haiti update - december 27, 2009

“I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

Hi! Every day there are always people searching for help for their children. A 17-year-old mother came with her 12-day-old baby and members of her family. They came from the hillside area above Carrefour. Her son Juvenson was born with a severe cleft lip and palette. He was not able to breast-feed and the family was doing their best to give him fluids. His eyes were both swollen shut due to an eye infection. Samuel Marcelin and his brother Amos, who are part of Coram Deo, brought them on Monday up the mountain to Dixie Bickel at God’s Littlest Angels. She is a nurse who specializes in neo-natal care. As soon as they arrived Dixie’s staff started providing care. The eye infection is severe and we don’t know if he will have irreversible eye damage because of it. Because the cleft lip/palette defect is severe medical care will be sought in the United States or Canada. Pray that this young baby will not be blind and for the staff at God’s Littlest Angels who will be caring for him. We rejoice that during this Christmas season Juvenson has the gift of life.
A mother who lives in Petit Goave came with her 4-year-old son. Sonson was born with clubbed feet and the mother never was able to get medical care to correct this congenital defect. As a result he can’t stand or walk. He scoots around on his backside to move around. He is also small for his age and weighs only 20 pounds. Sonson never received an adequate amount of nutrition to grow like other children his age. Dorothy of Faith, Hope, Love Infant Rescue is willing to care for him temporarily while we find medical care for his clubbed feet. Cure International will be coming to Cap Haitian again in March 2010 with another orthopedic team and hopefully he will be able to get surgery then. The pediatrician at Dorothy’s who examined him also found him to have scoliosis as well. Pray for the staff at Faith, Hope, Love Infant Rescue as they care for Sonson and build his health up for future surgery. Pray also that one day Sonson will be able to stand and walk.
Fonise Cadeau stopped by the house to say hello. She is continuing in her recovery and is slowly getting stronger. We weighed her on December 20th and she still only weighs 85 pounds. Pray that she continues to strengthen and gain weight. We’ll continue to monitor her progress.
Every day is always a surprise here at Coram Deo as we never know who will be coming to the gate and what problems that they may come with. We give the Lord thanks for the opportunity to be an advocate for people in trouble.
Islande and her mother spent Christmas with us here at Coram Deo. Her hand and arm are still swollen. She will be going back to Cap Haitian on January 9th for a follow-up visit with the doctors there. Pray for continued healing and for the swelling to go down.
Everybody was surprised on Wednesday morning with a dose of a cold weather front from Jamaica along with gusty winds and rain. This time of the year is supposed to be the dry season. Everyone raced to the roof to rescue the rooster, hen and 5 baby chickens. The children decided that they would house them in their room. They placed the mother hen and her chicks on one of the shelves, and the rooster on the lower shelf. The temperature was only around 20C and I brought out my Canada clothes out of the storage box and shared them with everyone. I wore a sweat suit for the entire day, as it never got warm. It was fun telling everyone cold Canada winter stories! I don’t think they want to visit Canada anymore after hearing them!
Everyone wanted to eat chicken for Christmas dinner and the children wouldn’t let us eat their own rooster and chicken so we went to a wholesaler and bought a case. We had enough chicken for Christmas Eve and day too! Manu and Benson came along for the grocery shopping trip and as we approached our street corner Manu pointed out to one of the tire changers and announced to us that this man was the “Naked Thief” who was arrested the other week. It looks like the police had sympathy for him and gave him his freedom as his Christmas gift (or maybe he purchased his freedom)!
A new year is almost here and at the end of 2009 are some good changes for the better that are occurring here in Haiti. The state General Hospital received 12 million gourdes ($296,000US$) of extra funding from the government and Dr. Alix Lessegue who is the director announced what changes have been made with this funding. The physiotherapy unit has been renovated. 3 more rooms have been renovated in the maternity department along with sonogram equipment being purchased. The dialysis department is functioning. Digestive endoscopy equipment are now in place again after 3 years of absence due to repairs that were needed and 8 doctors are in the emergency room day and night to treat patients. One of the changes that we have seen over the last couple of months is that visitors now need a visitor card to gain access to the hospital grounds. Pray for continued progress at the state hospital in the new year. A lot of the poor come to General Hospital for their medical needs.
Sogener S.A. is one of Haiti’s largest independent power providers that contract out to the state electricity company. The company announced that it will expand its’ power production capacities with the addition of a new 10 megawatt generator. The increased capacity will be effective January 2010. According to the company, this additional supply represents an average of a 3-hour reduction in blackout time for Port-au-Prince. Right now we are getting around 12 hours of electricity per day. We look forward to the extra electricity! Power supply is one of the factors that new investors looking to invest in Haiti would consider.
Sonapi is a large industrial complex, which is located off of Airport Rd. In the new year construction of 7 buildings will be added to the complex. Hopefully new factories will move into these buildings and provide more jobs for the Haitian people.
We give the Lord thanks for serving Him another year here in Haiti and look forward to a new year!
Have a blessed New Year from everyone here at Coram Deo!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo