I was reminded the other day that I haven’t blogged since New Year’s. I couldn’t believe it, but since it’s true, I apologize! The older I get, the faster time seems to travel.
And of course it’s hard to remember all the interesting things that have happened this year already! Life never stands still here.
Our clinic construction has kept going. The men are working hard to finish it by April 4th, the date we’ve set for the inauguration. They’re working on the outside porch right now, while we wait for out containers to get out of customs. That is a frustrating process here, but in the end, I’m sure it’ll work. It just takes time. On it we have the doors, all the furniture, cabinets, etc. so there’s still quite a lot to do before April 4. I’ve moved all my medicine and supplies down already, but still need to find places for it all. The pharmacy is not big enough to be storage as well. So a lot of my mornings get spent there.
Otherwise, the present clinic is going well. We are very pleased with the Haitian doctor the Lord provided for us. That takes a lot of medical responsibility off me. When you have to do something, you do it. But I’m glad there’s someone more knowledgeable now; And that we have a lot of the same values for the patients.
An unusual incident that happened in January was when one day I heard a lot of yelling going on (not so unusual) and investigating, found a man with a machete, threatening to kill another woman. Apparently she had picked up a thread of the man’s baby’s blanket, and he thought she was going to put a voodoo spell on the baby. Found out that he actually is a voodoo priest or something, into all kinds of evil things. He had a bad look in his eyes. I brought him into a room to talk to him but he wouldn’t listen. He did give me his machete. He went for the police, but they ended up not coming. We tried to get both parties seen quickly so they could be on their way. I called Pastor Henri down and he talked with both parties. We kept the lady forawhile, till someone in her family could come because we didn’t want him to be waiting for her somewhere down the road. As far as I know, everything worked out ok, but it was an unusual thing to be dealing with. I couldn’t imagine something like that back home. J
Feeding little babies continues to be a challenge. It seems every week there are more babies that need milk. Milk is such an expensive item here, they just can’t buy it. We have 8 babies under 6 month that we are providing milk for now – several are orphaned, 2 sets of twins, and a few others. They are too young for the Mamba program.
3-4 month old with Kwashiorkor. She looks very different now. All swelling in legs and arms and most in the face is gone. Worth it for $50.00 a month? Mother died soon after birth.
Last week, God blessed us with providing a lot of milk through CAM, the organization that gives us medicines every month. The one problem is that it is for 1-3 yr olds. I’m checking whether it can be given to younger ones by diluting it. If so, a lot of our problems would be over in that respect for this year. I also keep getting asked to take a lot of these babies. It makes me sad when we can’t… but right now we just don’t have room for them at Canaan. We want to build us a nice nursery that will have space for them but making a building is so expensive. Right now the 5 babies we have get moved from place to place. We need a house where they have room to sleep and play, and that has a little kitchenette, etc. It would make life a lot easier for the ones taking care of them. Anybody want to help?? (If so, donations can be sent to Chris Hlavacek at www.canaanchristiancommunity.com)
We’ve been enjoying a lot of people coming and going here. Right now there are 7 of us girls here. That is more long term people than we have ever had since I came 3 years ago. Most of them are in the school. Caroline is doing the Mamba program. Speaking of which, tomorrow we’re going to Rosseau to open up another mobile mamba program. It’s about half hour away, on bad roads.
Caleb is continuing to be a happy and growing baby. In January he started taking his first step and he learned his first word – Aleluya! A wonderful word to start with, eh? And usually when he says it, he raises both arms. And it’s alwayswhen he’s happy. It really does describe his emotions. Clapping is for singing, and sometimes when he hears all the kids come in for meals, he’ll start clapping, expecting them to sing. He’s also started hugging me spontaneously, which is enough to melt anybody’s heart. I thought that was something you teach babies. Not him. It’s just something he started on his own. 
He turned a year in February. On his birthday, he took off walking and is quite good at it now. Two weeks ago he came down with pneumonia and pylonephritis (kidney infection) where I had to fight for 3 days to keep his fever under 103 F. Thankfully he has recuperated from that. His teething is keeping him congested though, to the point at night sometimes I’m afraid he’s going to choke himself to death with his coughing and phlegm. Hopefully the nasal lavage we plan to do tonight will help.
This next month is going to be a busy one for Canaan, as we prepare to celebrate it’s 20th anniversary in April. We are going to set aside the 1st ten days in April. We plan to have booths of various things, sports competitions, music groups, food to sell, etc.
Sorry this has become a bit general. I’ll try to make it more personal next time, and before 2 months.
Thank you all for your prayers!
Elsie
