Family and Friends,
Day 144 of our Haiti Adventure!
It is going to be difficult to limit this story to a post or two. While we were in the midst of this day (March 30) there was a couple of points where I said to myself, “How in the world am I going to summarize this for the blog?” You really couldn’t even make up the things that happened on Elizabeth’s birthday. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. It was a real adventure, and God was at work in the midst of it all.
The day got off to a discouraging start in some ways. We were getting ready to go to Port Salut, a nearby small city with a great beach, but the kids were absolutely trying our patience. They were whining, fighting, and crying at every little thing. When they had an extended argument about where to sit in the car, I nearly called off the whole trip. We finally got situated and headed down the road. We were accompanied by Chelo, our good friend and able translator.
The drive to Port Salut was absolutely beautiful. The road is paved and nice, and it winds gradually up and through the mountains, revealing a majestic view of the western side of Haiti. It is the kind of drive you imagine taking with a nice little sportscar convertible. The beach we went to actually faces towards Jamaica and Cuba. Lynn & Alexandra got a little car sick, but we had a good time traveling to Port Salut.
We were looking for a resort/restaurant called Dan’s Creek which was said to be run by some Haitians who spent a couple of decades in the US. Apparently they serve burgers and other American food, which really sounds good these days! They also have a pool and secluded, private beach. We found the place and Chelo and I went inside to check it out.
We were warned by the missionaries who told us about this place that it was a little spendy, but I wasn’t prepared for what the lady at the desk was going to say. I asked her about having lunch and swimming in the pool. She told me it would cost $10 for each adult and $5 for each kid to go to the pool for a total of $45. These prices are in American, not Haitian currency. I’m thinking to myself about how last summer I paid $25 in Sioux Falls for a summer-long pass for the whole family for all five of the pools in town which come with slides, kiddie-pools, etc...
Then we asked about the food. She described a little bit of what they had and assured us that if we spent over $100 she would waive the fee for swimming in the pool. Ouch! We went back to the car to talk it over with Lynn. We decided we would wait to have our burgers until this summer when we return to the US. After all, the beautiful beach we just passed by is free! I drove out of the parking lot wondering who exactly their clientele would include. I mean, how many Americans, much less Haitians, plan on spending over $100 for lunch? Strange, really.
So we went back to the beautiful beach and had a good time. There is a restaurant down there, but after looking at their menu, we decided the food they were offering sounded a lot like the food we were trying to get away from back home! So we just ordered some cokes and sprites and enjoyed some chips and granola snacks we had brought with us. Skipping lunch turned out to be a good decision for a couple of reasons. Several of us had stomachaches on the way home which the food would have only made worse, and I didn’t know it yet but I was going to need the money in my bag for the second half of the day.
We headed back home across the mountains and looked forward to spending a quiet day of baking brownies and a pizza for Elizabeth’s supper and enjoying her new computer game, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego,” which she got as a present. However, we weren’t sitting there long before Antoine came in the yard and said to Sue, “You’ve got a patient down at the clinic, and it looks bad.”
Sue went down to the clinic to check out what was going on. Normally the clinic closes at 1PM, and it was a little bit later than that at this point, so we figured it must be some sort of emergency. After a few minutes Antoine came back and told me we needed to drive the girl to Les Cayes to the hospital emergency room. Time to put the ambulance driver hat back on. I grabbed the bag I had taken with us to the beach, because I knew it still had my ID and some money, and jumped in the car.
I drove to the clinic and found a huge crowd of people gathered there. I backed up to the door and Sue came out and told me what was going on. A young woman in the community, Esperansia Damas (age 22), had been attacked by her boyfriend with a machete. She had a bad laceration on the back of her head and on both hands. In fact, one of the hands was almost cut off completely. Sue said it was mostly dangling by skin. Obviously she was bleeding a lot and needed to be taken immediately to the hospital.
We laid out some towels and a tarp in the car, got loaded up with the patient, a few family members, Sue, Antoine, and myself. I drove quickly but carefully to the city and headed down the now-familiar streets to the ER. This time when we arrived it wasn’t too busy, which was nice. There was a little girl on a cart shrieking as she got stitches for something, but other than that we weren’t fighting the traffic.
We carried the girl inside and got her situated on a stretcher. She wasn’t passed out or anything, but not completely coherent either. When Sue had asked her if she needed pain medication at the clinic she said, “I’m alright.” Wow, these people are tough. Some technicians and nurses came over and began the examination. It wasn’t too long before they could tell they needed extra help.
Pretty soon a couple of off-duty doctors drove up on motorcycles to help assess the situation. After gaining better access to the head laceration by shaving away some hair we could all see that it was much worse than we had thought. It was very deep and possibly into the bone and affecting the brain. The hand was in sad shape as well, and the doctors agreed they were going to have to transfer her to Port-au-Prince for blood transfusions and a more thorough examination by a neurosurgeon.
All this time they kept sending Antoine and me to buy the necessary supplies for the patient. This is how it works in Haiti. When they need anything, I mean anything, from a bandage to medication to a syringe, they write a prescription for it and you have to go buy it from the pharmacy. Amazing. Conveniently, the hospital pharmacy (which consists of one small cabinet and a fridge) was closed for the day at mid-afternoon, so we were literally out wandering down gravel roads with open sewers, looking in nearby pharmacies for the supplies. It was surreal. I could see God at work, though, because the cost of the supplies she needed came out to almost exactly what I had in my bag after our missed lunch earlier in the day. If we had bought lunch, especially at the fancy restaurant, I wouldn’t have been able to buy medicine and bandages. Thanks, Lord, for making me Dutch!
The next problem was to find an ambulance to take her to Port-au-Prince. At first they were having trouble with this, so then we got on the phone to ask Pam if we should just drive her there and meet Kiki, our main contact in Port, for extra help. Pam agreed to send us and assured us she would find some way to cover the cost of the medication, gas, hospital bills, etc… Right about that time, however, an ambulance driver was found, so we were off the hook. He saw us and asked for an exorbitant price to take the girl, but we negotiated it down a little bit. I wish we had gotten him lower on it, but we were in a hurry at this point.
We still don’t know what happened to her the rest of that day and through the night as she road all the way to Port-au-Prince and hopefully got help there. Pam was planning to work with Kiki to get everything paid for. We are anxiously awaiting more news. As we drove back into the village late that afternoon it was memorable to see faces on both sides of the road looking towards Les Cayes, waiting for us to return. A few hundred people were out talking along both sides of the road, just like back home in small-town American when everyone gabs at the end of their driveways whenever something crazy happens in town.
Sue had blood all over her dress, and she was ready for a shower. It was a joy to see her at work, because you could tell that she truly loves these people and will do anything for them. She and Antoine make a great team, and I always enjoy tagging along to help in any way possible. After all that action I was ready for some peace and quiet, and some special time with Elizabeth.
The rest of the day was uneventful other than enjoying the pizza (with only parmesan cheese, which was surprisingly good) and brownies and some time of playing cards and hanging out with the kids and a few neighborhood characters. Rumors were flying around the village at this point about everything that had happened. For one thing we are waiting to hear if the boyfriend will survive or not. People here take their own retribution when something like that happens, so he is probably on the run or hiding.
We finally collapsed in our beds, thought about and prayed for Esperansia, and thanked God for letting us play some small role in helping the people here. Every day is an adventure in Haiti, and Elizabeth’s birthday was even more so than usual! Like I said, you really can’t make this stuff up.
One thing I want to make clear in this post is that I got reimbursed from our medical fund for the money I personally spent for the patient. This is a good opportunity, though, to put in a plug for that fund which is administered by Sue and Pam. This particular emergency, for example, will probably wipe out our medical budget for a couple of months. With Sue’s new role as a full-time nurse down here we are looking for regular supporters to give to the medical needs of the people here, which are extensive. If you are interested in partnering with us in this way, please speak with Pam our Director or send a gift to the address listed to the right, designating it for the “medical fund.” Thanks!
God Bless You and Yours!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers
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