Saturday, January 31, 2009

haiti update - january 31, 2009

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Hi! This week was a busy week with the medical program. We started out the week making arrangements for a cat scan for the young boy who had the eye tumor. When I arrived at the hospital Sister Genevieve told me that the boy had suddenly died on Sunday. Sunday morning he developed breathing problems, which was quickly followed by seizures. The tumor must have been in the brain already. He was doing well on Friday when I last saw him. The mother was looking forward to him getting the cat scan. The Lord called him home and the cat scan was not necessary. Keep his mother in prayer as she mourns the loss of her son. She did everything possible for him that she could.
We had 3 medical clinics this week led by Kezia, an American nurse and a medical team staying at Sheri’s. We closed the school program on Tuesday and Wednesday in order to hold the clinics. 69 patients were seen on Tuesday and 105 patients were seen on Wednesday. The team provided medicines as well. On Friday we went to Cite Soleil and had a clinic in the church Eglise Maranatha. Willy and Joel were the hosts of this clinic. 55 patients were seen. After the clinic was done we visited Ti Haiti and the wharf area so that the team could see the areas where the patients came from. We give the Lord thanks for the opportunity to hold these clinics. It is a blessing to see a lot of people get some medical help.
This week was also a week of seeing the effects of gangs. A father brought his son to the house. Iverson Louis is 7 years old and the father told me that he had a heart problem. He was examined by the medical team and they found his heart to be functioning well. They live in the Soleil 17 area of Cite Soleil. A lot of people living there have been affected by the gang violence a few years ago. The father, Jackson, showed me a photo he keeps in his wallet of his father. It is not a nice photo because it is one showing him dead with a bullet wound to the head. This is the reminder he carries along with him to remember his father. His father was killed in the Soleil 17 area in 2007. He went on to tell me that his brother was shot and killed in 2008 by a bullet to the heart in the same area. Keep this father in prayer as he struggles to provide for his family.
A grandmother came to the house with a 2-year-old girl. The mother died and the father couldn’t look after her. She has been looking after Woodlainy since May 2008. She has been doing her best to look after her but she is having difficulty too and wants to see her put into an orphanage. She comes from the Boston area of Cite Soleil. The situation she is currently in is difficult and I don’t want people I know who have orphanages to be stuck in a possibly difficult situation as well so we will instead be going to the Haitian social services department to see what they can do to help out this grandmother. By how she describes the father, he is a gang member. I asked her if he had given his permission to put the child in an orphanage and she told me that he doesn’t care about her. She showed me a photo of when she first took in Woodlainy and she was severely malnourished at the time. The grandmother is a strong person. Her husband was shot and killed in a robbery a few years ago in Cite Soleil. She was interviewed on television. A reporter asked her a question about what the government and UN needs to do in Cite Soleil and she made a comment against the gangs. Gang members living in Cite Soleil saw what she had said on the news broadcast and threatened her. A gang leader sent word to her and forced her to come to the gang base. Over the next 3 days they ordered her to clean their house. The third day the gang leader pointed his gun at her to shoot her and the gun for some reason wouldn’t fire. 3 times he tried to fire his gun and every time it wouldn’t fire. He let her go and ordered her to come back to the house the next day. Fortunately for her, the next day the UN conducted an operation and the gang was broken up. Pray for this grandmother and that a way can be found to help her grandchild. The grandmother is a Christian and she also has a good name. Her name is Hosanna! The gangs don’t have the presence they used to have in Cite Soleil and this makes development possible. Pray for the development that is currently taking place in Cite Soleil.
Cite Soleil is what everyone talks about when you mention gangs but there are gangs established in other areas of the city that cause problems. Last week a Haitian lawyer was kidnapped in front of his residence in the Delmas 31 area. His body was found a few days later wrapped in plastic in the Delmas 75 area. Kidnapping is not as bad as it used to be but is still a source of income for gangs and Haitian professionals and business people are the prime targets. The result of this kidnapping has been that the police are focusing on the Delmas 31 area. On Monday and Tuesday police conducted operations in our neighborhood in the Cite Aux Cayes area targeting a gang called “Tete Mur” (Top of the Wall). I guess the gang like climbing over people’s walls. I found out that 2 members of this gang are people that I know. They managed to avoid getting arrested. “Wendy” is on the police search list as a person that they want to arrest. Years ago we had helped him with his schooling as well as a few younger brothers and sisters as part of the school program that we had at Coram Deo during that time. The father left the family and the mother wasn’t able to afford the rent in this area. The family moved to Cite Soleil and the family dropped out of the school program. It looks like Wendy came under the influence of the gangs. He is now back in this area as a member of the “Tete Mur” gang. I hope that these guys were not a part of this lawyer’s death. This afternoon the children came up to me to say that the police were arresting people on our corner. I went outside and watched them take away 3 motorcycles and arrest their drivers due to not having the proper papers. It is good to see the police actively working in the neighborhood. Pray for the training of the police force and the efforts being made to improve the justice system in Haiti.
Friday evening I found out that my nephew was involved in a serious vehicle accident caused by black ice in my hometown of London, Ontario. He is Tanya’s son. Currently he is in intensive care in the hospital. His best friend was a passenger in the vehicle and the doctor’s do not think that his friend will survive. Please keep them and the families in prayer.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

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