Haiti has been in the news again lately, and not in a good way. By now many of you reading this are already well aware of the kidnapping of the 17 North American missionaries from Christian Aid Ministries, and don’t need more details on the story from us. However, since you are concerned and interested in the clinic and our lives enough to read this blog, I thought I’d update you on how this situation affects us and our work here.
First and most importantly, we’re at a safe place up here in Oriani and do not feel like we are in any immediate danger. Our clinic is still open normal hours and we have a full house of patients every day. However, the area where the 400 Mawozo gang operates, and where the CAM missionaries were taken, is right along the main route that we take into Port-au-Prince to buy most of our clinic and household supplies. Even though these kidnappings have been happening to Haitians for a long time already, the fact that Americans were taken brings things a bit closer to home. For now, we are staying put here “on the mountain” and avoiding travel down to Port until we know now the CAM situation shakes out. We are hoping and praying with the rest of you that all 17 hostages can be released safely and without ransom money being paid, and that the country can become a safer place for Haitians and foreigners alike.
While we wait for news of the kidnappings, we also have a very concerned eye on the fuel situation in Haiti. For quite a while already fuel has been hard to find, because the country's petroleum distribution port in Martissant is in a heavily gang-controlled area and trucks are not able to come and go freely. However, in the last week or so things have gotten even tighter, with little or no gas coming out of the port and most fuel stations empty. For several days now there has been absolutely no gasoline or diesel available at any pumps near us. Fuel is available sparingly in street markets at the exorbitant price of at least $10 or sometimes $15 USD per gallon.
Needless to say, a world without fuel is a very small one indeed. Beyond not being able to travel by vehicle, we also have spotty cell phone service because most of the cell towers are powered by diesel generators and therefore not able to function normally. We use solar power at the clinic but occasionally on cloudy days we need to run a small gasoline generator. These days we are holding on to our last few gallons of gas in case of emergency. Our lawns grow high and weedy because we aren’t running the mower anymore. Many trucks sit idle in market, unable to haul produce to the city. Motorcycle taxis are still available but the cost is rising with the price of black market gasoline. Market today in Forè, usually a packed chaotic affair with thousands of people, was subdued with very little truck traffic in and out.
There is no telling where this fuel situation is going. Will it be tomorrow or next week or next month before gas becomes available? Nobody knows. For now, we’re adjusting our routines as necessary and just waiting to see where the next days take us.
Ok, enough negative news. The good news is that the clinic continues to operate normally and we are able to treat between 40 and 70 patients daily. If you remember our cleft palate baby, Jhonky, I am happy to bring you up to date on his progress. He came several weeks ago, continuing to gain weight and develop normally. His next follow-up was yesterday, and again he showed remarkable weight gain. His birth weight on August 10 was 3.2kg, and yesterday he weighed 5.2 kg (11.4 lb) at 10 weeks old.
As you can see, he is alert and healthy, developing well. We will monitor him for another month or so before arranging his operation at Hospital Bernard Mevs.
Another interesting case we saw recently was a young man with his 4th and 5th fingers on the left hand injured in a knife accident. We took him to the clinic to clean and assess the wound. The 5th finger was fully amputated at the base of the nail, but the 4th was only partially amputated and we felt there was hope of him retaining it if we could get him to definitive care. The family was very hesitant about going to Port, but I was able to get them to agree to at least call around and check hospitals. Unfortunately, the three best options I tried did not have surgeons available, so the family told us to just do what we could. We worked for several hours and were able to trim back both fingers into stumps that were able to be closed with sutures.
He tolerated the procedure very well and came back the next day for wound care. The surgical sites looked good and we scheduled him for daily dressing changes, but unfortunately he quit coming and dropped off our radar completely. This is all too common here and we’re not sure of all the reasons. We can only hope that the incisions continued to heal well and he is doing fine.
One last story. A lady in labor presented to our house after hours, and as we sometimes do, we let her labor here on the porch. Everything progressed normally and some time later a beautiful healthy baby girl was born. She took a breath and cried, but unfortunately soon after her airways became blocked with thick secretions and she went into severe respiratory distress. We vigorously stimulated her but were able to get only a very weak response. We quickly realized we needed to get her to the clinic asap, so Ang wrapped her up and jumped on the moto that had brought the lady. The driver took off thru market and I followed shortly on our moto, with the new mom sitting side-saddle behind me. By the time we got to the clinic, Ang was inside with the baby and thank God, she was breathing normally and had a strong healthy cry.
We monitored her for a while and did some deep suctioning, removing a lot of secretions from her airway. She continued to stabilize and we were eventually able to send her home with the family. Just another reminder of the dangers of childbirth and another reason to be thankful we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Had the baby been born at home, who knows what the outcome would have been.
If you’ve made it to the end of this very long post, congrats. That’s all for today. Keep us, and this country, and in particular the 17 CAM missionaries, in your prayers. We know there will be a way!