Hello again from Haiti! It's the rainy season here which means a lot of clouds, especially in the afternoons. So far we haven’t had quite as much rain as I remember from last year, but enough to water the gardens and fill the cisterns. We spent a week in the Dominican in September. We went to do some shopping and enjoy some restaurants. We spent the weekend with missionary friends and enjoyed that very much. The purpose of the trip was to pick up my niece Heidi from the airport. She came back to teach Sebastian first grade. Two of my nephews came with to visit us for a week and to help her with luggage. She had a lot with all school books for the year. Carlos has been working on getting the letter to allow us to cross back into Haiti, but unfortunately it wasn’t ready in time. We had to go back to paying our way across. But we were able to cross without difficulty both ways. We finally do have the letter so future crossings should be easier. It gets a little frustrating to have to negotiate our way across just to go to a grocery store and restaurant. Oh well, it goes with the territory and I am happy that God makes a way for us to cross.
While we were gone the clinic staff did a good job keeping the clinic going. Despite the continued difficulties I am happy the little hospital in Fond Parisien can at least do emergency C sections. I’m not sure what we would do without them. We had 2 ambulance transfers in September, both with obstetric emergencies. The ambulance is definitely showing its age. Everytime it goes down the mountain it requires repairs of some kind to the undercarriage. Fortunately the repair of the fuel system seems to be holding and the engine still runs fine.
Last week I had to piece together a lower lip after a moto accident. The patient had several teeth broken off so the lip was quite cut up with some holes through it. I was able to get it closed up and recommended he find a dentist. There is a “dentist” in Foret de Pin, another village here in the mountains, who specializes in pulling teeth. I don’t know if that is where he went, but I supposed that is better than having broken off stumps of teeth in your mouth. Speaking of getting teeth pulled, we had a patient on Monday with a bad infection after getting some teeth pulled 8 days before. Her neck and jaw were so swollen she could barely open her mouth. I gave her IV antibiotics and had her come back 2 more days for more antibiotics. She seemed to be a little better, although that might just have been the Ibuprofen. Saturday I had a 6 year old boy brought to our house. Somehow he had poked a hole in his scrotum with a stick. I sewed it together on our front porch. Who can say they did that? Or cut an umbilical cord with their office scissors? I guess it goes with the territory.
The situation in the country hasn’t changed. The road to Port is still blocked. The gang wants to open it, but the elders in Fond Parisien refuse because they don’t want the trucks to give the gang money. They say they will open the road if the gang leaves Ganthier. So nobody can go to Port except by a dangerous road of the mountains that is barely passable by moto. Gabe says he thinks we could send medications by that road, but I’m hesitant and hoping the road through Croix de Bouquets will open soon. When our ambulance returned from Fond Parisien late one night they were stopped by a group of men armed with machetes and guns who checked to make sure they weren’t bandits. So we are still safe here. Keep praying. The blocked road leaves the local economy at almost a standstill making life here harder for the locals. Thank you for your support and prayers.