I miss these people...

... and I love knowing with utter certainty that they are taking amazing care of Jubilee. My missing of them is entirely selfish - a simple desire to see them and laugh with them and pray with them - not necessarily to help them do their job because frankly, they do it so much better than I!

 

(Left to right: Samuela, nursing assistant, Oscar, nursing assistant and clinic manager, and GraceFace, clinic director and nurse extraordinaire)

Nasal spray

You've heard of synchronized swimming, but have you ever heard of synchronized spraying?

 

 

 

These two discovered that they use the same nasal spray for their seasonal allergies, so now they try to impress me every night with their synchronized spraying routines, crossing their arms, wearing silly costumes, back-to-back, whatever they can think of. It puts a whole new spin on "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"!

Full circle

Seven years ago, I welcomed my first group of teenagers into Monhegan, the cabin I'd been assigned as a counselor. One of those girls was Sierra, a quiet 12 year old who participated cheerfully and enjoyed the 5-day camp program she'd signed up for. We convinced her to return for one of the three week sessions and the rest was history.

Sierra came back every summer. There's something special about having a girl start in your cabin, as if she's your kid in some strange way. So we got closer and closer as the summers passed.

Sierra's last year as a camper, she was almost a fulltime worker too. She led the surfing trips with me and I was impressed repeatedly by her leadership and her kind attitude towards the younger kids. I also watched her mature in the faith that she'd adopted through her time at Chop Point, and when that final summer ended, I crossed my fingers that she'd stick with it once she was out in the big world.

 

 

 

Another girl came for her first year of camp one year after Sierra, but I would never describe her as quiet. Raelyn was outgoing and creative, talkative and goofy. While I claimed Sierra as mine because of our summer in Monhegan, Raelyn became mine because of a severe food allergy that brought nurse and camper together rather frequently.  

 

 

During that first summer, Raelyn started a relationship with Christ, and we spent many hours talking about life and God and faith. She had an emotional and spiritual depth to her that isn't common in teenage girls and over the next few summers that she came to camp, she and I walked through the good and the bad, leaning on Christ together.

 

 

This year, 2013, is a special year for me because both of my girls are back at camp. But they're not little campers anymore; they're counselors. It's come full circle - the teens that I poured my heart and soul into for so many summers are now pouring their hearts and souls into the lives of new teenagers. Sometimes I watch them from afar and find myself grinning a huge grin. Those are my girls and I am so proud of them.

 

 

 

There's a verse in Deuteronomy that says, "I have put before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, that you and your children may live, and that you may love the Lord your God and listen to His voice and hold fast to Him." I don't have biological children, but I have what I call my camp kids, and my prayer has always been that they would choose life, the way that I have. Sierra and Rae have, and I can't wait to see how many girls follow them because of that choice.

 

Rudenchly's walking!

I knew it would happen eventually, but what great excitement to hear that this little man, after his 2 surgeries, a beautiful blue walker, and lots of encouragement, is walking on his own! I can't wait to get back to Haiti and see him run to greet me.

Seventh summer

Here we go: my seventh summer at Chop Point Camp in Woolwich, ME! I've been here for 2 weeks now, doing staff training and prep, and hosting our first group of local campers. In two days, we will receive campers from all over the US and the world and camp will begin in earnest. It's good to be here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you know?

I have heard many wondrous things from my patients and my students during my 6 years in Haiti, questions that make me want to laugh wildly and firm beliefs that make me want to rip my hair out. Here are a few of them:

"Don't look straight at someone while yawning without covering your mouth. If you do, you have just swallowed that person!"

"If a woman squirts breast milk into your eyes, you will get conjunctivitis."

"If a woman has sex with three men in the same evening and gets pregnant, won't she know instinctively which one is the father?"

 

"When a woman becomes a widow, she also becomes blind."

"If I kiss my husband when I have conjunctivitis and our eyes touch, can he get it too?"

"If you get water on a cut, it will form an abscess."

"If someone gets lemon juice in your eyes, you will become blind."

"Don't drink cold water with hot food because when the hot water and the cold food meet, they will form vapors in your stomach and kill you."

"I feel fine when I walk on pavement, but when I walk on gravel, I get dizzy and my vision gets blurry. What's wrong with me?"

"Ever wondered why Haitian women spit constantly when they are pregnant? It's because your spit becomes poisonous when you are pregnant and if you swallow it, it will poison you."

"Don't let a frog pee in your eyes because that will make you go blind."

"If a pregnant woman who is beyond her fourth month is sleeping and you wake her up, her baby will be born with a cleft lip."

New clinic building

Klinik Jubilee's current location is being re-allocated to the school, so we will be moving across the yard to a new building. Brian and his Haitian construction crew have been working on it for about 3 weeks and here's how it looked at the end of May.

 

 

 

It's perhaps double the size of our current clinic, with a room for the nursing assistants, an exam room for the nurse, an office space, an extra exam room for procedures and visiting doctors, and a tiny bathroom and lab annex for handling urine specimens and rapid HIV tests. Outside, there will be an open waiting area for our patients with a roof for sun protection.

 

Our staff is excited about moving into the new space: excited about having better crowd control and patient flow, safer handling of lab specimens, and a building to truly call our own. I am excited to see their excitement. Oscar and Samuela have been outstanding employees and colleagues, eager to learn and eager to help. I have leaned on them, Oscar especially, for strength and encouragement many times this year and it has been rewarding to see him do the same when hard times have arrived. There is a bond that comes from experiencing death with someone and both Grace and I share that bond with Oscar. We will never be able to express our gratitude for him and Samuela in words but maybe a gift of a new clinic will give voice to some of what we feel.