We didn’t leave for today’s medical clinic until around 7:00am. That was kinda nice as it felt like sleeping in!
Ashley’s phone is still missing, and I know she is praying that somehow she will get it back before we head down the mountain on Monday morning. We are at least praying that she will be able to recover the pictures from it.
Some of us rode motorcycles to the clinic today, and some rode in the truck. Moriah and I rode on a motorcycle together, and Garett rode with Micah. First we stopped so that Hannah could make a house call on a little old grandma with some stomach pain. Hannah said that she could give the grandma something for the pain, but that nothing could really be done. The lady was about 95 years old, and she would’ve been in hospice care in the U.S. But Pastor Kevin and his dad presented her with the Gospel, and Hannah gave her something to manage the pain.
On our way again....we arrived at the place we were going to do the clinic around 8:30am. Someone was already preaching the Gospel when we arrived, so we took a look around to see what clinic set up would look like today. This location does not have a church building yet, so the clinic would look different today. Someone had offered up their house and a small hut. It meant getting creative with our set-up, but God always works out the little details too. The pharmacy clinic was set up across road while the doctor and nurses worked in the small house across the road and down the hill a bit. The improvement crew was working on moving rocks so that land could be cleared for their church building.
Garett became the “runner” for Moriah. She would give him a list of things she needed for her patients, and Garett would come up to pharmacy to get the medicine. He also had to carry the pee sample cups to the clinic, and that wasn’t his favorite job! Josiah and Grandpa Falde worked for us in the pharmacy by translating for us. Hannah and Pastor Kevin tried to triage the people waiting outside. Hannah said it was a challenge though because she’d get the bench of people cleared off (gave them meds, etc.) but then turn around and the whole bench would be filled with people again!
We saw a lot of kids and adults with coughs, and a lot of older people who needed eye drops and pain patches (but we didn’t have very much of either of those!).
Moriah and Hannah did an ultrasound on a pregnant mama and discovered that she was having twins!! When Grandpa told her about her twin babies, she didn’t seem very excited. While it’s something that I might be excited about in the states, for this dear Haitian mama it’s another mouth to feed when there’s already not enough food!
A little while later Hannah came up to the pharmacy carrying a toddler. She handed the little girl to me and said to be sure to keep her head up. The little girl had an oxygen level of 84 and a heart rate of 160! She was dehydrated and had an upper respiratory infection. She needed fluids, and today Hannah had come prepared! Hannah had packed all the IV stuff we had at Seguin, and for the second time in two days, she needed to put in an IV. I sat on the ground holding the little baby while Moriah and Hannah got prepared to put in an IV on a small very dehydrated child. Garett came by and asked me why I had my eyes closed. I told him that I was praying, and that I’m not a huge fan of needles and small kids. Thankfully, Hannah was able to find the vein quickly and calmly. The little girl hardly even made a peep! I sat on the ground and held the baby while the IV dripped. Hannah gave the baby some medication via IV and after about 1 1/2 hours, we saw some serious improvement! The baby was able to nurse, and her fever was coming down. Hannah and the doctor had thought about sending the baby down the mountain to the clinic in Perido. But since it’s a Saturday, and Hannah wasn’t entirely sure that the hospital would have what the little girl needed, they decided to try to do what they could first. God blessed those efforts. Kevin gave the mom the option of going down to the clinic/ hospital but the mom didn’t want to go. Kevin encouraged the mom to come to Seguin if the little girl gets worse, but she definitely seems to be making a change for the better.
I don’t know what time we arrived back at the mission house today! When we arrived back, we unloaded the medical supplies and then repacked for our final day of medical clinic. The repacking part wasn’t too hard as everything we had left as far as vitamins, tums, Tylenol, etc we would be taking with us to Maribol in the morning.
The burn baby showed back up tonight as well as a very pregnant mama. (I think she’s the sister to the burn baby’s dad) The burns are looking better, but there was still some black ash that needed to be washed off. Hannah and Moriah worked as gently as they could, but I know it had to be terribly painful for that baby. Hannah does an amazing job of staying calm under stressful situations, and she and Moriah got the job done. Then you could almost hear the sigh of relief in the room as the baby stopped crying. As painful as it must have been for the baby, that little one now has another opportunity in life. God knew that we would be here this week. He knew that this baby would get a burn this week. Without Hannah’s intervention the black ash on those wounds would’ve caused that baby to become septic. That’s a special little girl that the medical clinic was able to help.
The majority of us are exhausted and weary, but the grace of God carries us forward moment by moment. Today we think we saw around 237 people. It’s hard to tell since we ran out of numbered bands and every scrap of paper available!
Funny moment: Listening to Micah and Josh talk about the “church services” in their room at three am. A lot of Haitian people don’t have the concept of time like Americans do (which isn’t all bad!). However, apparently one of the Haitian pastors gets up early in the morning, speaks a word, and all the other Haitian people sit up in their beds. Then they start singing and reading the Bible and having discussion. It’s rather humorous to listen to Josh and Micah talk about how they’d just like to be sleeping! And then in the girls room, some of the ladies were saying how nice it was to wake up to the sound of the Haitians singing! 😂
I know we are all getting tired because today at clinic I asked someone what 2*9 was, and then not five minutes later Hannah was asking a similar question! Haha! We are thankful for rest tonight. It’ll be another busy day tomorrow with church service and then a clinic. Gina is planning on children’s church tomorrow, and I’m sure it will be a blessing!
God is good.
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