abandonment

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Loveline. At age one, her mother died. Her dad took her with him and went to the Capital, leaving behind two stepdaughters. At some point Dad decided he could not take care of her, and she was taken to an orphanage – too young to remember any of her former life.
One day, when Loveline was about 11 yrs old, a lady came to the clinic at the orphanage. She said her two year old daughter was Loveline’s sister and that her dad had died awhile ago. It came as a bitter shock; she felt very alone – alone, with no family; alone because her father had made a life without her. Gone was the dream that someday, her dad would come and say “you’re my daughter; come to me!”
A few months later, Loveline got sick and had to go to the clinic herself. After she was called by name, a lady comes to her, asking for her full name; What was your dad’s name?? What was your mom’s name? Then the ultimatum “I’m your sister! I’ve been searching for you for a long time. Someone told me you were here, so instead of going to a hospital in my hometown, I brought my sick daughter to be seen here at this clinic, almost an hour from my home, in the hopes of maybe finding you!! And here you are!! Can I come visit you on Saturday?”

This made this girl very happy.

The end. (not for her)

This is a true story. The clinic is my clinic. Can you imagine how it feels to have this saga unfold in your own clinic? It was pretty amazing for me to realize!! Some felt sad – it is sad to have all that sad past, but for me it seemed so ‘happy’ that they found each other!

Life continues busy, busy.

Sunday, we met again at Chris and Leslie’s, and I met some interesting people. They’re with AMURT, which I didn’t know either, so don’t feel bad, and I’m not sure I know well enough yet to explain to you. A non-religious (I think) organization, they work with rebuilding after disasters. I met Amber, who’s a lawyer, and she’s deciding at the moment whether she’ll be here long term. She’s working in Gonaives, sleeping without a roof over their heads, she was SO happy for some table and chairs they just got – now they can have an office. AMURT is working on getting a model out – kind of like a compound (my impression) for around 20 families, and they’d have their agricultural areas, their private and public places, water systems, etc. Basically everything they need. They’re building the first there now, hoping to get it done quick so they can show it works and start working on more. They’re combining a lot of systems into one area. The individual systems are all in use in some part of Haiti, but not together in one place. Their goal is not to just get the people of Gonaives back to their barely bearable state of living like before but to have something better, something higher up, out of the low areas where it’s bound to flood again.

Monday I got us a small generator for the Clinic!! My goal is to have it there for when I need to use some things like a nebulizer for asthma patients, but also just for fans – it gets so warm sometimes and just zaps your energy right out of you. I don’t know the price of gas, and being the frugal person that I am, I don’t know how much I’ll run it just for fans, but I’ll see. It’s a good time to buy it (actually this is why I thought about it) because next week with the coming of the doctors, we’ll be like 15 people in one little room, and it gets quite uncomfortable!! I think nights are starting to cool off, thankfully. Still, I don’t think I’m ready to switch weather with the people of my Canadian hometown – not ready for freezing weather yet!!

I have a question for one person.....

Baby Lucivens Paul came to my clinic for the third time today. He's almost 3 months old. First time he came was because of stomach pain and diarrhea. Probing a little deeper, I find the mother has abandoned him; the father brought him to his sister and left him there and has gone back to Port and his sister has no money for food. They're feeding him cookies!! I happened to have a couple cans of infant formula donated by Christian Aid Ministries, and I gave him one of the last ones today. I don't know what they plan to do - continue with cookies I guess. I told the aunt last time to call the dad and tell him to provide milk. She did, and says when she said what I had told her, that he needs to buy milk, he hung up on her. And now, he won't answer the phone when he calls.

My question is: would anyone want to take on this baby and feed him with milk for a year or whatever time you feel able? I'm not sure what the price of formula is but I think it's similar to North America. (I tried to post a picture but I can't from here)

Let me know if you do!!

OK, I better go. We're trying to get a room ready for 3 more girls coming tomorrow and we conned Mark into helping us move in a couple bunk beds by promising to share our rare treat (apple crisp) with him. And it's already 9:20. If I wait much longer, they'll be done without me.

Till next time!! Please remember us in prayer!
Elsie