dogs in church...that's another cultural difference!) probably because the Thede's sometimes feed him old leftovers.
--Avacado milkshakes. Sounds gross, but they are really tasty! Cory made them for us the other night.
--Letting your husband cut your hair. It's hot so I let Chris chop my hair, and he did great! (not that I was surprised.. ;)
--Being humbled, daily. We had big plans of saving the treats we brought from home until we'd been here a while. Well, we found ourselves drinking a delicious cup of Starbucks instant coffee this morning...it was SO good!! So we learned that we aren't as able to easily give up everything we know and love as we thought...which reminded us to be humble, AND allowed us to drink coffee--a great morning. :)

Please continue to pray for the salvation of people here. School started on the compound this morning-a praise, but also request. For students' families to be able to pay, and the teachers to be able to be paid. And for students to be reached for Christ. Thank you for your support, have a great day :) (These are a couple boys that visited us during a rainstorm)

Week 3

So this past Wednesday Kathleen and I rode along with two baptist missionaries from the university on the other side of Limbe. He is a family doctor and she is a nurse. The drove onto the compound and picked us up and then drove with us for about thirty minutes on roads that would be closed in the states. That didn't slow Dr. Steve down as we hit potholes and rocks at 25 mph, enough to make Kathleen and I thankful to hop out at this nice little clinic. We unloaded some food supplement in a cement depot located up some cement stairs. After meeting all the Haitian nurses and staff we went to a little trailer around back that was three feet in the air cemented on all four corners with the tires still on it (this is to protect it from all the flooding). We then saw four patients. All of which were interesting. The most interesting was a little three year old boy with an ectopic hear that has his heart in an umbilical hernia covered only by skin. This is only one of four cases in the world. But for you that aren't medically minded we will leave it at that ;) It was just nice to get away for a day and see some more of Haiti. On the way back to the compound we stopped by Shou Shou Bay which is a beautiful beach with zero commercialism and beautiful sand so we took a picture! It reminded us of our honeymoon! So we got our feet wet and headed back home.

The sky here has given us some real moments of beauty! This is a thunderhead that came from the south and just took over the sky. Unfortunately it didn't hold much rain. The night sky is equally impressive with bright stars and outlines of palm trees when looking up.

The kids seem to be not around as much this week and we are finding it easier to interact with them. The boundaries of playing are forming and we think it is going in the right direction. We will see what next week hold when the kids start school. Our creole is progressing slowly but we are able to say a word or two more each day...its pretty exciting to realize that we knew essentially nothing three weeks ago. Thanks for reading and for all your prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and for the emails that some of you have sent. They are all appreciated. Have a great weekend.

A Week Of Learning

So we have been here for over two weeks and we are learning everyday. It is amazing how God has worked in our lives this past week. Those kids with the endless energy have brought about hours of great conversation between Kathleen and I. We are asking questions as to what we are doing here, what we want to do, how we want to do whatever it is we want to do and more. Right now we are trying to set our goals and the way we are living in a way that we will be able to make it here for the next 8 months. We don't want to come home too soon, but there are times when we have asked ourselves if it will be too much if we continue the way we are. Mainly this has to do with the kids and our house. Our house has screen windows and we like to leave the door open to the breeze (when there is one). But this poses a problem in that we feel like we are always being watched. I mean we feel like this because more often than not we are. Kids will come and stare in our windows until we acknowledge them and then the will yell bonjou or bonswa (depending on the time of day) and then the type of ball they want to have. The answer seems easy at first.... Tell the kids to leave your house alone and knock if they want something rather than yelling through your windows. Well this is where our conversations begin because we don't speak the language to tell them to leave and we don't understand the culture of hanging out at a house all the time that is not yours. Privacy is just not the same in Haiti as it is in the States. So Kath and I are prayerfully trying to live each day with God's grace and humbleness to be able to live out the answer to these questions. We want our hearts and our door to be open to these kids, but it is hard not to feel trapped at times like you have to do what a bunch of kids want you to do. To be honest it is a great problem to be having. We feel like God is at work and will use us if we are willing. He is already using the kids to teach us to depend on him and not our American way. haha These are the types of things you run into living in a Haitian Culture thinking what we are used to is the best!
In other news :) Last night we got 5 inches of rain in the matter of a couple of hours. It was coming down like crazy! It sounded really cool on our tin roof until their were lightning strikes close enough make us jump out of our skin! Then we were reminded that we had a metal roof and were standing on a cement floor and we didn't want to get shocked. So we spent the night in our little house watching a movie on my laptop (compliments to the Thede's loaning us Ratatouille) with our curtains blowing a slight sewage smell that seemed to be wafting into our bedroom. It was great though and we had a great Sunday night of hanging out and talking about life here. A couple of nights before last we had a buggy night. I found the cockroach in the picture in the cabinet, I found another on our bathroom wall, and Kathleen walked into our house to find a nice little wolf spider waiting for her. Two of the three were ended with a flipflop - poor little guys. Our real pest right now is the little feet that we here running around in our ceiling...well they don't really sound so little to tell you the truth but we will see what we can do about that. Overall a successful second week...God provides.

Just Living

Chris is down playing some basketball this morning, so I have a moment to do a little blogging. (I opted to stay at the house instead of taking on a group of Haitian men in basketball in a skirt) Chris and I had an interesting conversation yesterday that I think I’ll share a bit of. We were talking about how we have always kind of wondered…what do missionaries do all day, exactly? Do they ever rest? Do they actually like where they are? Questions like that. While we are far from knowing the answers and realize there are lots of different ways to do missions, we are learning that being a missionary sometimes means doing life in the country God’s called you to…much like how a Christian would do life back in the states. Living one day at a time, in obedience to whatever God’s asking you to do that day. And God does not always require us to be doing. He’s already blessed us with times of relaxing, fellowship with other believers, and just chillin! (though we are most likely sweating during that time) In other words, though we are in a totally different setting, the call to daily obedience is still the same. That was random but there ya go!

This week has been a good one so far. Monday Chris and Dr. Kris went down to the clinic and saw 9 patients, and another 4 yesterday. Chris is soaking in all the learning! We have had 2 more Creole classes, and are working on learning verbs and little conversations. (Bonjou! Komman ou ye? Byen, e ou menm? Pa pi mal! Hi! How are you? I'm well, an you? Not bad!) We have met a few other English speaking kids this week, who are very interested in learning English and practicing by talking with us. Hopefully we will also set up our English classes sometime this week.This is our teacher, David.

Though we still can’t walk much with the kids, it is becoming easier to communicate with them through body language and in playing sports. Haitians love to joke and laugh and so we have to be ready to laugh at ourselves and we laugh a lot just to fill the awkward silences that often happen when we have no idea what they're saying! We are trying to figure out how to best relate to them. They are great kids, but as any kids they can get a bit pushy at times. We aren’t really able to give them things either…because there would never be enough for everyone. This leaves us feeling helpless sometimes…but right now we will just continue to play with them until the Lord might lead to something more…or different. The Thede's continue to be a great blessing to us. They have a lot of wisdom to share about Haiti and missions and life. We are really thankful for their friendships.

Please pray for the two oldest boys in the back right of the picture especially, their names are Walfie and Roberto. They seem to especially like Chris and are around all the time. Thanks so much for your support and prayer, it's a huge encouragement! (Pictures to come...we couldn't get them uploaded right now!)