Today, November 18, was a national public holiday in Haiti commemorating
the victory of the Haitian rebels over the French in the revolution.
As usual, we learned of this on Sunday,
just after we arrived. A holiday means no school, no teachers for
Sherye to do her planned teaching instruction, and no kids for the
clinic. However, per the Haitian way, we adapted. There are about
25-30 permanent residents at St Vincents, so Phillip used today to do
dental check ups on most of "Drew's kids". Sonya and her son went
outside Port au Prince to meet the family of a little girl who needs
club foot surgery. We hope to arrange for Dr Khumalo to see her on his
next trip in January. Ashley and I spent the day with Dr George's
Beauvoir, orthopedic surgeon who works part time at St Vincent's. He
had two surgical cases today and invited me to observe. It gave me a
chance to see the surgical facility where he and Dr Khumalo do their
surgeries. He treated us to a lovely lunch and then we made a house call
on one of his patients. Abigail is about 7 years old and had just been
released from the hospital after a wound infection. Dr Beauvoir wanted
me to see the kind of place most of St Vincent's kids live in. We
picked up the child's mother at what I thought was a hotel. Dr B told
me she worked there as a maid, and it was a private residence. Leaving
that neighborhood, we quickly left the paved roads and entered another
world. We drove up and down very rough "roads", more like gullies where
even motorcycles could get stuck. Children carrying gallon jugs of
water were walking along the road just wide enough for a single car to
pass. Goats, pigs, and chickens poked around in the road or the
vegetation on the hillside. We drove about 3 miles, a distance which
the mother travels daily, either on foot or by "motorcycle taxi" which
costs 50 gourdes (about $1.20 US). Entering a maze of gravel gullies we
finally arrived at her home, a concrete dwelling with a front porch
reached by climbing crumbling concrete steps. We were greeted warmly by
the family of about 7 people; a young woman pulled out chairs for us.
They were typical metal "lawn chairs" with faded cushions. Dr Beauvoir
laid the little girl on a plastic reclining lawn chair and changed her
dressing, with assistance from me and the girls mother. Two younger
children stared continuously at me and Ashley; I don't know if they had
ever seen a "blan" before. (white person). I was thinking that Sienna
would be so disappointed to learn she missed this experience. She would
have been chatting in Kreyol with all the children and learning their
names. The best I could manage was "Bon swa" and "Mesi".
Dr
Beauvoir gave me a great compliment. He said that I am 1/3 Haitian. I
replied that when my Kreyol is better I will be 1/2 Haitian.
We
returned to the guest house and met our team, hot and sweaty from
spending the day at St Vincent's. We shared our experiences over
Prestige (Haitian beer). Stars of the day are Phillip, who did dental
check ups on many severely disabled children, and to Kara, John and
Brittany who ran the medical clinic in my absence. Phillip and Kara
are from Connecticut and have had to put up with the rest of us telling
stories of past trips, referring to people they don't know, and hearing
us refer to Drew's kids. Tonight he finally asked, "Who is Drew?" Much
laughter ensued before we could explain the phenomenon of Drew
Woodruff. The heart and soul of our Haiti ministry. Drew, if you are
reading this, WE MISS YOU AND WISH YOU WERE HERE!
Susan Nelson
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