Sunday, November 8, 2009

haiti update - november 8, 2009

“Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

Hi! This week was a week of blessings with finding medical care for people! Last Saturday we helped Sheri pick up a medical team from the airport. Dr. Karen told us about a general surgery team that was operating this week at Kings Hospital doing hernia surgeries. Kings Hospital is a privately run hospital that is run by Dr. Morquette and his wife who is also a doctor. They organized the surgery team. Early Tuesday morning we brought some people to Kings Hospital to be seen by the team. 4 of the hernia patients on our medical search list were selected as well as a young man who had a cyst on the side of his face. 3 of the hernia patients come from the mountain areas of Kenscoff and the people were thankful for this opportunity. We spent the rest of the week making trips to the hospital for lab testing and appointments for surgery. Pastor Pierre helped to look after his people at the hospital. The mountain people were a little lost here in Port-au-Prince! A couple of the patients are staying here at Coram Deo until they can move around better and make the long walk back home. The surgery team had a busy week doing hernia surgeries. Pray that other teams come to Haiti to do hernia surgeries and for those who are now recovering from these surgeries. There are a lot of cases of hernias here in Haiti! We give the Lord thanks for this bountiful harvest of surgeries!
Dr. Karen McCarthy and her medical team came on Thursday to do a medical clinic here at Coram Deo. Kez helped out too in seeing patients. They worked quickly and were able to see about 150 patients. They brought with them medicines too to treat the patients who were seen. We give the Lord thanks for their help. From this clinic more cases were added to our medical search list. One boy, Silvin came with his father from Cite Soleil. He had a large abscess on his side. Dr. Karen referred him to the surgery team at Kings Hospital and he was hospitalized that same afternoon. He had surgery Friday morning and is now starting his recovery. Pray he has no complications. His father was surprised and happy that an open door was found so quickly. I was too! Lesita, is a 43-year-old woman who looks very pregnant; except she isn’t. In 2007 she had a baby and the size of her abdomen never went to normal. It continued to grow over the last couple of years. She looks like she is carrying at least 4 children. We are going to get a sonogram for her this week to find out what is causing her problems and then try to find someone to help her. She has been going to prayer services and praying for help over the last couple of years for a solution to be found. She doesn’t know why her belly is so big because until Thursday she had never gone to a doctor because of her financial situation. An elderly man that was there has cataracts in both eyes and we will make contacts at a couple of places to see about finding care for him. We had some troubles at the gate when we were first letting people into the yard. Before the clinic day we always go through the neighborhood and talk with the people finding out who is sick and then providing them with a ticket to present at the gate on the clinic day. This time around we had a lot of people that came to the gate without a ticket who had heard about the clinic from others and were hoping to be let in. It is a good thing that there is a medical team coming in from Canada holding clinics at Adoration Christian School on Monday and Tuesday. We informed these people that they could go there on those days and maybe get some medical care. Pray for the Adoration medical team’s efforts and that they see lots of patients while they are here in Haiti.
My nephew John recently returned to Montreal to have his other clubbed foot operated on. John is a happy child and likes to joke around. When the doctor came into the pre-op area to hook somebody up to a pain pump he went up to John and told him “You’re here for the pain pump”. Before my sister Tanya could respond, John looked at the doctor and told him “No. I am here for candies!” The doctor didn’t know what to say. Going into the operating room before surgery, Tanya promised John that he could have candies after he was feeling better. As soon as he woke up from surgery, he looked at Tanya and told her “I want my candies”. He wasn’t impressed with her when she told him that he had to wait He told her that he wanted to see the doctor to ask for the candies and that she was in big trouble. Pray for John as he heals from surgery and for the next step in the process, which will be physical therapy to get him on his feet. Please pray that one day he will be able to stand and then maybe walk!
On Tuesday morning I went downtown with Carole while she was buying medical supplies for her clinic. We passed the end of a demonstration that was in the bicentenaire area. Some people were holding tree branches. The mayor of Port-au-Prince is trying to control where the street vendors sell. A few days earlier during the middle of the night, workers from the mayor’s office removed the vendors’ stalls in front of the Cathedral church. The people on Tuesday were protesting that a place be given for them to sell from. Jn. Eddy’s mother is one of the vendors who is affected by this ruling. The vendors are determined though and Jn. Eddy’s mother is still trying to sell there. Thursday afternoon the mayor’s workers came and started knocking over everyone’s wares and the vendors got angry and started to throw rocks. They also set up burning tires in front of the Cathedral. The police came by later and then the situation got under control. The mayor’s office says that all citizens are not allowed to buy, sell or install shops in the areas of hospitals, schools, and churches. Jn. Eddy’s mother and the rest of the people just want a place to sell from and want the mayor to give them another location to sell at. It will be a difficult task for the mayor to control the street vendors that are downtown.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

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