“The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.” Isaiah 33:5,6
Hi! On Friday the University of Miami Neurosurgery team came to Haiti for the evaluation of new hydrocephalus cases and post-op follow-ups. Healing Hands for Haiti and Project Medishare organized the day at Hopital La Paix. It was great seeing the children again who had been operated on before as well as the new cases. Guerdson Delile and his mother came to Port-au-Prince on the bus from Jeremie on Wednesday. We picked her up from Wharf Jeremie. She stayed here at Coram Deo until the evaluations. He is one of the patients who were there for a post-op check. His head is larger now and he will need another surgery. The surgeries will be held starting November 19th at Hopital La Paix, located on Delmas 33. Guerdson’s mother is very pregnant. I asked her how far along she was and she told me 9 months. I was praying that she wouldn’t go into labor while she was here. We brought her to the bus station on Saturday morning for the return journey to Jeremie. She will be coming back in November and I told her to bring along the newborn baby as well as someone else to help her look after both children. She is going to have her hands full! They will be staying here at the Coram Deo flophouse!
Sterline Bonhomme is a hydrocephalus/clubbed foot baby and she will need a second surgery as well in November. With all the casting changes her clubbed feet are almost straight.
Jonel Colo was a post-op patient. He is around 2 years old now and his head is huge and is continuing to grow larger. Unfortunately both sides of his head have large pressure sores on them and he is really suffering. His mother does the best she can to look after him. Due to the pressure sores on his head he is not a candidate for the upcoming surgeries. The family lives in the Tabarre area of Port-au-Prince. She told me that she had trouble getting to the hospital. When she boarded a tap-tap everyone refused to ride with her after taking a look at Jonel’s head and they all got off the tap-tap. It was a good thing that the driver had some compassion because he drove her to the hospital as the only fare. People are scared of hydrocephalus children and with their belief in superstitions see them as something that is cursed and to be avoided. We gave her a ride back to their home after the evaluation and will continue to visit her to provide support and encouragement. Pray for Jonel and his mother. Jonel is in a lot of pain because of his head and his mother has a difficult task in looking after him. She is a Christian and doesn’t see him as a curse but as her son. On our drive to the Tabarre area we also gave a couple of other mothers and their babies rides as well. One of the mothers was happy that her child got selected for surgery. The other mother was told that her child didn’t need surgery because the hydrocephalus condition resolved on its own. The head circumference went down from 49 to 48 cm. She was rejoicing and was looking forward to presenting her child to the church and explaining that her child no longer needed surgery. We also brought Vanessa Jules and her mother back to the tap-tap station in Croix des Bouquets for the return trip to Fond Verettes. We dropped her off by the church, which is near the police station. I turned around and forgot to go around the roundabout and just drove straight. I had just finished telling Reginald how lucky we were that the police didn’t see the mistake when a couple of policemen motioned for us to stop. They told us that the police station had called them on their radio to stop a green Toyota pick-up truck and that we needed to go to the police station. They climbed into the truck and we went for a ride back to the police station. I told the supervisor that I made a mistake after dropping off a hydrocephalus child and he let us go without giving me a ticket. I gave the 2 policemen a ride back to their checkpoint. They were friendly and apologized for having to take me to the police station. Reginald was quite happy to tell the story to the other children when we got back. Manu came into my room with a concerned look on his face. He told me that Reginald told him that I almost got arrested and that I had better be more careful driving.
This week Bill Clinton came to Haiti with a bunch of potential investors (Gap, Levi Strauss, Wal-Mart). As a special envoy for the UN he is trying to raise awareness and support for Haiti. The Haitian government is encouraging investment in Haiti. We were able to see part of the “Clinton convoy” on Friday driving on airport road. A bunch of UN vehicles were accompanying a bus with some foreigners in it. A little bit later I saw a UN plane heading for a landing at the airport and saw on the tail of the plane the Canadian flag. It was good to see Canadian tax dollars in action! Pray that investment comes to Haiti and that more jobs will be created so that Haiti can continue to grow and develop economically.
On Saturday we had a “family day” outing here at Coram Deo. 15 people piled onto Kimosabee and we drove over to the Centre Sportif de Carrefour to watch the 2nd Paralympic Games. It was great to see handicapped people participating in sporting activities. I was taking some pictures from the stands and the organizers invited me to come join them. A young handicapped man I know from Cite Soleil was there. Kenson has an arm that is deformed. He was participating as a member of one of the soccer teams. He scored one of the goals when the game went into penalty kicks. One of the friends of the older guys who live here at Coram Deo volunteered to help as an escort for the blind. Amos was proud to help. It is good to see handicapped people accepted more into Haitian society and hopefully next year’s event will have an even larger participation of the handicapped. Pray for the handicapped here in Haiti as they challenge the Haitian society to accept them.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
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