Color

Written by Ruth Thomas:

I'm going to add a little color here with a little background stuff:

The young man we coded on Sunday was about to leave Haiti to go to the United States and get married. His best friend couldn't go with him so they had their own early celebration. So they went to the beach with a few others. They were drinking. His best friend suddenly realized that he didn't see his friend anymore and dove under the water to find his friend. He carried him to the back of his truck and drove wildly to the hospital, just a few minutes away. He screamed for help and we began pouring out of our various work spaces for a full CODE. We tried for over an hour before stopping our efforts. The best friend cried over his friend's body. We helped load the victim back into the back of the pick up truck. An older man showed up with a small black book and the crowd of Haitians bowed their heads while the little older man read a few things from his book. The best friend hugged the victim and several others reached down to touch him, Then the truck started up and drove away.


Written by Jennie Chambers:
We are thrilled to see the amazing progress of our 73 year old patient, Jean. When we arrived she was extremely depressed, resisting her meds, and not getting out of bed. After working with therapy this week she is now getting out of her room, walking 20feet at a time, and smiling at any passerby. It is a joy seeing her hope return.

Written by Ruth Thomas:
While we work at the hospital, there are Haitians at the guesthouse doing all the chores. The chief is the grandmother. She has been here for over 19 years. Initially she brought her daughters; now she brings her grandchildren. They start around 6:30 am cooking our breakfast, and washing all our dirty dishes from the night before. Two of her granddaughters take all our dirty scrubs and whatever clothes we leave to be washed, and using two great big tubs out in the yard they wash our clothes by hand and hang them out to dry. Another granddaughter sweeps and mops our floors, cleans our bathrooms and unstops our toliets. Grandmother and another granddaughter chop up vegetables and meat, cook rice or spaghetti, make tasty sauces, and squeeze limes for fresh juice. All morning long you can smell the cooking. We have a hot meal every day for lunch and most evenings. They work until about 6 or 6:30 every night. They don't try to start a conversation, but if you speak to them they always smile and nod in return. The amount of laundry that goes through here each day is incredible. Naomi and I have been folding scrubs and sorting by size. We cleaned out some very dusty shelves in the hallway and stacked scrubs for future medical missionaries. Martha and I cleaned out the OR bathroom which had become a very dusty catch-all, and stacked cleaned scrubs by size in the closets. One night I even boiled water and washed the 20+ plates, pots, and pans. The next morning grandmother was very, very nice to me making sure I got water and helped me chop ice. I'm really not sure how she knew it was me, but I could tell she knew.

Annie Hume is from Michigan. She came to Haiti as part of a humanitaran mission 15 years ago. 12 years ago she made the decision to start an orphange in Haiti. She now has rented a big house and is taking care of 13 children. She has a partner in Haiti who helps her organize and run the mission effectively. She goes around to churches and civic groups telling the story of Haiti's needs, and specifically about her orphans. She has a regular job in a Michigan hospital as a lab tech and xray tech. Whenever she can she comes to Haiti to help with the orphanage. After the earthquake she flew back to Haiti and using a cargo truck with mattresses laid in the back she made over 35 trips back and forth to the earhquake zone transporting critically injured patients to available hospitals. Annie is loud, hyper, and prays about everything. She comes in the door calling your name and announcing the plans for the day. Annie doesn't ask what you might want to do but rather tells you what is happening and what you WILL be doing. Nnannie has invited us all to return and stay at her orphanage. She points proudly to the great blow up beds she purchased for $30 each from Walmart. She self describes herself as that "bipolar Mother Theresa you have already heard about", which was true, we had already heard about that crazy Annie. She is very proud of her orphanage. She has a website bonsamaritan.org. She helps the hospital at Pierre Payen by transporting patients and supplies all over Haiti. Her next project is to open a free clinic next to the orphanage. Check it out. You might want to help her.

Haiti's defunct Club Med;
We came here today for a beer. It was obviously once quite plush. In fact, we were told today that Bill and Hillary Clinton came here for their Honeymoon. It has a clean, private beach with volleyball set ups and a huge, fancy bar. The attendants wear Carribbean shirts. There are no bargains, but prices are acceptable. We understand many UN workers choose to stay here rather than in the big, beautiful new Embassy in Port Au Prince because it is nicer here. That means they have to drive 2 hours back and forth to Port Au Prince to work. Club Med pulled out about 15 years ago when there was so much hype about Haiti and AIDS. Anyway, it is one of the few "nice" places to eat or drink around Pierre Payen.

Carlos and LeeAnn celebrated their birthdays with us in Pierre Payen. LeeAnn was tickled pink that "our" baby girl was born for her birthday. Carlos was just happy to be with sooo many good friends. Annie made sure there was a cake and we all sang off key to celebrate. Someone put icing on Carlos' face. It is the white blob you see.