“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”
Psalm 68:19
Hi! This week was busy getting paperwork ready for 4 children with hydrocephalus. The children we are working on are Chrisno Jeudi, Nephtalie Bazile, John Charles and Dieuna Philippe. Vanessa spoke with the doctor this week and he wants to plan to do Dieuna Philippes’s surgery next. Dieuna is a 5-month-old baby with a rapidly growing head. Her family lives in Cite Soleil in the Soleil 17 area and there are 2 children in this family. Wolgine is 11 years old and she is very responsible for her age. When families are in extreme poverty children don’t get to be children for long. They need to help the family to survive. This week we needed to get a cat scan done for Dieuna. Her mother was sick and Wolgine came by herself from Cite Soleil to the house carrying her baby sister. She didn’t complain even though it must have been difficult for her. Hydrocephalus babies with larger than normal heads put a lot of weight on the arms of those carrying them especially if that person is a child. Later in the week when I found out what was wrong with the mother Wolgine came again to pick up medicine for her mother. Keep this family in prayer as they work together in looking after Dieuna.
Pharah Simeon arrived in Pennsylvania and is settling in with her host family. Early in the week she had her appointment with the doctor. He took one look at her head and decided to up the surgical date to Thursday. We give the Lord thanks for this surgery and that her head can now finally stop getting larger. Pray that there will be no post-surgical complications. Her mother has returned back to the countryside to her other children. The grandmother was looking after all 7 children while she was here in Port-au-Prince all this time with Pharah.
A mother from the Bois Neuf area of Cite Soleil came by the house this week with her 1-month old baby. The mother hasn’t had good nutrition and for some reason she wasn’t able to breastfeed. She had been giving the baby sugar water because she wasn’t able to buy formula to feed her child. The baby was born at a normal weight but had lost a little since. It was good that the mother sought out care right away. Dorothy is taking in the baby and will help Jamson through the formula stage and then he can return to his mothers care. The mother is able to visit with her baby.
Jonas Gue was a 4-month old baby with down syndrome and a heart problem. Last week his mother came to the house asking for help for him. I took the information down and told her we would start searching for medical care for him. The Lord called him home on Sunday morning.
Food prices are continuing to rise and people are asking the Haitian government to help bring food prices down. There is not much the government can do to control the inflation. It is difficult for parents to hear hungry children crying so they give them “dirt cookies”. This dirt comes from the Central Plateau region in Haiti from Hinche. Water, salt, and vegetable shortening are mixed together and these “cookies” are left to dry in the sun. These are then eaten and fill the stomach for awhile although it is not very nutritious. I have seen them being sold in the neighborhood here.
There are still import restrictions in place of poultry products from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic sent some representatives to Haiti this week to request the Haitian government to lift restrictions. The Dominicans are getting frustrated and are retaliating as well. Market sellers in the Dajabon border area are being urged not to sell to Haitians on Monday as a form of protest. An energy drink that is bottled in Haiti called “Toro” has been seized by Dominican authorities concerned about its ingredients. We haven’t bought eggs from Mdm. Elie the last couple of weeks. She said it is too difficult to get them from the border area. She did tell us though of one vendor who has managed to get eggs by mixing them in with a shipment of charcoal to get past the eyes of authorities.
In a news story this week it was reported that there are oil deposits in Haiti. These results were based on tests performed by foreign companies. Testing was done in the areas of Plaine Cul-de-Sac, L’Artibonite, Plateau Centrale, Thomonde area and the bay of Port-au-Prince. Most of this testing was done in the 1968-1977 time period. It is estimated that the petroleum reserves are larger than those of Venezuela. The story says that the petroleum reserves in Haiti are an Olympic sized swimming pool as compared to the glass of water in Venezuela. Sometimes news reports are not very accurate and maybe the petroleum reserves are only an empty bucket but time will tell.
Organizing elections in Haiti is very difficult. Now that there is a new electoral council in place the director of this council quit this week. Jacque Bernard didn’t like the new procedures that are in place.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good day!
Karen Bultje
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