haiti update - september 27, 2008

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1,2

Hi! This week was a busy week with the medical program. We were able to get 3 medical visas done this week at the US Consulate. Neyssa and Marklein are 2 children with clubbed feet. I helped Angel Missions get the medical visas for them.
Daphka Saint-Vil was born with a broken lower leg, which was never set. This caused a lower leg deformity. She too was able to get a medical visa and will be traveling to Ohio to get this surgery done. Pray for traveling mercies for these children as they will soon all be traveling to get the medical care to enable them to walk normally.
Chrisno Jeudi is recovering well after having neurosurgery for his hydrocephalus in the United States. The couple, who is his host family, are both physical therapists, so he is getting physical therapy every day. He is now rolling over from his stomach to his back and back again. That is a big accomplishment for this baby considering the size of his head. It is a real blessing that he gets this intensive physical therapy opportunity. Pray for this host family’s efforts.
Kervens Guerrier is a young boy who has only one clubbed foot. He just got approved for medical care in the United States. We will be working on his passport next week.
Miliane Pierre is a 1-month-old baby girl who was born without an anus. We are moving quickly in finding medical care for her and also in preparing all her passport paperwork. Please pray that we will be able to find care for her. The mother is young and is only 17 years old. Hopefully it won’t be a problem getting a passport application for a minor with a mother who is a minor. Pray that we don’t run into too much red tape because of this situation.
Widmirtha Mervil continues in hospital at Bernard Mevs. She is showing a slight improvement. Continue to pray that the antibiotics she is receiving will cure the infection and that her malnutrition status improves. The mother still hasn’t gone into labor, which is good. The people at the hospital are hoping that Widmirtha will improve to the point of being able to be discharged from the hospital and also that the mother doesn’t go into labor while in the hospital. The family situation in this case is terrible. The pregnant mother is on her own. I spoke with an orphanage about possibly taking in Widmirtha once she is discharged on a temporary basis while she recovers from her malnutrition state or dies. God has a plan for her life. The mother was more relaxed when I told her that I found someone who could give her a helping hand in looking after Widmirtha. The neurosurgery team from the University of Miami will be coming to Haiti on October 11th to evaluate new cases and to do post-op checks on previous surgical cases. Hopefully they can determine if an infected shunt is the cause of Widmirtha’s health problems.
We were surprised this week when John Charles family took off and abandoned him here at Coram Deo. I made Paulna babysitter for the day and asked Tony of Holy Angels if they could take him in until we found a permanent location for him. Sister Genevieve who is a Colombian nurse working at Bernard Mevs Hospital contacted Food for the Poor and they accepted John into their handicapped orphanage. Pray for their efforts. I still haven’t given up on finding help for John. Hopefully the doctors can evaluate John and decide to operate on him during their visit in October. The abandonment of children continues in Haiti. At the Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs Hospital on Tabarre Road they are averaging 2 abandoned children a week! This week in the Canape Vert area of Port-au-Prince someone abandoned a 4-month-old baby by the side of the road. Concerned citizens gave the baby something to drink, changed its diaper and a policeman stood by its side while waiting for the social service department to come and remove the child. The press was there as well. People are upset with this practice but the incidents of child abandonment are increasing as parents are becoming more desperate. Continue to pray for stability in Haiti.
This week I met a nun from the Cardinal Leger Hospital in Leogane. This hospital is a leprosy hospital. She told me that leprosy is increasing. They treated 24 cases last year coming from different areas of the country (areas such as Cite Soleil, Martissant and the north). Pray for their efforts as they work to help eliminate this ancient disease from Haiti.
A mother from Fond Verrette came by this week with her hydrocephalus child. This child has a big head but is very good neurologically. Mentally and physically (other than her head size) she is normal. She will be a good candidate for surgery and we are going to get her registered at Healing Hands on Monday morning to be included on the evaluation list. The child’s name is Vanessa Jules and she is one of a family of 8 children. The Fond Verrette area was heavily damaged during the recent tropical storms. This family had the roof lifted off of their home and their crops were destroyed. They had a cow, donkey, goats and pigs that all died during the storm. This family now struggles to rebuild what was lost. 4 people died in the Fond Verrette area during the tropical storms and last week during a thunderstorm another 7 were killed (2 men, 2 women and 3 children) when struck by lightning. Pray for all the regions in the country that suffered damage. It is estimated that 60% of this year’s food harvest has been destroyed by the tropical storms, which hit as farmers were preparing to harvest corn, plantains, rice and yams from their fields. The Artibonite region is the rice growing area of Haiti and it suffered heavy damage. It will take time for another crop to grow and now the country will have to rely even more on expensive imports and also humanitarian aid. The agricultural minister estimates that the damage to Haiti’s agricultural sector is 180 million US$. 9,000 metric tons of discounted fertilizer that had been distributed to farmers washed away in the flood. Over 90,000 heads of cattle, pigs, goats etc. died during the storms. The UN and missions are struggling to help the people affected by the flooding. It is estimated that 800,000 people are in need of help with over 100,000 people in shelters. Now that the water levels are receding the massive clean-up and repair work continues. The government is negotiating with countries and companies to repair damaged and destroyed bridges. A spokesman with AHEC (Association Haitienne des Entreprises de Construction) spoke on problems of flooding especially in the Miragoane area. He stated that the flooding in Miragoane and Lac Azuei could have been prevented with maintenance. The Etang Miragoane has outlets that lead to the sea but these were blocked because of growths of seaweed. That resulted in the transforming of a section of Highway 2 into a canoe route because of the flooding.
Some of the food aid has been diverted and instead of reaching the flooded areas it is being sold in the markets of Port-au-Prince. Corruption continues to be a major problem in Haiti. In the recently released Transparency International Report for 2008 Haiti is number 4 on the corruption list with a score of 1.4 out of 10. The other 3 countries are Somalia, Burma and Irak. Continue to keep the people of Haiti in prayer.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

photos - chrisno's surgery, various children

Chrisno Jeudi is a hydrocephalus baby that traveled last weekend to the United States for surgery. Vanessa Carpenter of Angel Missions made the arrangements for his surgery and was his escort on the plane ride to Virginia.

Chrisno had his surgery on Tuesday morning and is bouncing back quickly. He is a happy boy and has already captured the hearts of everyone who has met him.

We give the Lord thanks that medical care could be found for him. With this surgery his head will now not grow any larger and over time his body will start to grow to enable him to support his head.

This 4 year old girl was abandoned here at Coram Deo. Holy Angels has taken her into their care. Pray for Tony and Linda's efforts in providing care for her.

Johnly Stelle is a clubbed foot baby that died of a fever during the time of the tropical storms. He is now with the Lord. His father did the best he could to look after his son after the mother died shortly after giving birth to Johnly.

photos - bonnette - part 1

We made a visit with Paulna last weekend to see her family and the other people we know that live in Bonnett. Before the entrance to the village is where the crops are planted. The people of the village grow sugar cane, beans and "pitimi" (millet). This horse is feeding off the grass. There is a nearby "sous" (spring) which causes this land to be fertile. Fortunately the heavy rains didn't affect the crops here.

The road to the village is now a swamp so we parked the pick-up truck and enjoyed a walk to the village. Common transportation for the people living in this village are donkeys.

It was a good day for a walk. I went with the older guys who are part of Coram Deo and Paulna.

We needed to cut through the sugar cane field to bypass the mud.

There was already a path cut through the sugar cane that we followed.

photos - bonnett - part 2

The man sitting on the ground is Paulna's father. He is a very hard working man. Here he is working on a handle that he is making for his hoe.

The children are happy in this village and are eager to have their picture taken.

These women are preparing their food. Bonnette is a friendly village. Most of the people living in this village are related.

Evnelson is a young boy who is starting to battle malnutrition. He is now starting to stagger a bit when he walks. His face is dirty because he was eating dirt. This is a common thing for children to do when they are not getting proper nutrition. Keep him in prayer. If he gets worse we are going to suggest to his mother to maybe put him into an orphanage so that he can get proper care. His older brother Evnerson is at Deedee's home and doing well there now. Within a month he was standing and walking.

This lady is known as "Radio Grandma". When we got close to her home she was singing and dancing with this baby in her arms. She was singing the name Remika to get our attention. Remika is a baby that we brought to Holy Angels that was suffering from malnutrition. This woman is Remika's grandmother. Paulna told me her nickname is "Radio Grandma" because she is always entertaining the village with her singing and dancing. She is a jolly woman despite her poverty.

photos - bonnette - part 3

Mud huts don't take much to damage. The hut in the background shows damage to the thatch roof and mud/stick walls. The village of Bonnette held up well during all the rains. The girl that won't look at the camera is Doudeleimy. She recently came back from the United States after surgery to correct her clubbed feet.

Williamise is a young girl who lives in this village. She has hydrocephalus. The family out of superstition believe that if she is operated on she will not be able to walk. She is doing alright but is starting to have seizures probably due to the pressure on her brain.

Paulna is showing off riding on a friends donkey.

This is me sitting on the back end of a donkey.

A herd of sheep walked by near the back part of the village. You would never have known that there was rain in this area. It is already back to being dusty.

haiti update - september 20, 2008

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6”

Hi! Coram Deo now has a school program again! We opened on Monday and 7 children showed up. We are starting with 2 classes, one for handicapped children and 1 for children who have not had the opportunity to go to school. The majority of the children will start attending in October. The only problem we had this week with the school program was on the first day when I asked the cook to prepare an extra 10 plates of food for lunch. She refused saying that that was too much work and that I would have to pay her more money. It ended up that we now need another cook. Marie has cooking duties right now. The vision I have for the school program is to provide children with a Christian education and to show the community that handicapped children should be integrated into the regular school system. It was frustrating when I found out that a local school removed all the handicapped children saying that they needed special teachers in a special school setting. Haitian society and culture believe handicapped children are separate from regular society. Pray that we can once again work in the community and show the community how handicapped children can learn in a regular school setting with other children and that they can contribute and be respected by those around them.
This week was also a busy week with the medical program. We had to deal with a few emergencies this week. Late Sunday night I got a call from the clinic where Dieuna Philippe was staying at for a temporary basis before her family would take her home. Dr. Joey had said that she had suddenly died. I took a few of the guys with me and we drove over to the clinic, which is located in the Mais Gate region between the top of Delmas 31 and Airport Road. Because it was late at night, we kept the truck in a more open area that we could get away from easier. We had to do a little bit of walking through the neighborhood and the only people out were local drinkers at a few street-side bars. Walking through the neighborhood I had to pretend that I was carrying a sick baby. Nobody noticed and we walked to where the truck was parked. We were able to travel quickly to the downtown morgue at General Hospital because the streetlights don’t work late at night and there were only a couple of vehicles on the road. It is good to see the police providing better security at night now. At one time they used to never be outside on the streets after dark. They stopped us on the way home and asked what we were doing. I didn’t want to say that we had brought a body to the morgue and told them that I brought someone to General Hospital. He asked me where this person was and I told him that she was still there. He let us drive on after that and we made it back home. Pray for Dieuna’s family during this time of loss. God had a different plan for her than living in Cite Soleil.
On Thursday morning a man came to Coram Deo holding a cleft lip baby in his arms. His wife had given birth by caesarian section at the state Chancerelles hospital 6 hours earlier. He didn’t know what to do. The child had not yet received any liquids. We ended up going to see Dixie Bickel over at God’s Littlest Angels and she examined her. She was able to get her to suck with a cleft lip nipple and bottle. The new father was relieved to see his baby drink from a baby bottle. We will keep contact with the family and hopefully one day this baby girl will get surgery to correct this deformity. People in Haiti are superstitious about what causes cleft lips. I have heard people tell me it is caused because the mother was startled, or fell down or ate some crabs while she was pregnant. That day I heard another reason. A Haitian woman told the father that his child was this way because the mother must have eaten cows feet while she was pregnant. We returned the family to the hospital so that the father could show his wife that their baby girl could still drink. It’s good to see happy endings!
It took us 3 days this week to get help for Widmirtha Mervil, a 3-year-old hydrocephalus girl. She has been sick since July and the mother couldn’t find help for her. The child was operated on in the May hydrocephalus surgeries. She came to Coram Deo on Monday and we finally found a hospital that would admit her on Friday afternoon. She is severely malnourished and can no longer eat as well as having an infection. She is now on iv’s and will be tube fed. This little girl has suffered much. Her mother is 8 months pregnant with her second child. Pray that Widmirtha can recover from her illness and also that her mother doesn’t go into labor before her other child is released from the hospital. The mother says that she doesn’t have any family living in Port-au-Prince that can help her out.
Dieunette Lormintus who just recently returned from the United States after having surgery to remove an encepholocele growing at the back of her head has gone through a lot lately. Dieunette came back to Haiti after Tropical Storms Fay and Gustav had hit. Her mother is from a place called Nan Remy, which is in the Gonaives area. The mother was eager to leave Port-au-Prince and get back home to Nan Remy before the arrival of Tropical Storm Hannah so we dropped her off at the bus station in Port-au-Prince that would take her back to her home on that Saturday morning. She was home only a couple of days before Tropical Storm Hannah hit. This was the storm that caused a lot of damage and flooding in Gonaives. We got word later in the week that Dieunette was very sick and the mother had also contacted an orphanage telling them that she didn’t know how she was going to look after her. Because of the damage in Gonaives and the upcoming Hurricane Ike that was going to start affecting Haiti the decision was made by the orphanage to send Lisa to meet the mother and get back to Port-au-Prince as quickly as possible. Because the road was flooded at Gonaives, Lisa needed to travel partly by foot. She reached Dieunette and her mother on Friday. We were able to keep in cell phone contact with Lisa until she took a stumble in a river and dropped the phone in the water. There was also a back up plan for getting back to Port-au-Prince. If she couldn’t get through the Gonaives region there was a helicopter being used by a mission that offered to help out. They were able to make it back through the Gonaives region and into Port-au-Prince. She was treated for an ear infection and we took her for a cat scan the next day. The cat scan results show she has a slight enlargement of the ventricles in her brain, which could indicate a developing hydrocephalus. The neurosurgeon that operated on her in the United States has reviewed her cat scan and said this week that she may need to have another brain surgery. Right now she is living in the orphanage that her mother put her in. Keep Dieunette in prayer during this time and also her mother as she returned back to Nan Remy.
Chrisno Jeudi traveled to the United States on Sunday morning with Vanessa and had his surgery for hydrocephalus on Tuesday morning. He came through surgery well and is enjoying living without all that pressure in his brain. He is very active and playful. He still has a large head but over time will be able to adapt to it as his body grows. We give the Lord thanks for His healing mercies.
Continue to pray for all those still suffering from the flooding. Food aid is coming in but there are many people that need assistance.
That is all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

photos - floods

Gonaives is one of the largest cities in Haiti. It has a population of around 300,000 people. The entire city was flooded as this city sits in a valley area surrounded by mountains.

Many houses are destroyed along with the people living in them. It will take time for the waters to recede completely. This is the second major flood in this city. The last flood in 2004 killed around 3000 people.

This photo shows the flooding in the low-lying areas.

The Miragoane area is flooded. The Miragoane region is in the southern part of the country. This is Highway 2 which is no longer open to vehicular traffic. This southern highway leads to Port-au-Prince. You need to take a canoe to go down this highway. The charge is 50 gourdes or about $1.25 per person. The canoe travels to where the flooded area ends and then people board regular public transportation.

Cabaret suffered a lot of damage from the flooding of Hurricane Ike. Most of the people who died were children. These photos were all taken from the internet.