Foreigner

There are days when I think this place is just one of many. I get used to things, and the days go by. Then you have days like today when you realize I’m in a foreign country. Nothing much different, except the people....
Had a long clinic day today, the whole day just had a different atmosphere – 50-60 patients but I’ll just mention a few people that made me realize – I’m not in my own country.

While seeing a patient, I started hearing this racket outside, people yelling, some laughing, some running... I look out the window and I see a woman half trying to run, held back by another one and a younger man running after them with a stick, and actually hitting her with it. Needless to say, I was shocked to be seeing that – a man actually hitting a woman in public. I went out to calm down the situation and to give the man a talking to! I got there and told him “pa fe sa!” (don’t do that), than turned to see the situation. They kept saying she’s trying to run away, she doesn’t want to be there. They showed me her very swollen left foot and I knew she really needed to be seen. I talked to her calmly and she actually looked up at me and calmed down – for a second. I realized we’d have to by-pass our usual check-in routine. I told one of the family to go make her file and said as soon as I finished the patient I was in the middle of seeing, I would see her. I went back with calm behind me, which lasted about 2-3 minutes. I finally asked my patient if she’d wait so I could see the woman outside. Bringing her in by force, I finally had her sitting on my exam table, calmly looking at me. By then I realized she had some mental problems, and that gentleness brought the best results. Putting my arm around her and talking to her seemed to calm her. I asked her what the problem was and when her mother started showing me, she actually helped, pulling down the appropriate clothes and showing me her foot. It was rewarding to calm someone that honestly, seemed like a wild animal, and yet could calm down and look you in the face, and thank you very politely for a glass of water. For some reason, she really touched my heart. Her mother said she hasn’t been normal since she had a seizure at age one, and yet at times she’d look at you so ‘clear-minded’. What is in a person’s mind when she can’t express her own will, but has one, and others take that right to make the decision away from her? How do we react when we don’t get to do what we want to? How much do we allow others to make their own decisions – especially the more helpless that we may think don’t know how to make it? Do we give them dignity, or beat them with a stick, and confuse them even more?
Another sad situation, and some people you can pray for if you remember is the Julien family. A mother came with a 7 yr old son a week or two ago that is sick and malnourished. She had another 9 yr old along but didn’t consult. Well, she brought that one today, with herself. She just struck me all of a sudden as the poorest of the poor here. The father died when the youngest was small. Have you ever watched a movie where the mother is dying from poverty? She’s trying her best but just can’t quite make it? That was this mother’s demeanor, sick herself, but trying to keep her boys well – and her son raging with a fever. She said she lives with her sister, but when her sister gives the boys food, her husband gets mad and yells at them. They are heavy on my heart today – what am I going to do with them? I can just see the mother dying and leaving the boys orphaned. I sent her for some tests but she’ll need food to survive too and get some strength back. But if I give her rice, will she and her boys get it or will others eat it? Thankfully I have some rice given by another mission that I was able to give to her, as well as some protein shakes for the 3 of them, and energy drinks; But long term??
On a happier note, I finally had a small 5-6 lb 3 month baby come back having gained an appropriate amount of weight with milk. She’s too young for the Mamba program so I’m giving her milk. She did great.
We finished at 4:30, happy ourselves that we had some protein shakes at the clinic to keep us going. After supper, I (apparently the only truck driver at Canaan today) was asked to drive to Montrouis to get some gas for our generator. Interesting drive, as at one point I was forced to stop while 6-10 vehicles decided to follow the first one and use my side of the road to avoid a huge pothole or ditch that reached onto the road. So I sat hoping none of the semis and buses would hit my mirror or truck, culminating in one small vehicle at the end of the train who was polite enough to stay on his side of the road and got a major jolt as he hit the ditch, almost getting hung up cause it took about 2/3 of his right tire. And all this observed and guided by a bunch of teenage guys looking and trying to make SOME of them stop for me. No luck, but a nice little show.
It's felt a little bit like playing out a movie today.
Now I have to stop cause my battery is about dead.