Good morning everyone!
Yesterday was "one of those" days... there is a bad cold making its rounds at this mission here (and actually, in the Aleg valley as a whole) that has several of us down :( The unfortunate thing is that work must go on! So that's leaving several of us pretty worn down and tattered feeling! Prayers would be appreciated for those things...
There was a good church service in church on Sunday- Pastor Levy preached about the Judgement Seat of God and how Jesus is the only way to have salvation at that time. We're praying that it was a well received message by the congregation. We all need to hear those kind of messages from time to time!
Grandpa got back from his long weekend in Port au Prince yesterday, too. It's nice to have him back in the mountains! He came down and joined us for supper last night- a wonderful meal of chicken soup, garlic bread and snack bars. Since so many of us have this nasty cold, the soup was a welcome relief for our sore throats :)
Today we're continuing on with everyday life! The clinic opened at it's normal 9am time, the garden workers were here earlier and are working around the compound, others of us are doing office work, painting, cleaning and preparing for our next house parents to arrive.
We also had a nice rain the other night- we've needed some here, since one of our cisterns is now dry. Thankfully we have the smaller backup one for such needs :)
Have a blessed day everyone! Thanks for checking back in here at the Haiti Life blog!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Saturday, July 28th, 2012
Ah, yes, Saturday... a day to sleep in... a day to recuperate... a day to relax and-- wait, what was that? Was that a knock at the gate? Oh, it's just a normal visitor. But what's this? He says someone is sick at the clinic? Hmmm... this could be the end of our "relaxing" Saturday :)
Turns out there were about 6 people at the clinic, some needing bandages, some with appointments (of which we didn't know about, courtesy of one of the Haitian nurses who didn't tell us), and a man on a stretcher.
Michael and Breanna got to work on the appointment patients and the bandage people. It took several hours and brunch was delayed for quite a while.
It turned out the man on the stretcher had a serious infection somewhere in his head; his right eye was swollen shut and several swollen infected areas around his skull. The left side of his body was paralyzed, which seemed to point to brain problems. Michael decided to take him out to the hospital. By 1 o'clock in the afternoon he was ready to go. Later on this evening (after Michael delivered him to the hospital) we heard back from the family that he had passed away a few hours after being admitted... It was a sober reminder to all of us of the importance of our work here- in both physical and spiritual ways...
Back here, though, the rest of us cleaned up the clinic and continued in our day... for the most part it was very relaxed with no more incidents :) For supper the cooks prepared a wonderful meal of tortillas and Mexican toppings; we all enjoyed it immensely!
Pastor Levy showed up in the evening and will spend the night here. He'll be preaching at church tomorrow, so please be praying for him!
Well, that's about all to report from today! Have a blessed night everyone, and a good Lord's day tomorrow!!
Turns out there were about 6 people at the clinic, some needing bandages, some with appointments (of which we didn't know about, courtesy of one of the Haitian nurses who didn't tell us), and a man on a stretcher.
Michael and Breanna got to work on the appointment patients and the bandage people. It took several hours and brunch was delayed for quite a while.
It turned out the man on the stretcher had a serious infection somewhere in his head; his right eye was swollen shut and several swollen infected areas around his skull. The left side of his body was paralyzed, which seemed to point to brain problems. Michael decided to take him out to the hospital. By 1 o'clock in the afternoon he was ready to go. Later on this evening (after Michael delivered him to the hospital) we heard back from the family that he had passed away a few hours after being admitted... It was a sober reminder to all of us of the importance of our work here- in both physical and spiritual ways...
Back here, though, the rest of us cleaned up the clinic and continued in our day... for the most part it was very relaxed with no more incidents :) For supper the cooks prepared a wonderful meal of tortillas and Mexican toppings; we all enjoyed it immensely!
Pastor Levy showed up in the evening and will spend the night here. He'll be preaching at church tomorrow, so please be praying for him!
Well, that's about all to report from today! Have a blessed night everyone, and a good Lord's day tomorrow!!
Friday, July 27, 2012
July 26th, 2012
Well, yesterday Dan and Martha left in the morning to go visit their son at CAM (in Port au Prince). After that they'll be headed back to the States. We will miss them a lot! They brought such a beautiful element to the mission- to have so much wisdom, experience and love present here was indeed a tremendous blessing!
The night before, we had a good old fashioned hot-dog roast over an open fire. We sang and talked and just had a grand time. It was the perfect way to end their visit here. Ah, good memories that we'll carry on for quite some time, I'm sure...
But with them leaving, the girls had a lot of cleaning to do; bedding, bedrooms and cleaning everything else up. Their room will be used by our next "House Parents", Dave and Mary Grice, who arrive next week. We might even try painting the room (since it's been in need of a new coat for a while :) before they arrive, but we'll have to see how that goes!
Anyhow, clinic went smoothly for the nurses until a mother arrived with her 4 month old baby. The child could hardly breathe and had a lot of fluid or mucus in its lungs. The nurses put it on oxygen and watched it carefully.
At around 2pm they decided it would need to be on oxygen for at least another 24 hours- the only problem was that we didn't have that enough oxygen to do that. We only had about 12 hours worth left. So, it was decided that some of us would take the mother and baby out to Leagonne (not entirely on the spelling for that...) where they have a nice hospital. You can read about all those adventures on the clinic blog tomorrow :)
The rest of the day went well without incident, thankfully :) It was a nice 90 degrees in the middle of the day, with scattered clouds and some wind. It threatened to rain at one point in the afternoon (I know, many of you back home would love to have some...) but thankfully didn't until late at night.
Thankfully for the trip out to town with that mother and baby, but unfortunate for those of us who drove back home around 10:30pm! We got a good soaking rain :) But when we arrived, we were greeted with a nice warm supper of chili! It was the perfect ending to a long day...
The night before, we had a good old fashioned hot-dog roast over an open fire. We sang and talked and just had a grand time. It was the perfect way to end their visit here. Ah, good memories that we'll carry on for quite some time, I'm sure...
But with them leaving, the girls had a lot of cleaning to do; bedding, bedrooms and cleaning everything else up. Their room will be used by our next "House Parents", Dave and Mary Grice, who arrive next week. We might even try painting the room (since it's been in need of a new coat for a while :) before they arrive, but we'll have to see how that goes!
Anyhow, clinic went smoothly for the nurses until a mother arrived with her 4 month old baby. The child could hardly breathe and had a lot of fluid or mucus in its lungs. The nurses put it on oxygen and watched it carefully.
At around 2pm they decided it would need to be on oxygen for at least another 24 hours- the only problem was that we didn't have that enough oxygen to do that. We only had about 12 hours worth left. So, it was decided that some of us would take the mother and baby out to Leagonne (not entirely on the spelling for that...) where they have a nice hospital. You can read about all those adventures on the clinic blog tomorrow :)
The rest of the day went well without incident, thankfully :) It was a nice 90 degrees in the middle of the day, with scattered clouds and some wind. It threatened to rain at one point in the afternoon (I know, many of you back home would love to have some...) but thankfully didn't until late at night.
Thankfully for the trip out to town with that mother and baby, but unfortunate for those of us who drove back home around 10:30pm! We got a good soaking rain :) But when we arrived, we were greeted with a nice warm supper of chili! It was the perfect ending to a long day...
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
July 24th, 2012
It's been a nice, busy day so far!
Yes, a lot has gone on since the last post on this blog and we're sorry you've not been a part of it! Hopefully that will change in the coming weeks as we try our best to keep this blog updated a little more vigilantly! :)
Well, some things to note before we begin: Steve and his family are currently on furlough in the States and won't be back until the 14th of August. In the mean time, Dan and Martha Mast have come down for a few weeks to be the mission "house parents".
Michael is also gone for a week, helping his dad with one of their pastors' training conferences. They'll be back in Aleg this Friday, so we're looking forward to having them back here! One of Michael's Haitian friends (Wilmon) is staying here while they're gone, assisting with translation and various tasks.
So, coming back to the current day's activities...
Today the temperature was (as almost is the case) in the 90's at the sun's apex and gradually went down to a comfortable 75-80 degrees. There were a few clouds in the skies and a slight breeze towards the middle of the day.
Clinic was fairly busy, the total amount of people totaling around 50. They were able to finish around 1:30pm though. Compared to a month ago (when there were up to 105 people coming in one day) it wasn't too bad :) Check out the clinic blog to see the interesting happenings there...
The usual washing, cleaning and cooking went on in the houses, with the ladies providing great meals. Breakfast was a casserole with eggs, ham, green peppers and some cheese. It was delicious :) Lunch was the usual beans and rice, with red sauce.
Grandpa Harold came by this morning, bringing his truck with him. He had some of the young men power wash it and put some wax on, shining it up real nice. Hopefully the next trip down the trail won't dirty it up too much!
Many of us are still a bit worn out from our travels on the weekend. We all went to CAM in Port au Prince for the monthly missionary Bible study... different missions participate and host it each month and it's a real blessing to get together with other missionaries and have a refreshing time of fellowship!
Well, we'll close here for the evening. It's almost supper time!
God bless!
-GtH in Aleg
Yes, a lot has gone on since the last post on this blog and we're sorry you've not been a part of it! Hopefully that will change in the coming weeks as we try our best to keep this blog updated a little more vigilantly! :)
Well, some things to note before we begin: Steve and his family are currently on furlough in the States and won't be back until the 14th of August. In the mean time, Dan and Martha Mast have come down for a few weeks to be the mission "house parents".
Michael is also gone for a week, helping his dad with one of their pastors' training conferences. They'll be back in Aleg this Friday, so we're looking forward to having them back here! One of Michael's Haitian friends (Wilmon) is staying here while they're gone, assisting with translation and various tasks.
So, coming back to the current day's activities...
Today the temperature was (as almost is the case) in the 90's at the sun's apex and gradually went down to a comfortable 75-80 degrees. There were a few clouds in the skies and a slight breeze towards the middle of the day.
Clinic was fairly busy, the total amount of people totaling around 50. They were able to finish around 1:30pm though. Compared to a month ago (when there were up to 105 people coming in one day) it wasn't too bad :) Check out the clinic blog to see the interesting happenings there...
The usual washing, cleaning and cooking went on in the houses, with the ladies providing great meals. Breakfast was a casserole with eggs, ham, green peppers and some cheese. It was delicious :) Lunch was the usual beans and rice, with red sauce.
Grandpa Harold came by this morning, bringing his truck with him. He had some of the young men power wash it and put some wax on, shining it up real nice. Hopefully the next trip down the trail won't dirty it up too much!
Many of us are still a bit worn out from our travels on the weekend. We all went to CAM in Port au Prince for the monthly missionary Bible study... different missions participate and host it each month and it's a real blessing to get together with other missionaries and have a refreshing time of fellowship!
Well, we'll close here for the evening. It's almost supper time!
God bless!
-GtH in Aleg
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Putting up corn...
The Haitians around here have been harvesting their feed corn and storing up in trees,
where rats can't get to them!
The corn is gathered up in bundles down on the ground, then pulled up to the treetop.
This man has climbed up the tree and is standing in a "sling" which has been wrapped around the tree. From there, he pulls the bundle of corn up, while someone on the ground keeps the rope taught.
The bundle of corn is then unloaded and packed into a special wire frame which (once tightened) will hold the bundle in place.
Of course, the children help out as much as they can :)
Once they have filled up a tree, they go to another.
Walking around down here, you'll see many palm trees with bunches of corn hung from them.
They system works very well, ensuring their crops won't become the dinner of hungry rodents :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)