My letter will be short. Its been cool weather here in Oriani lately. This morn it was 7 degrees Celsius. (43F) Some nights I have resorted to heating my cannonball (Haitian souvenir of the Napoleon era) that is solid cast iron and putting it in bed with me (and Candace). I have found that if I put it on the stove burner for exactly 1 min 45 seconds it is a perfect temp to have in bed with us and warm our toes up. It will actually hold the heat for 3-4 HOURS. Its amazing. You all need one of these back in North America with this cold winter! But just remember that even here in this cool temp of the high mountains of Haiti we have no house heat. We actually wear jackets or sweatshirts in the house a lot of time.
Our BIG news is that our son Trev has fallen in love with our translator Mirlene Henry (min Enel’s daughter). They got engaged and will be married on Mar 16. Seems so fast! Us having married children? WOW. But we are so excited. We love her so much and because she has been living with us we have grown to love her almost like a daughter even before the two of them got engaged. Mirlene has been working as a nurse assistant and translator in the clinic for a yr and a half and is one incredible girl. She has alot of responsibility in the clinic and is in charge of alot of things. Very capable girl. Trev has been the maintenance guy and is also learning the management of the clinic, so they both will continue working in the operation as before.
Our new nurse Angela Toews of North Carolina is doing really well. She fits right into our family and we love her. She has been breaking into the clinic work and is doing really well. Mirlene is translating for her till the end of Feb and then we have a Haitian translator coming to fill in while Mirlene and Trev settle into married life for a few weeks. Mirlene will resume her position again in the first of April. We have our nurse Jeetan soon going on maternity leave so we have another Haitian nurse taking her place. Vaneet is her name. She is a really compassionate type that seems to really love her job as well as her patients. Nothing gets her in a flap.
A clinic story I can tell you is about a woman who had such a long standing abscess on her butt that all her family and neighbours had given up on her. She was basically put in a room to die. She was not fed any more. No one went near her. The stench of rotting flesh could be smelled from even outside the house. All were just waiting for her to die. Well… we found out about her and started treating her with antibiotics and daily dressing changes. Every day one of the nurses (or often just Mirlene) lovingly went down to her house to endure the smell and repack the abscess and change dressings. The word “awful” doesn’t describe it, but after a month now… this lady is alive. She is eating… even walking to the clinic for her own dressing changes. I believe she will make a full recovery yet. Praise God!!!!
Clinic patient numbers have backed off lately. I was glad because it gives our nurses a break when the days aren’t so long. I asked Ozias why this was happening. I thought it was because just not as many people are sick, but he reminded me that we are in the dry season and times are tough for people. He didn’t think they can afford the 1 dollar US fee that we charge for consultation and all medicine. So I am reminded again how tight things are for people in the winter season of drought. We are having to use Holy Spirit discernment on who to let in for free and whom to have pay. I would feel bad if sick people stay home and suffer or get worse because of the impossibility of paying the 1 dollar fee. I hope I am also following the direction and vision that you donors have in this.
We have 26 people in Bible and Doctrine class. Our missionary Todd and Donna Schmidt are in charge. (it is so good to have Todd’s here). Seems more and more people are seeing the gospel lived out in truth in the lives of our locals here and are pressing in. We stand back and wonder how it can continue because this is now the biggest church in the community and may soon have to separate into two congregations soon to be able to function properly. 300 plus people attending on Sunday mornings. Pray for us all, and that direction for the future may be clear. Everything we do here…. the clinic… and everything… is ultimately for the “good news” (gospel) of salvation.
If I could convey to you the sub-human poverty that we keep seeing around us I would, but words fail me. One man that we found recently is living in a straw pile hut that requires him to almost slither in on his belly. the door is literally knee high. He has a straw mat to sleep on and yet has a fire inside this hut to keep him warm in the cold nights. (I don’t see how he can keep a smouldering fire low enough that his roof doesn’t catch fire!!!) Things like this make my eyes wet when I see it, but thankfully there is a gracious donor that has already offered to help build this poor man a house. The man’s name in Creole is “Two Black Lines”. This man is in bad shape, but is not the only one. We keep finding these “forgotten ones” every once in awhile. If any of you have a desire to help lift this kind of poverty to a more humane level, please contact us with how much you can donate to this, and we will help these kind of people! This man’s neighbour has a house that is falling in on itself, but he never is asking for anything for himself, just help for his neighbour. The whole community swells with enthusiasm when one of these very low people get help. I can say with assurance that God is always glorified when the community sees these kind of people receiving help. It is the love of Christ (Christians) at work.
My field that I had with a widow sister failed miserably. It only recovered half of what we put into it. So I guess that’s a good example to me of how difficult it is for these people to make a living. I thought we did everything perfectly, gave fertilizer on time and kept it sprayed etc. It looked so good but the potatoes just weren’t there to even cover half the expenses. Kind of a bummer. Try again next season! Isn’t that the world wide “farmer” mentality? HA
OK God Bless you all wherever you are.
Keith Toews
Director- Confidence Health Center