Where Keziah has been, Part 5: Everything else

And then there's everything else.

Visits from medical visa patients, both those who have been to the US and returned to Haiti and those who are waiting to go.


Visits from families who need school sponsorships for their children.


Arrangements to get more advanced care for Bergine, the poor 20 year old with that horrid skin condition in the ravine. He is currently at Dr Joey's hospital on Delmas 33 but I am going to try to move him to the Miami University Hospital team that has taken over a hospital off Route de l'Aeroport.


Last week, we finally made a little breakthrough with the medical visas we've been waiting for. Sebastien, a little boy with hypospadius (a penile problem), got his passport so we have scrambled to get his final documents and will file for his visa next week. Vanessa, a 15 year old with severe heart condition, got her final paperwork from the US, so I took her and her father into the Embassy this week and got her visa. She will fly out on Saturday and have surgery on Monday.



Meanwhile, I got called on to substitute teach part-time for a friend of mine at Quisqueya Christian School. I would get up early, see patients, do visa paperwork, arrange things for my houseguests, and then hurry to school. Teach for a few hours, meet with students one-on-one for a few hours, and then go home or to clinic to work some more. As always, it's very odd to leave my world of dirt poor needy people and surround myself by the wealthy students at QCS, but I am so grateful for the opportunity. I know many of the upper classmen from the substitute teaching I did in 2008, but nearly all of them evacuated after the earthquake, so I haven't seen or spoken to them in months. It was a pleasure to be with them again and to hear their stories.



And of course, the usual medical care, at clinic and at my Shoebox where neighbors and workmen show up with back pain, heartburn, infections, wounds that need cleaning, and high blood pressure. It's a funny cycle - when I get busy, I have less time at home so when I am at home my neighbors crowd me complaining that they never see me, which just makes me busier thereby making it even harder for me to get up to the tent city to see them. It tires me, but I love having that relationship with them and being able to serve my community in some way.