photos - various - part 5

And this is the Grade 5 and 6 class. 8 of the 9 students in this class are completing 2 years of schooling in one year so that they can write the state exams for graduating from elementary school at the end of the school year.

Erol helps doing special education and tutors children one on one. He reinforces what is taught in class to the students. We hope that this special attention will help the students advance in their educational development.

Calens is almost blind but as you can see here he is learning the alphabet. We found that if we use the bright yelllow color on a black background he can see the letters. Phil and Rosalyn talked with the CNIB and they are going to take on the challenge of helping Calens read. There is special equipment available out there and they want to donate this for Calens. We just need to determine what magnification level is the right one for Calens. We need to get him to an eye doctor this week for testing.

Ted's law firm recently celebrated their 30th anniversary and they decided to celebrate their 30 years as a firm they would hold a fundraiser dinner. A few projects were recipients of the funds raised and ours was selected as one of them :) Funds are tighter this year so this donation will really help us out. Thanks Ted!

We visited Yonels neighborhood to show what is left of Yonel's new house. The house was knocked down by British Red Cross/Haitian workers to make room for an extended canal in September and nothing has been done since. I am really disappointed with the British Red Cross. They put the project on hold in October and it hasn't been started back up yet. I am counting the months and will post each months delay. It is now 4 months that Yonel could have been living in a nice rebuilt home that the British Red Cross smashed. Pray the British Red Cross decides to finish the project. 2 of these young boys are school age. Yonel's neighborhood is a poor one. These 2 students are not part of the free education program yet but I hope one day they will get the opportunity to go to school.

photos - various - part 5

There are only a limited amount of patients the doctor can see and they come from all over as the head of the orthopedic department is an American. We brought them to the hospital at 5:00am so they could get accepted as a patient to be seen that day.

At the end of the day Mirline Noel and her mother came back to the house with a cast on her left leg.

Roodmai Pierre had a cast on his leg as well. Both parents have a return appointment after 2 weeks.

The hydrocephalus surgeries are being held and we have been busy preparing and bringing food to the hospital as well as hosting some of the mothers here at Coram Deo. This is the view of the pediatrics building at the Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare Hospital.

Different NGO organizations provide funding and material so that the hospital can provide services to the community. Among the NGO's are the American Red Cross, Food For The Poor, Gheskio and Project Medishare. A lot of people are knocking down the NGO's but these NGO's are doing a lot of work here in Haiti.

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John is getting heavy. He is a big kid. Tanya has a special hoist that will lift him from his wheelchair to his bed. Here is Grace getting him all set for lift off :)

Tanya gives a last check to see if everything is tightened and secure.

... and up he goes!

He then soars towards his bed :)

... and touches down. Those hoists are neat how they work.

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This girls left foot has the clubbed foot. We set an appointment for her to come into Port-au-Prince next week in order to go over to Hopital Adventiste, where they have an orthopedic clinic where children are treated for free for their clubbed feet. An American orthopedic surgeon is in charge of the clinic.

We also visited Williamise who is a girl with hydrocephalus. The "Cutie" is Williamise younger sister. She is 2 years old and can not walk yet.

She has strength to stand but not the strength and balance to walk. Both children have the orange hair which shows that their nutritional status is not good.

We went out to Archaie to visit Jacob. He is doing well and is now in the 5th grade.

Archaie is along the coast and is a beautiful place. We visited a beach in the making. Once it is done and the area is cleaned up a lot it would be a nice place to relax and catch some sun.

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Amos' youngest sister is number 12 in the family! They are a close and nice family. Pastor Marcelin and his wife have raised their children well.

Wilkensley Innocent is a triple amputee. He was born like that. The prosthetics program at the Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare hospital is going to help him out.

Wilkensley recently was fitted with an artificial hand. In a couple of months they are going to try and have him fitted for an artificial leg. Pray for Wilkensly and his family and for those who help him.

This man came to us on a Monday morning in severe pain. He had fallen from a roof the day before while laying blocks and his hand was swollen double in size and was very painful. We brought him over to the Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare Hospital and they determined that he had 2 broken bones in his hand. His hand hurt him so much that he was begging the doctor to cut it off. The doctor gave him a shot for pain and he stopped asking the doctor to cut his hand off. :)

Pray for healing and that he can return to his job as a cement boss.

Sometimes mothers will come to us with their babies after noticing that their development is not going normally. This boy is at the age to sit and he can't do so. The mother told me that he had been hospitalized for a month. We brought him over to the physiotherapy center in Tabarre. Pray that with physiotherapy that he will start to progress forward with his development.

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Port-au-Prince has some difficulties right now. One sad thing happening is the strike going on at the State General Hospital. Everyone at the hospital is on strike because they want the administrator to be removed. The spray painted graffitti transated reads "Tampson the 2 legged cat". I asked Amos the significance of a 2 legged cat and he said it means "thief".

This sign reads "Is working in public health equal to hell and misery?" Working there is not hell and misery, but the strike has been misery for the people stuck on their beds in the emergency room One woman basically rotted to death from an infected toe that spread into an infected leg. The gangrene killed her. The people on strike are responsible for her death. I wish that this fact was in the press. There are still about a dozen patients waiting in emergency hoping for an end to the strike. Pray for the patients who are the only ones in misery and that the strike gets settled.

At the hospital we smelled the aroma of burning tires. The students from the Ethnologie faculty of the State University have been protesting for the last week asking for the government to address problems of criminal activity in the Champ de Mars area. 2 students have been shot and killed and another student shot a couple of times last week. In anger the students have set up burning tires asking for justice.

Vehicles attempting to drive around the dumpster barricade and burning tires risked getting pelted with bottles and rocks. Pedestrian traffic was the only activity on the street.

The large tent camp on the Champ Mars in front of the National Palace is the source of the problems. Gangs inhabit some of the tarp/shelters and use them as hiding areas to conduct illegal activities. Around 20,000 refugees live on the Champ Mars in the shelters.

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We brought the man who had the leg mass removed back to the hospital last week to get his stitches removed. It is good to see him moving around. Eventually his leg should be less painful. Continue to pray for healing for him and that the mass doesn't grow back.

Miguelson Pacomme is a young boys who has 2 crooked legs. You can see how his legs are bent to the side. We brought him to the Adventist Hospital last Monday and they scheduled surgery for him on June 28th. The surgeon ordered blood tests and when we went to the lab to pick them up the lab tech told me this boy does not have good blood. His hemoglobin is 2.5. Pray we can get him a blood transfusion.

Someone in the community referred this hydrocephalus baby to us. The parents didn't know what to do. They noticed their baby's head getting larger shortly after birth.

Her name is Naika. We sent her over to Healing Hands to get registered into the hydrocephalus program. The next surgical team will probably be coming in October. Pray that the head doesn't grow too fast.

This young woman, Danie, is a cousin Solyvien. She has a facial tumor.

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It is good to see recycling of rubble too. Some of the rubble comes in the form of wood. This pickup truck that we followed behind brought the wood to a dry cleaner. A lot of dry cleaners here in Haiti use wood fuel to power their presses. We kept our distance behind this vehicle because every now and then a piece of wood would fall off.

Every time we go up Delmas 40B we pass this squashed vehicle from the day of the earthquake at the side of the road. It hasn't moved from the side of the street since the day of the earthquake. Hopefully one day this care will be hauled off to the scrap yard.

One of the challenges that the new president Michel Martelly will have is helping to resove the strike at the Natcom telephone company. The strike is now 3 weeks old. "Grev" is the creole word for strike and it is spray painted on the wall of the office in the Delmas 41 area. They are striking in support of those workers who were fired after Aristide left office in 2004. These fired workers were referred to as "ghost workers". The ghost workers were people who received pay cheques who never worked at the telephone company. A year or so ago the state telephone company was 60% privatized to a Vietnamese company and the name has been changed from Teleco toNatcom.

The gates are closed and barbed wire in place to protect the building from being vandalized. Security was in the yard and police standing out front.

All the employees of the company are on strike for the "ghost workers". This spray painted sign on the wall "back pay 36 months, we don't see it"

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This is the grade 1/2 class led by Frandy.

These group of students are at the chalkboard solving a problem. They are in the grade 3/4 class.

Jislaine, the girl in the middle of the first row is deaf and is doing well in Grade 2. She is a determined girl!

The youngest students are seen sitting at our "petite" picnic table!

Frandy is the grade 1/2 teacher.

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We were recently blessed with some food donations from Crusades for Christ! With food donations we are able to assist more people. Some families here in Haiti are really struggling right now.

Crusades for Christ make regular trips to Haiti at least 2 times a year. They always come over to say hello.

We give the Lord thanks for this blessing of food!

The political situation in Haiti is highly charged! This graffitti on a government building near the palace reads "Down with Preval; thief. Down with OEA (Organization of American States), ONU (United Nations). People are frustrated with the electoral process and several organizations are taking the blame according to this graffitti artist!

This man was running for President.