Auburn United Methodist Church Medical Team

 

A medical team from Auburn United Methodist Church came here to hold medical and dental clincs on December 13, 14, and 15. The first clinic day the teachers worked on their report cards. Here are Node Transtama and Gelia Denis preparing the report cards for the students in the Kindergarten 1 class.

We purchased a megaphone to help in getting out the word for events here at Coram Deo. Here is Eryl preparing to head down to the Cite Jeremie, Cite Aux-Cayes area.

Here is the waiting area.

For the dental patients, Rudy wrote the patients names into the patient log.

Macdonald and Jn. Eddy helped out with translating at the registration table.

The kitchen area was used as a consultation area.

We have a large kitchen. One day we might be able to have a physiotherapy room in the kitchen. That is what I am praying for.

The living room was an active place for pharmacy and consultations.

Students from Christian Light School helped out with translating.

These patients are waiting at the pharmacy station.

The dental clinic was a busy place! Lots of people wanted to obtain dental care.

The dental station used the back part of the living room.

Here is Ed's dental chair. The team made good use of it!

Here is a patient preparing to meet the dentist!

The team and the translators interacted well.

Speaking english is an advantage for Haitians. More opportunities are available for them with the many teams and missions that come to Haiti.

A young mother with her baby is waiting at the registration table.

Rudy is a good organizer! Here he is standing by the gate and showing people where to sit.

It is great to watch the medical teams work. Lots of people receive medical care :)

Jn. Eddy is explaining the clinic procedures to the people in the waiting area.

The last day more children came to the clinic. The last day is always the busiest days. Word gets around. We had to turn away people at the gate the last day.

Here is a busy kitchen/consultation area!

A lot of people can sit in our kitchen at one time :)

This is the pharmacy station.

Lots of consultations going on at the same time!

The registration table kept busy.

Yonel is keeping a watchful eye on the waiting area.

The team came with a portable dental equipment. This enabled the dentist to do his work. Ed has one of these units as well. We are praying for a way to get the donated dental equipment from a dentist in Wyoming to Haiti so that we can have all the equipment for a dentist to do his work, even an xray machine!

While the clinic was going on Blackbeard the cat and Lucky the dog dozed on my bed :)

Christian Light School Christmas Program

 

The week before Christmas we went to the Christian Light School Christmas Program. Sherri Fausey is a friend who lives in the same neighborhood as I do. When she has medical teams they will do clinics here at Coram Deo. Manu and Benson both attend school and were participating in the Christmas program. Sherri and her teachers organized a great christmas program!

Benson is in Grade 3. He is staniding in the back row.

Here is a close up shot of Benson.

His class mates sang well.

Children from different classes were dressed in costume while singing a couple of songs.

The costumes were cute!

The star of the show was this young boy with his hands outstretched :)

Manu was standing watching the other classes perform.

Manu's Grade 7 class came to the front to sing a couple of songs. Manu is in the back row standing at the far right side of the photo. All the children were dressed in their best clothes. I gave money to Manu to find some dress clothes and he came back with a nice outfit. Manu was proud that he was wearing the same style shirt as the school director pictured here holding the microphone!

Manu's friend Kelly is standing beside him. Manu really wanted to sing a solo but instead he sang the "echo" part of the song they were singing :)

It was a busy day driving around running errands that day and I just made it back in time for the beginning of the Christmas program. Eryl and Calens joined me in the crowd.

After the program I took a picture of Benson with the new clothes that he bought standing in front of his school.

A visitor designed this mural and a couple others on Sherri's wall. She sure is a good artist!

It was a fun program and Benson walked back with his arm over Calens shoulder. Benson has a good heart and cares a lot for people. Not very often does he get into trouble.

Manu decided to sell his pet chicken so that he could have some money for Christmas.

His chicken was cute! Now he will have to raise another chicken for next year :)

Haiti Update - December 27, 2012

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  (Luke 2:14)

Hi! Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! It is the winter season in Haiti now and the weather is great! Temperatures are in the 80’s during the day and the evenings are cool. Everyone is glad that hurricane season is over (it ended November 30^th). This past hurricane season was a bad one for Haiti. It seems like there is a cycle to bad hurricane seasons in Haiti . 2004 and 2008 were years of bad storms and both times many lives were lost. The 2012 season ended  with not a large loss of life, but there was a large loss in the agricultural sector, which carries implications for the current dry season. 70% of crops were lost and people out in the countryside are at risk of hunger in the next few months. The southern part of the country really took a hit by Hurricane Sandy. The last couple of weeks Benji and his mother were staying here at Coram Deo. Benji has hydrocephalus and received a shunt surgery during the last round of surgeries. He has gotten malnourished.  We sent them back to the Jacmel area before Christmas with a box of Feed My Starving Children Manna Packs and told her to come back each month for another box. We can’t help all the families who lost their crops during the hurricane season but we can help one family. Pray for all those who will be struggling with hunger during the next few months.

Our school program is on Christmas break until January 7^th. We held exams one week earlier because we had a medical team doing 3 clinics here. It ended up that all the schools had exam week earlier than normal. People were saying that the end of the world might happen on December 21^st because that is when the Mayan calendar ended and the children wanted to make sure there exams were done before that day. Some children thought there might be an earthquake that day.  I am glad no earthquakes happened and that the end is not yet! There is lots of work to be done. Now that the Mayan calendar is no more maybe people will focus on what the Bible says.  It is good that we can focus on Christ’s birth and the hope for peace one day.

We are thankful that Ed Amos moved his medical clinic here to Coram Deo from the Adoration school. Every Monday and Tuesday are medical clinics, with a maximum of 50 patients being seen each day. Ed even does minor surgeries. During those days fewer patients are seen. Wednesday and Thursday are dental clinics and up to 20 people are seen for teeth cleaning, minor fillings and tooth extractions. Ed has 2 Haitian nurses who help him with the clinic. Macdonald registers the patients and also maintains the patient log for appointments. Through these clinics 3 orthopaedic cases came to our attention. All needed surgery. We brought them to Adventist Hospital where the Cure team works and they all received a free surgery. 2 were children who had bad fractures to their lower arm.

Raymond, a young man was in a motorcycle accident last December. The doctors at Medicine Sans Frontieres told him that nothing could be done here in Haiti for his injured hip and that he would need to go to another country for medical care. Raymond and his family is poor and for the last year has been getting around on crutches with a hip that has been out of place.  Dr. Nelson, a visiting Cure American orthopaedic surgeon performed surgery on December 10^th at the Adventist Hospital, located in the Carrefour area. Raymond spent one week recovering from the surgery in hospital and the doctors told him that in 4 months he will be walking normally again. We give the Lord thanks for this gift of healing.

Berno is a young man who came to Ed’s clinic one day with a large keloid. Berno had been in a bus accident on Rte. National #1 that had killed 17 of the 26 passengers in the bus. Berno survived the accident with a broken leg and a laceration near his right ear. The scar tissue formed into a keloid and grew to the size of a baseball. Embarrassed by this disfigurement he always made sure to wear a hat covering up the keloid. Ed surgically removed the keloid and now the disfigurement is gone. Pray for patients like Raymond and Berno who come to the clinic with the hope of a solution. Ed’s main financial supporter will not be able to fund the clinic after the end of 2013. Pray that support is found for him to continue to run the clinic.

Rick Boer and my dad made a visit to Haiti in October. When Rick went back to Canada a friend talked with a dentist in Wyoming, Ontario. The dentist saw the pictures of the clinic and Coram Deo and he decided to donate his entire dental clinic furnishings, as he was transferring to a new clinic and buying new equipment! Pray for a way to send this equipment to Haiti.  Ed could really use the equipment and this also opens up the possibility of having more dentists come to Haiti to hold more dental clinics. Our large living room makes it perfect for a clinic!

In the last few months we have been blessed with medical teams who use our facilities for medical clinics. Dr. Karen McCarthy and medical team members came in October from Jacksonville, Florida. A medical team from Amelia Baptist Church came in November and a medical team from Auburn United Methodist Church came in December.

We are thankful that Pastor Pierre and 18 other Haitian pastors, and church workers were able to participate at the Timothy Leadership Training seminars that were held at the Christian Reformed Ministry Center in October. The day that the seminars were to begin was the day that Hurricane Sandy hit Haiti. I thought that not many would show up because of the weather but everyone showed up! The people from the mountains of Kenscoff (14) walked through the night through windy and stormy weather. It goes to show how hungry the church leaders are for training. They didn’t even allow a hurricane to stop them! Pray for more training for these pastors. Pastor Pierre has at least another 20 pastors interested in attending these seminars.

We completed a shower construction project recently. It started while my dad and Rick Boer were here. The new shower was constructed as an addition to the dormitory. That corner of the yard is now cemented and cement benches were constructed. The new shower has a tiled floor and walls, and also a changing room. A water tower was constructed for the shower. The old shower was knocked down and this now gives more room for the school shelter along the back wall.  Pray for future projects. We need another school shelter constructed along the front wall and also to cement that section of the yard. We also need to construct another toilet room and renovate the existing one. With more people in the yard we need more toilet facilities. We also need to tile and make some modifications to the existing washroom. With cholera being here in Haiti it is easy to keep the toilet room clean with tiled floors. We would like to have laptop computers so that students can learn computer technology. One project idea is to have 10 computers and set up a cyber cafe. A few of our teachers are taking computer courses and need access to a computer. If anyone would like to donate a computer please contact myself or Tim Bos.

I give thanks for a board/committee that has the same vision as I do. We are working together to pursue the vision of Coram Deo. Tim was recently here in November to help with the shower project. The committee is supportive and encouraging.  It is good to know that I can contact Tim by phone, text, Skype or an email at any time. It is good to see committee members coming to Haiti to help out in constructing our vision here in Haiti. The “field of dreams” is taking shape!

We are thankful for the financial support we have received. Right now the funds are low but we are praying for support. I don’t have a salary and don’t seek one but I pray that people will be supportive of the project. All the funds I get here in Haiti go towards helping the Haitian people.

Have a Blessed New Year!

Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

Coram Deo Christmas

 

One week before Christmas we held a combination parent/teacher meeting and christmas party for the students here at Coram Deo. In this photo Josue Marcelin, the teacher of the 5eme/6eme AF class is talking to a mother about a students' report card.

The teachers did a good job of organizing the parent meeting.

Eryl is looking at the report card of his younger brother Jhonser.

It was a festive atmosphere! The children and teachers decorated the yard for the occassion.

Gelia Denis and Node Transtama are the teachers of the Kindergarten 1 class. Both these teachers are handicapped. Gelia became an amputee after the earthquake when her home collapsed. She was evacuated to Guadaloupe for medical treatment . She walks well with her prosthetic leg. Node Transtama has a neuro muscular disease and relies on a wheelchair to get around. They are both caring teachers and we are blessed to have them here.

It was good to see so many of the parents attending the meeting.

These girls are showing each other their report cards.

These boys are intently examinig this report card.

Our young adults here at Coram Deo eagerly assist with the school program.

An education is important for parents. So many parents can not send children to school because of their poverty.

Everyone enjoyed the christmas decorations :)

Pastor Marcelin and his son Amos are looking at one of the report cards.

The teachers do their best to teach the students and the parents respect this. Our teachers are students themselves and continuing on with their post-secondary studies.

Once the parent/teacher meeting ended the party began! Some of the children prepared the many slices of bread for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

The school children crammed the benches in anticipation of receiving goodies.

The children looked into their goodie bags to see what was in them :)

And then they all quickly tied up their bags so nobody would steal their treasures :)

It was fun watching the children's faces as they received their goodie bags!

These bags were well protected by the young students and they waited until they got home to enjoy their treats :)

We have 105 students this year in our school program here at Coram Deo

We'll need to make some more benches for our meetings ;)

Next was music time while the children were fed sandwiches and pop.

Here are 2 of the students from the kindergarten class.

Amos is a big kid at heart and enjoyed eating candy!

It sure was funny watching the children secure their goody bags!

These girls were all watching one girl eat her sandwich :)

This young boy holding his gift bag is "Rocky", Rudy's younger brother.

Once the party was over we moved the christmas tree into my bedroom/office/depot. I love christmas trees!

Our cat is hiding behind the tree. He loves the christmas tree too, especially all the dangling balls hanging from it!

He amused himself for hours batting at the balls and knocking them off the tree