Back to "Normal" Life

Family and Friends,

Day 173 of our Haiti Adventure!

The last few days have felt pretty normal, which is no small feat around here. I was just remarking to Sue yesterday how the things that shock you when you first visit a country like Haiti soon blend in to the background of everyday life and seem almost normal. It is amazing how humans can adjust to different surroundings and lifestyles and carry on with life in new ways. I don’t think we necessarily even know we are adjusting. It just sort of happens. No doubt God helps us in countless ways throughout the process.

Last week was pretty crazy with Easter break. The kids in the orphanage didn’t have school all week, but they did have church for seven nights in a row, three hours each night, including a worship extravaganza on Good Friday from 6-11AM and 6-10PM. Try that one, Americans! We didn’t attend all of that stuff because our Creole isn’t strong enough yet to really know what is going on. That was our excuse, anyway.

We enjoyed celebrating my (Cory) birthday the other day. Lynn wanted to make something special for me to eat, but we weren’t sure what that was going to be because I hadn’t been to the City to get any good groceries for quite awhile. God provided in a strange sort of way. Early in the morning Sue came back from the clinic and asked me to drive a patient to the hospital in the city. I’m sure this story is starting to sound familiar to those of you who regularly read this blog.

So I hopped in the car and headed over to the clinic. This time it was a forty-something woman who had wasted away to almost nothing. They weighed her in the clinic. Sixty pounds. Her brothers were with her, and they were a great help, because she couldn’t walk and could barely sit up. We drove her to Les Cayes and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon trying to get her checked in there and seen by a doctor. They were guessing she had tuberculosis, but we are waiting until the official tests come back today to know for sure. Finally she did get checked in and one of her brothers stayed there to care for her.

All that down time at the General Hospital gave us some time to observe what goes on. Sometimes all you can do is laugh. For example, in the ER some guy was getting stitched up from a machete accident. Pretty typical case for that ER, I’m sure. Whenever he would cry out from the pain, people would come running from the parking lot to see what was happening. Curious, fully-grown adults would just crowd in there, shoving each other around for a better view in that small room, and make comments about all the blood. They even felt free to advise the technician on how to do his job, debating with each other the best approach to the problem…

“Better sew up that spot next…it’s bleeding pretty bad.”
"No, I think that will be fine…better try to attach that finger dangling there.”
“No, that finger isn’t going to make it…just focus on the hand.”

Something else that cracked me up was seeing how they take the X-rays and hang them out to dry on the parking signs outside. I said to Sue, “So much for patient confidentiality.” What topped it all on this day was watching another guy with blood all over his hands go back and forth from the ER to the pharmacy. They kept sending him to buy stitches, bandages, and other supplies for himself. Not having anyone to go for him like we sometimes do for patients we take there, he had to get up and buy it himself, dripping blood as he went.

Since we were in Les Cayes already, and had finished up at the hospital, I took the opportunity to head over to the little grocery store and help myself to some special treats for my birthday and for the family back home. I bought some real cheese and butter. Both cost about 3 times what they would in the US. I also splurged and bought hot dogs, pepperoni, and half a pound of hamburger. I went all out! We ate the hotdogs for my birthday meal, along with a cake made by Lynn. Nice.

That afternoon Lynn and I also had a chance to go over to Adrien’s house to check email. This was probably her third time online since we got here, and for the first time in almost six months she used an actual toilet. How luxurious. We had a nice hour there, and Sue watched the kids back at the ranch. After that the kids and I hunted for little crabs and played cards.

Teaching at school has gone well this week, and we have also been busy painting the new orphanage buildings. We are hoping the kids and staff will be able to move in there soon.  A big mission team is coming at the end of May, and our goal is to have the kids in the new orphanage and our family in the old house before the visitors get here. After that we will go back with most of the team to the airport and fly out on May 30th.

Gertrude, the director of the orphanage, is taking a much-needed week off to go visit family and friends in Port-au-Prince. I don’t know how those ladies do it. They are pretty amazing with those kids.

Lots of rain lately!  Mosquitoes are hatching at an alarming rate.  I guess we better get used to it.

May your adventure occassionally be normal!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers