Monday, September 29, 2008

Photos of my new home

My room: I share it with Tasha and Dannae. I have the top bunk which gets really hot at night but at least the dogs and kids never go on it.
Pierreline is our littlest baby. She’s 4 months old and generally quite healthy. She’s here because her mother died in childbirth and her father couldn’t afford formula. Her dad has stayed in touch and appears to be very affectionate and caring towards her so she will most likely go back to him once she is eating solid foods. She’s been sick with diarrhea and some vomiting this week, but she seems to be slowly coming out of it.
Patrick is the child from Gonaives who was given to us right after the floods. He is doing fantastic, totally healthy and loves playing with the other kids. He is living with us because all the other Gonaives kids are old enough to be in school so he would have been alone in their house on Delmas 31 all day. When Gonaives is safe enough for the children to go back (probably next summer), we’ll see how he is doing and we may send him back with them.
This is Johnny Joseph, the little boy that I examined in May who was malnourished and turned out to have HIV. He lives at Dorothy’s now and he’s doing all right. He spent a month at Grace Children’s Hospital in May and June and since then he’s stabilized and even gained some weight. However, he’s been having frequent ear infections, which is a common sign of AIDS so we are sending him back to Grace this week for tests. He’s such a sad little boy. I have been told that he will smile for one of the nannies, but I have yet to see it.
Mackenson should not be alive. He is 2 years old and this is what he looks like! He has chronic breathing problems (is it COPD or a bad case of asthma?) so he struggles to gain weight because he uses so much energy to breathe and because eating tires him out so much. Dorothy never expected him to make it, but he has come this far and is hanging in there.

Poutchino: Poutchie is hydrocephalic, has just been learning how to walk with help, to sit by himself, and to crawl. He can’t talk and doesn’t understand when you talk to him, though I think he understands tone of voice. He has been running low grade fevers and having seizures for about a month so Tasha and I took him to the hospital for a series of tests this week. They checked him for TB, for shunt blockage and for shunt infection. We’ll have the results sometime next week. Please be praying for him.
Stripey: I know. He doesn’t have any stripes, so why in the world is he named Stripey? It’s because on the one white patch that he has on his stomach. Stripey is a lovable doggie, always want to be sitting in your lap and gets wildly jealous when you pet one of the other animals.
Nala: Nala’s our guard dog, though she’s really a sweetheart. She adores Dorothy and Tasha and is scared to death of Haitians. It makes her a good guard dog because she barks like a wild beast and shows off her fangs whenever a Haitian walks near our gate.
The kittens: Our cat Georgie had 5 kittens shortly before I arrived. They just started coming out of their closet and exploring. They also have just started chewing our computer cables, so back in the closet they go. My two favorites are Lewis and Clark – they were the first to come out, the first to let us hold them, the first to wander without their mama.
Kervens: Kevs is 10 years old and he was taken in by Sherrie 5 years ago and then Dorothy took him to raise him. He has an adoptive family in the States, but the process has only just started, so it will be a while before he leaves. He goes to a home school program 4 mornings a week at a nearby home for boys and the rest of the day, he runs around the house and makes trouble. OK, not really. He has chores that he does, he sometimes helps us with the kids, and he loves to play battleship and soccer with me. He needs a firm hand, but we love him!

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