Medical visas are slow

Here at Angel Missions, we are still working on some of the visas that were started over the summer. It has been a nightmare trying to obtain the records from National Archives that will allow us to have passports made for the children. Without a Haitian passport, we cannot apply for a US visa. Kerverson, a little boy from Dorothy's with spinal and leg deformities, Whitney, a little girl with a congenital amputation, and Bethsarida, a baby with a recto-anal malformation, are top on the priority list but are still waiting. Edjour, AMH's paperwork guy, finally got a passport for Bethsarida, so hopefully she will travel soon, but the other two as well as a dozen more, are at a roadblock. Fortunately, only one of those children has a life-threatening problem: little Yanncky Noah, who has what is most likely a cancer of the eye. He does have a passport, but we are still looking for an eye doctor who is willing to donate his services to save Yanncky's life.


Meanwhile, new patients continue to arrive. Rose Carline is a little cleft lip and palate baby from the countryside. We have a doctor for her but have difficulty contacting her mother to get the legal paperwork done here in Haiti. Luckily, the mother is doing a good job caring for Rose Carline, so she isn't in too much danger while she waits.


Nathaniel is a hydrocephalic baby. So far we have nothing for him - no passport, no doctor in the US, no hospital, no host family.


Mardochee is 11 years old and she has a disease called retinitis pigmentosa. I don't know much about the disease but I do know this: Mardochee is going blind. Certain therapies and vitamins could help save the limited sight she still has, but we need to move fast!


Lastly, Dave Mike is an infant with bilateral deformations in his legs. As you can see in the photo, his right foot deviates dramatically to the right and his right knee is partially locked. His left leg deviates to the midline and his left foot is severely clubbed. He also has no passport, doctor or hospital yet, but AMH has some wonderful orthopedic doctors, so hopefully we will find someone easily for him.

The staff that sweeps together, stays together

An American recently visited the clinic at Delmas 24. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Is all this dust from the earthquake?"

*Slightly embarassed silence.*

I and my clinic staff, Sendhie and Lucson, always start the day by sweeping. Granted, we only hold clinic there on Thursdays, so each time there is 7 days worth of dust to sweep up, but my guest was right, it is an extraordinary amount of dust. I believe it can be blamed on the large roads and the construction nearby, exaggerated by being completely undisturbed all week. When I got back to Haiti after my Christmas break, clinic had been closed for 3 weeks. We took our trusty brooms (named Albertina and Papi Albert) and swept up enough gray concrete dust to build a house for someone. All from the one main clinic room! We could have built a grand cathedral with all the dust we swept from the pharmacy, the halls and the stairway.

One year ago

I know that I should write a beautiful reflection about January 12th, 2010, and how the past year has changed my life, but tonight, I cannot. Soon, I will, but not today. Today, all the memories are flooding back and with them, the fear, the pain, the loneliness, the confusion, and the deep grief that accompanied those days. It is an awful night to be a Haiti earthquake survivor.

Ravine beauties

I love doing home visits in the ravine. Everyone down there loves seeing me...well, almost everyone. I've been taking care of Samania since she was born but I've never given her a shot or drained an abscess on her or done anything that would cause her pain. Despite that, she screams whenever she sees me and runs and hides! In the below photo, she's actually hiding under a sewing table, waiting for me to leave!

Ruth

One of our youth group girls, Ruth Francois, is from a poor family and seems like your average Haitian teenager until you hear her sing. She leads the worship music at youth group and sings in the worship team most Sundays. She recently wrote this song and performed it at church. The song is called Set Your Eyes on Him and was inspired by an encounter she had after the earthquake with a desperate mother who had lost her home and all her belongings.

Click here to give your ears a real treat. Ruth is my favorite singer in the world! I am so proud of her and I can't wait till I can get her songs on ITunes.

Home again, home again

My return trip included an overnight so I had to go through the check-in process twice, in Boston on Wednesday afternoon, and in Miami on Thursday morning. The line at American Airlines in Miami was about 3 miles long and the suitcases I was carrying weighed about 5000 pounds. As I got in line, an attendant asked me what my destination was. "Port-au-Prince, Haiti," I panted. "Oh, you need to go the next terminal," she pointed back outside where I'd just come from. So I gathered up my gargantuan bags and began the trans-terminal trek. A few years later, I walked through another set of doors, only knocking over 6 people with my 10 foot-long Army duffle bag, and prepared for another 3 miles of queue. To my utter astonishment, I saw a line of exactly 5 people and a sign that said:


Who knew that being on a flight to Haiti automatically won you VIP treatment in Miami?

By 2pm, I was inside my Shoebox. Not without a battle, though! The demolition at St Joseph's has accelerated recently and there was a veritable mountain of dirt in front of my house. I had to kick clumps of dirt and rock away just to open my door. The pile is literally at my doorstep and is a good 3 feet higher than my house!




Frantz was at my side instantly and helped me unpack everything, including some very handsome clothes for him. The rest of the kids followed to help unpack, inspect my American goodies, cook me pancakes and watch High School Musical 3 for the millionth time. It is good to be home.

The year of Frantz

Recap of the year 2010: Frantz. He is my most frequent companion, often the first person I see in the morning and the last I see in the evening. We have had some very entertaining and silly days together! His face shows up in nearly all of my photo albums, not just because of the amount of time he spends in my company but also because he is so stinking photogenic!