The Last Day

Thursday was our last full day in Haiti and it was also the day that my half of the group got to go out into the village with Jennifer to do home visits. We made several stops, one of which was a short visit at Pastor Clebert's church. Pastor C rode with us on the visits and was our translator/preacher man and as Jennifer stated he has become much more bold in his faith.

Here is a little tiny picture of all of us sitting inside the "sanctuary". Very quaint! We prayed for Pastor and for his congregation to be salt and light in the village of Pignon.
Also on our scheduled stops was a mother of twins that was not in good health. We stopped in the area that she was suppose to be but we were told that she had moved in with the witch doctor to receive help for her illness. We headed there and were invited inside to visit with her. We walked in to find her hunched over on a dirty bed, heaving to breath and eyes wide and hollow. We prayed over her for healing and salvation. Sadly, just a few days after our return home we learned that this mother had died and her brother had brought the twins to the feeding clinic for care.Lying beside her on the bed were her twin babies, swaddled in urine soaked blankets. Amanda and I picked them up and cuddled them for the brief time we were there. Oddly enough, they seemed to be in fairly good condition considering their surroundings.As I look back at these pictures I find it kind of odd that we're smiling given the overall feeling of oppression in this tiny hut. I guess it's just natural that, for us in the States, when someone pulls out a camera the first thing you do is smile.
It was so eerie to look around inside and see all the potions and paintings across the walls.
Right beside me was a cross, fresh with ashes and bottles from sacrifice. As we stood there praying I could feel the ceiling made of cloth resting on my head. The air was thick and heavy and all I could feel was hopelessness in that place. I was so thankful to step out into the light and feel the sunshine on my face. I've since learned that both of the babies died suspiciously within hours of each other under the care of the witch doctor. I really don't see how Jennifer deals emotionally with all of the tragedy that takes place around her. She's truly a special soul.
These boys were also living at the witch doctor's house. They were just standing around and I asked them if I could take their picture. Neither of them would smile.....until I showed them the image on the back of my camera. That brought snickers and giggles from both of them.
Here's another guy from the WD's house. I don't know why but I've always really liked this image.
The air was sugary sweet surrounding the WD's. Come to find out they were brewing some time of alcohol drink in this hut. There was smoke billowing out of the caldron and they stirred it with a big stick. Quite interesting.
Here is another WD's hut. You can tell a WD lives there by the tall flags, each color flag representing the god/gods to which he prays.
This family of four lives right next to the WD. This family was described to us as "the poorest of the poor". Going inside their stick home was eye opening. Please kick my shin the next time I complain that I can't open up my ironing board in my laundry room. Perspective. I gained a lot of it on this trip. One of the cool things is that Steve, our co-leader, is taking another team back at the end of March to build a home for this family in another part of the village away from the WD. I SO wish I could be a part of that team!!
We made a stop on the way back to visit with a family that comes to the feeding clinic regularly. While there I got to love on these sweet girls and kiddos.
I loved the smile on this girl's face. She was so genuinely happy. We ended up inviting her to bring her baby to the feeding program. An interesting thing was that Jennifer asked her how old she was and she had no idea.
I got to hold this precious little baby that had inherited his mother's infectious smile. We were all calling him "her" based on the pink smocked dress he was wearing. We all got a big laugh when I raised up his dress to reveal that she was most definitely a he!

The visit to the village was my most favorite day of the whole trip. I'd go back again and again for that day alone.

I can't let the picture pass of Amanda and me cutting the cheese. No. Really. We were actually cutting cheese. Somehow we ended up, along with Samantha, preparing dinner for everyone. It was a nice american pasta dish and that was the biggest slab of mozzarella I had ever seen in my life!

After a ds party for the boys (where each boy got his very own ds game!) and smores and glow sticks for the rest it was time to call it a night. We were up bright and early to say goodbye to our new friends, Bill and Jennifer, and we were tearfully leaving behind Kari and baby Rudy.
We were weighed and loaded into our 5 passenger plane. Ashley and I hugged and gave our sentiments to one another to pass along to our families in the event that one plane made it and the other didn't. It was so dramatic :) Thankfully, both flights were smooth and we all made it back safely!

And to think, the week had passed so quickly and for 7 days we were under the security detail of this man:

Sigh. I already want to go back. Haiti and a group of 10 strong women and 3 godly men have stolen a piece of my heart. Rhett had a little part in a play a few years ago where he quoted Isaiah 6:8 and when I think of his little voice saying the child sized version it makes my eyes burn..."And I heard the Lord say, Whom shall I send? Here I am, Lord, send me!" Haiti 2012 is in the books. And, Lord, here I am! Send me!

Church

Pastor, who had been with us the entire week, wanted so badly for us to come and visit his church. So on Wednesday late afternoon we loaded into Bill's Ford and took out on the hour and a half journey. We stopped along the way to pick up Pastor and I was amazed when the truck came to a halt in the middle of nowhere and Pastor came walking out from a small trail in the wilderness (followed by his mom, waving wildly, obviously so proud of her son. I loved that!), no house in sight, yet still squeaky clean with clothes pressed better than I send my kids to school in each day. Wait. I don't press at all so that's not a good comparison. Pressed just as good as Bobby's work shirts.....that's better :) Here's a little sample of the roads we traveled while there:

Even though the ride was rough standing in the back of that pick up, the scenery made it all worth it. The skies were unbelievable and the mountains breathtaking. It really was some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever lain eyes on.
About midway through the trip we had to cross literally through a river. We didn't go just from one side to the other. We had to drive about a hundred yards down river, make a crazy sharp turn, and then head up one of the steepest hills in Haiti. I made that up. It's probably not near the steepest but when you're in the back of a pick up truck holding on it felt extremely dangerous.
Right when we rolled up I could hear the singing from the church. It is something I'll never forget.
There were so many kids! Kids piled inside and kids just sticking their heads in through the makeshift windows just to hear. We were told this wasn't even their regular church night. This was just a special service just for us so it made the turn out and the singing all the more heartwarming!

This is Haitian Chip Leake (our church's music leader) :) I personally think that every church needs to get an accordion player just to keep things fresh. This guy was awesome!After that service, where I have no idea what Pastor said while preaching but I know for certain he brought it, we headed back to our Ford linked hand to hand because it was so, so incredibly dark. We piled in and drove away being chased by at least 30 kids screaming and waving. I remember driving that dirt road, hands on the top of the cab, wind blowing dust and dirt in my face, and looking up to the sky to see blankets and blankets of stars. Stars like I had never seen before I arrived in Haiti. In that moment there was no other place I'd rather have been.

Clinic Day

Wednesday was the day I had been looking forward to our entire trip. It was the day that Jennifer hosted the feeding program and Mother's Milk. Men, women, children, young and old walked up to fifteen miles ONE WAY to make it to this clinic. For most of them it was a matter of life and death. People started pouring in early and there was quite the waiting crowd!

Almost instantly we were all taken with a tiny baby we later named "Rudy" (as a shortened version of his real, Haitian name). Rudy was literally starving to death at the hands of his mother. The reason for her showing up at clinic was unclear other than possibly she felt a slight twinge of remorse for not feeding her baby.
Her face showed no such thing. Expressionless. Emotionless. Seemingly uncaring. It's so hard not to pass judgement, and much easier to be angry at her. I think shaking her went through all of our minds at least once during the day. Instead, we showed her love, and most importantly how to love as we cared for her baby for the days to come.
While everyone waited outside, we were inside with Jennifer going through each name, calling in each baby and talking with each family.
We weighed the babies and made sure that they were on target for weight gain from the last clinic day.
There may have been a little kissy-poo in the clinic....
or maybe a lot of kissy-poo. Who could resist??
I spent the majority of clinic time working with Amanda and Tammy stuffing the feeding bags. Each person left with a bag of beans, a bag of rice, and a tasty, delectable fish.
Blek. This is a fish. That people eat. Really. It's a fish. I wrote Jennifer the other day, though, to let her know that I would gladly come back to her feeding clinic even if it meant all I got to do was stuff the stinky fish in a plastic bag.
While everyone was waiting for lunch to be served one of our team members, Joe, shared a short testimony and following that we prayed over anyone that requested it.
It's amazing how God can use prayer, even with the barrier of language difference, to show His love. I realized He can use even me, the most inept out loud prayer person there probably is! If He can use me He can use anyone!
Pastor Clebert even had the opportunity to pray for Luckner, the Witch Doctor that half of our team had visited the day before and invited to clinic. Luckner was very inquisitive and asked for continued prayer that he would be given the courage to leave his practice of voodoo. I don't know what's become of him at this point, but I know the seeds have been planted and my prayer is that it fell on fertile soil and Jennifer will have a chance to witness the radical change in a village due to one man's turn to Christianity. Wouldn't that be somethin'!
I pulled out a few of my nursing skills on clinic day and I was happy to remove the cobwebs from my nursing brain. I donned a stethoscope and listening to a couple sets of lungs that, thankfully, sounded pretty good.
I also got to bring out my early NICU skills and drop an NG tube in little Rudy so that he could eat. He was so weak when he arrived that he was unable to suck the bottle we were trying to give him.
One too large tube, a lot of KY, (that's the jelly, not the state), and a prayer and that baby had himself a mode of transportation for some milky to the belly! We each took shifts during the night holding him and feeding him. It's amazing what a little formula can do for a starving baby!
Some of the women at the clinic I found just precious. This little old woman caught my eye and I had to snap a photo of her being so patient......but looking quite bored. Time was passing a little slowly (as we found that most time does in Haiti) so we had Amanda and Becky, both who have angel voices much like my own, sing some songs. The villagers decided to return the favor and sing to us and I had my soul rocked by a blind woman that sang with arms lifted. If only we were so quick to praise Him while so much was not in our favor. My heart hurts now just thinking back on it. Why can't I be so faithful?
Finally the food came. Everyone was given a heaping plate of rice and beans.
One person I do remember from clinic day was this woman in the yellow shirt. Her smile was so genuine and she seemed to glow.

I snapped this picture of a little precious thing chowing on her rice. I immediately looked at it and cracked up! If my kids could get this happy about beans and rice we'd have it for dinner every night, too!
I did my fair share of baby tossing. It was great to get a smile and this baby was handing them out. He had a sweet grandma that was bringing him to clinic. I got the feeling that she was doing a great job taking care of him.
Our team had spent lots of time preparing seed bags for all the clinic families. Each person left with a bag of seeds specially formulated to grow in Haiti's climate conditions. Our hope is that they will be able to continually feed their family by planting a garden. We also put jewelry in the bags for the women. Everyone seemed to love it!
Oh, here's me holding that cute baby again.
This woman was on her way out and I made her pose with Kari. I just can't believe she had that bag balanced on her head! It had cans of formula, rice, beans, AND that stinky, dried up fish in it! How in the world do you make a completely unbalanced bag stay on top of a round head?? Wonders never cease.
So, just as quickly as they had come, everyone started to file out. Our clinic experience was over but our night was just beginning. One little straggler, baby Rudy, stayed behind and I don't think anyone was too disappointed that we'd have to hold him all night.
If there's one thing that our team was it was a bunch of baby lovin' baby holdin' gals. We'd soon be off on our next adventure: over the river and through the woods (or cactus) to Pastor's church we go!