“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12
Hi! It has been a busy time with the medical program and starting to prepare for going away for 3 weeks in June to visit my family in Canada. The owner of the house behind us put a couple of cement blocks in the hole of his house wall which now blocks the easy access to the tin roof of the briquette shelter. We planned to remove the dirt hill behind his side of the wall but don’t want to effect their outhouse which is off to the side. The hill isn’t all just dirt but also lots of “poop” too so we decided to let the dirt/poop mound stay and will just put another layer of barbed wire up on the roof of the outside toilets. There have been no break-in attempts in the last couple of weeks. We got a photo of “Mack” from the mission that sponsored him for school. We’ll enlarge the identity photo and then pass this on to the police. Angela Caseneve also stopped by. She is one of the students who used to be in our school sponsorship program. She is the girl that Mack threatened. She says she no longer lives in the Cite Jeremie area since the day that the threat was made against her. She lives with family in another part of the city. We are trying to now contact the family to find out about a possible police report made against “Mack”. Because we don’t have a working invertor/generator or electricity during the day at the house I have been doing computer work at Bob’s Internet Services in the neighborhood. It works out good and I can sit under a shady tree while I work. I was speaking to my family on Skype and talking about getting a photo of “Mack” to hand to the police. A Haitian welder I know from the community here was working inside at a computer. The next day “Welderman” was seen driving in the Cite Jeremie area. Manu was walking back home from school and saw “Welderman” drive by in his Isuzu Trooper. The passenger sitting beside him was “Mack”. I think he told “Mack” about what I had said to my parents but maybe he was just being neighborly and giving a thief a ride. The next project planned for security upgrades is to install a security camera system in the house to monitor the grounds. A business in Canada has donated this system and we already have the monitor here in Haiti. Pray that a way is found to get the rest of the system here to Haiti and installed. With this system people with “sticky fingers” won’t be able to walk away with things easily. We are also planning to get an additional dog when I get back from Canada. The dog I have now is good at catching rats and mice but doesn’t do a good job at catching thieves. Because the dog knows the thieves he doesn’t chase after them. The new dog won’t have this problem. Pray that “Mack” changes his heart.
A plastic surgery team from the University of Miami did surgeries this weekend at Hopital La Paix on Delmas 33. 22 surgeries were done on such things as cleft lip/palettes and burn contractures. Benson, a 7-year-old boy who lives at Coram Deo was able to get surgeries on his burn contractures. He had some work done on his hand to help him to straighten out his pinky finger. This will give him better function in his hand. He also had surgery done on the tendon behind the knee. He will now be able to straighten his knee better. He complained before about the tightness but managed it well. I told him that now he will be able to run faster. His foot was also operated on and 2 of his toes were especially worked on. The surgeon at first thought that it would be best to amputate them but he was able to do something to help position his toes better. Benson did well and now has a cast on his leg and foot and a soft cast on his arm. They also took a skin graft from his groin area so he has stitches there as well. I go to Canada on Tuesday and he gets the casts removed on Wednesday so I will not be able to see how his leg, foot and hand looks until I get back from Canada. Pray that he recovers well and doesn’t have any problems while I am gone. He is enjoying the special treatment he is getting now. The plastic surgery team plans to come back in November to do surgeries again. Emmanuel Oreus is also doing better now this week. He had to have a blood transfusion last week after he developed breathing problems due to his low hemoglobin levels. It’s amazing the difference some extra blood makes. Now he may be discharged from the hospital soon. His family is poor and lives in the Wharf Jeremie area. Maudlin Thomas, a hydrocephalus child was discharged this week from the hospital. Widmay Nervil another hydrocephalus child with a shunt from the May surgeries is the only hydrocephalus child left in hospital. She has a suspected case of meningitis. Keep her and her mother in prayer. We got an x-ray done of Daphka Theodore’s leg and sent it along with somebody returning to the United States. There is a doctor in the United States interested in doing surgery on the leg deformity she has had since birth.
We have started a tire garden on the roof and are harvesting spinach right now. It is good to have fresh vegetables growing on the roof.
USAID is providing 45 million dollars of emergency food aid to Haiti. 25 million is being given through the World Food Program of the UN (PAM – Programme Alimentaire Mondiale) The aid will be distributed to vulnerable people (sick, aged, orphans, mothers and children), feeding programs for children in schools (UN will be continuing the feeding programs through the school summer vacation months for the first time this year), and also Food for Work programs where workers will repair irrigation systems, road work, farming in exchange for assistance. The Canadian government is going to finance 15 projects in places such as Cite Soleil to create 35,000 jobs.
The Canadian who worked with Medecins du Monde that was kidnapped has now been released. She was released unharmed after one week of negotiations with her kidnappers. The starting ransom demand was $100,000 and a non-confirmed ransom of $8,500 was eventually paid for her release. The police and UN are trying to capture some of these kidnapping gangs that are operating and recently conducted 3 operations that resulted in the arrests of 20 kidnapping and murder suspects. In one operation in the Thomassin and Laboule area 12 suspected kidnappers were arrested. $10,000 US in cash was found as well as bankbooks, and stolen items taken from kidnap victims. Bank transactions coincided with ransom payments of 3 recent kidnappings from the period of March to May 2008 in the Fermathe and Thomassin area. The Canadian that was kidnapped lived in the Thomassin area, so most likely these people were involved in her kidnapping. It is good to hear that these operations were successful. People in Haiti are frustrated with the increase in kidnapping. There were around 25 kidnaps officially reported but unofficially it is much more than this for the month of May. Unofficially at least 40 people were kidnapped for the month of May. Recently there were a couple of kidnappings that resulted in death for the victim even after a ransom was paid by the families. A student of 16 years of age was killed and his body was found on Delmas 18 by Carrefour Pean. There is a protest walk being planned for today against kidnapping and requesting authorities to take action.That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
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