ESTRELLA

Canaan

Sat. May 15

Hello from Canaan
I realize I haven’t caught you all up on what’s happening at Canaan in awhile so here’s some stuff.

# 1 Sister Gladys has been gone for over 2 weeks. Her mom was having surgery and she went to be with her. This round here without her has gone surprisingly well.

#2 Canaan’s internet is down and who knows for how long. So if you’re trying to get a hold of us by email, be patient. We will go out every so often to a nearby resort or friends’ place, but it doesn’t happen every day. Apparently the dish is bad, which means the guys here don’t do anything till Sister Gladys gets back, and then some of them are planning to go to the States.... This will mean dishing out a bunch of money again I imagine.

#3 We have a team of 6 college students here since Monday. 4 are staying for two weeks, 2 for a month. They are a huge blessing, and such hard workers. We weren’t able to put them to ‘mending’ a concrete wall for lack of materials, so they’re working on making a “patio/garden’ for Bobi and me. Sounds a bit decadent, eh? But we need a place where we can hang out, relax, entertain, etc. So adjoining our house, they have rechanneled a water ditch, and levelled the ground (don’t think this is an easy job – the ground is more rocks than dirt almost!). They made a tier with rocks. We want to put a concrete floor on part of it to put out a table/chairs/hammock and have a place for laundry, and then another part with plants and flowers. They also knocked down the big concrete outhouse/shower room standing in the middle of everything and have spent hours hauling it all away. Yesterday they took the day off and went into Port and while deciding to do that, one of them asked “but we get to work on Saturday then, right?” What an attitude!! Thanks so much, guys!!

#4 Thursday, Joel Busby and two friends of his came for a week; Mandy’s coming on Sunday. Joel and Mandy were here most of last summer, so it’s good to have them back.

#5 Last night we went to Club Indigo and joined Chris and Leslie there, hanging out most of the evening. They’re doing well but have gone through a rough time. Safety here hasn’t really been a problem but they’re going through some issues. Somebody set fire to their van, and left some nasty notes – death threats. The police, together with the UN have been working hard and made an arrest this week (There are more involved). That’s left some unhappy family members, who also are starting to threaten them. Please pray for them. They work with “Clean water for Haiti.

#6 Bonnie left this week. She leaves a big gaping hole here, especially for the children. They’ve been a bit subdued these days. She plans to come back in the fall, with maybe an additional short visit with some of her family in August.

#7 We continued to have rain this week, almost every day, which has been awesome! Maybe rainy season has arrived!

#8 I’m planning to take a couple months off, more or less, in July and August. If anyone knows of nurses or doctors that could and would want to come work here for any length of time, that is a need we have for those two months. I do have two Haitian nurses to keep the clinic open, but they still need a lot of supervision and help too. We don’t have any French medical books (except ‘Where there is no Doctor’) so it’s a bit difficult for them to learn everything.

#9 Our Medika Mamba vehicle fund is still growing. We now have $16,000.00 ready. Looking at vehicles here, I think we’ll need at least $22,000.00. It’s a bit difficult for me to think of buying a new vehicle here, especially since I would never do it in North America, but things are different here. You can’t trust the second hand vehicles. Anybody could have taken any part out of it. So unless God provides a used one from a reliable source, we’re still looking at new vehicles, most of which cost at least $25,000.00. (Anybody interested in participating, please go to http://www.canaanorphanage.org/ and contact Chris Hlavacek in Missouri. Thanks!) The vehicle will come in handy for a lot of other things as well, I’m sure. Right now the only vehicle we can drive off the property is our big clunky truck.

#10 Medika Mamba is still doing good. Yesterday we graduated our last patients in Archaia. Because of the transportation problems, I don’t think we’ll attempt another distant location till we have the vehicle. I can see us attempting to cover all the surrounding areas. I think if we went to a town, and did some extensive recruiting, we could work in one town for about 10-12 weeks and then move to another area (it takes about 8 weeks to graduate). It’s exciting to think of covering a broader area. Also, what it would do is put the word out that there is help for malnourished children.

Thanks for thinking and praying for us!

Elsie

a blessing straight from God

Thursday:

and she spoke and it was so…..

I want to share a really, really cool thing God did for me today. The whole earth (at least what’s Canaan and the surrounding areas) is benefiting but I feel this is for me personally.

We’d had a long, hot day at the clinic. It was 4 p.m. and Bobi and I were walking back up the hill. We’d had a protein shake that kept us going over lunch. I told Bobi: “If God would want to give me a blessing today, He’d let it rain today.” Now understand: I LOVE rain! It’s soothing and cozy (and cool). Mind you, I grew up in a place where it rained 9 months out of the year. It’s drizzled here a few times already this year. Not once what I’d call a rain. Well, we came to our house, rested for about 45 minutes and got ready for supper. As we walked out the door, it started drizzling. By the time we were at the cafeteria, we were almost wet. It started coming down hard and strong while eating and it’s still going strong. Almost reminds me of the hurricane season…. (hopefully nobody will get flooded out!).

Also, we were out of drinking water. We’ve got a container under almost every rain spout and in about an hour must have collected close to 50-70 gallons if not more.

Thank you God! I LOVE YOU TOO!

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.

A Haitian Wedding

You want to know what a Haitian wedding is like? If not, you can save some time and not read this blog, cause I tend to go into too much detail. This will be only about the wedding, so don’t worry about missing other stuff.

Met ElFabre got married on Sat. He’s one of the guys here at Canaan that’s in the local administrative position. He’s been engaged since before I came (over a year ago) but he kept saying a woman wants a guy to be able to give her a nice home, and things, before he can marry her. He’s been building his house over this year.

So the wedding was set for 3 o’clock. One of my questions was, knowing that punctuality, or rather the lack of it, is a sure thing, at what time this wedding would actually begin. Knowing it would be late, I didn’t even plan to be ready before 3:30. Even then, I’d see everybody still walking around in work clothes. And if asked if they were going to the wedding, it was either a “sure” or “I don’t know”. This continued till after 4 p.m. and still, if asked what time the wedding will start, they’d still say 3 o’clock.

So about 4:15, with most of Canaan still not dressed, Bobi and I went to the chapel. Inside we found the 5 bridesmaids in blue waiting, as well as Rosemay (Canaan girl) and the bride (all decked out in her bridal dress and veil). We thought ‘how strange that Rosemay is also dressed in a white bridal dress, though with a tiara instead of a veil’. We debated about that while we kept waiting till 5ish. I told Bobi that the bride looks different. I hadn’t met Adeline (the bride) more than a couple times in the last year but this just didn’t ring a bell. I even told Bobi ‘what if they switched with someone else’. I said this just doesn’t look like her and I don‘t believe it‘s her. It was weird. Then the party went out. People were actually starting to fill up the chairs.

Then Stephanson (from Canaan) comes in and stands waiting till Rosemay comes in dancing, and there started the elaborate wedding dance. It was really fun to see. I may never again be satisfied to see bridesmaids walking demurely down the isle!!! Apparently this wasn’t the longest or most elaborate wedding dance ever, but it was interesting to watch - all a story. The ladies would drop the single flower they carried and the guy would stoop to pick it up and stay down looking up, all in a continual dance. There was even a “fight” among two of the guys over the ‘bride’ and her choosing one over the other. I thought it strange that she went and said down without anybody, behind Rosemay, who I figured was the maid of honor but thought ‘oh well, this is Haiti - who knows how they do it’.

Stepanson and Rosemay, the first in the wedding dance

Then the tempo changed, and lo and behold, the real bride walked in. Sister Gladys came in with her and the wedding proceeded with less minor differences. They stayed sitting, even for the vows, and only knelt for the prayer and rings. It was kind of cool, when they answered “yes, Pastor” for the vows, afterward the pastor asked the congregation what they had said, and everybody answered “yes Pastor”. It seemed more like the witness that everybody is.



The danced was performed again with the exit of the bridal party, but not as extensive.

So here’s the custom regarding the bridal party and the white dresses:
You have the godmother, which was Sister Gladys (and the male counterparts). She sits with the bride through it all. Some people’s opinion is they like to pick people with money, rather than someone close to the bride, which could be why they had a problem finding someone to fill the spot. They even asked me to do it, but that was a firm ‘no’ from me. I don’t even know the bride.
Then you have a queen, which was Rosemay, and the reason she was wearing a white dress with a tiara. The other girl in white dress and veil is the princess and the rest of the girls are bridesmaids. Apparently this is the custom for every real wedding. They have their guys of course, who are the king and prince. By dress you couldn’t tell who was the bride.

They served a plate of food prepared in a take-out plate, so serving went fast. They had over 100 people there, I’m sure. There wasn’t much of a dance afterwards that I know of, though that is usual. No gifts that I saw.


Bride and groom, queen, princess and bridesmaids

Godparents with bride and groom

And now, what do Haitians do for a honeymoon?

Some go straight to their houses without a honeymoon trip, but if possible their parents will bring them food for a week. Others do go on some sort of trip. I don’t know what this couple did, since what they really wanted and asked for was denied. Can you guess what that was? Probably not, so I’ll tell you.

They wanted to come stay in the guest room here at Canaan that is on top of the girls’ dorm and be served by the people of Canaan for a week. That brought an emphatic “NO” from Sister Gladys, but I’ll admit I feel a little bit like chuckling about it, trying to imagine that. There’s been a “honeymoon couple” here at Canaan once in the past and some of the little kids couldn’t figure out why they slept till noon, and some other little kids tried to enlighten them -“You know what they do..”

Not conducive atmosphere at all here at Canaan.

And now, hopefully they will live “happily ever after”.

Hi,

Here we've had our busy weeks, as usual . It never ends. I guess that's a good thing.

Last week, we had a team of 4 here that we really enjoyed. Except they weren't really a team - more like friends returning, since 3 of them had been here last fall. Mark was here for a few months, and Travis and Amy had come to visit him during that time. They brought Paul this time, who grew up in Turkey, and that was an interesting subject of conversation for a lot of us here. He even sang a chorus in Turkish on Sunday.

Sat. was Canaan's 18th birthday, and it's a day they take to celebrate what God has and is doing here. True to form, there was a lot of work prior to it. A lot of the buildings got a facelift - the chapel inside and out (for those that know it, it's no longer pink!), the Shikoon, the kitchens, admin building, etc. In the morning, EVERYBODY went down to the road, and everyone got to meditate on why they're here, whether they really want to be here and why. So everybody had to say something, if they wanted to go up to Canaan again. It was a good reminder.
Then in the afternoon/evening, we had a service where a lot of other people were invited. It's suppose to be a time of celebration, and they had like different singing competitions, and solos, etc. (I got to be a music judge for the first time in my life!) Throughout the weekend there were other competitions, like sports, etc.

That night another team came in - our second biggest ever - 28 people (I think). I didn't know it before but they had a doctor and some nurses in the group so I had help at the clinic today. That was great because we broke the record again today (probably third Monday in a row) with 62 patients.

This week we're doing camp!! A lot of kids are here from neighboring churches, etc, (probably 30 -40) and the Canaan kids are doing wonderful taking care of them. This is a new thing for Canaan, but we wanted to do more to teach the kids to reach out to other people too. The team from the US is also helping with activities. They're a great team for that, since they have a camp for kids themselves (Bear Lake Camp).

This week we've gone over to Chris and Leslie several times. They both came down with fever. Friday afternoon we went and I did a malaria test, and that's what it was! Both of them at the same time! So to give them a free night to be sick together, Bobi and I brought Olivia (14 months) home with us for the night. She's such an easy child to babysit. Went to sleep with no problem. Was sitting and chattering at 5 a.m. though, but I ignored it and next thing I knew I awoke and she was sleeping soundly. I think she needs to come over more often. She didn't want to go with us when we said we were going home. And once there, she didn't want anything of mommy and daddy, and cried when we left. Maybe she needs a bigger social life too. :)

Tomorrow we're doing a little special for our Medika Mamba people - we're serving them a lunch, and with it we want to take a little time to share the gospel. Please pray that things will go well. It's a bit hard to organize something like that here.

OK, and if any of you are still skeptical of our Medika Mamba, look at these pictures of the same child. Guess how many weeks different??? 2 WEEKS! Yes, this difference is after two weeks of Medika Mamba, and loving care. Note the difference in his arms and chest! A missionary couple that just started a small orphanage took him in.

OK, I have other things to do yet online tonight. We came to Club Indigo, and it's getting late. I haven't been able to get online for several days, so it's catch up time right now.

God bless!!

Elsie

March 2009

Hello, hello
This has been quite an interesting couple weeks... I feel so much happened that I won't recall it all. When will I start journaling again?

The Medical team went well and we saw lots of patients. We had 4 doctors and 3 PA students/Nursing Assistants. We did a new venture this time since we had a big group, and half of us went to do a clinic in Arcahaie. Talking to the pastor in whose church building we saw everyone, on the phone in the morning, he said there were over 200 people waiting (we had told him 50) so he had to send some away. All in all, it went well.

These are cute triplets that came for a checkup.

"Our pharmacists"

It seems everytime the team comes, I get to learn one more "doctor skill". This time it was dental. Dr Ric's father is a retired dentist and before coming he gave Dr Ric a quick dental lesson and some materials. Then he in turn taught me. So if need be, I can now fill a tooth! Of course it's just temporary filling but it can last up to a year or two.

Filling the first tooth ever with Dr Ric's help.

We've had a really good Mamba week this week. It started last week with Peterson coming. He is from St Marc and our missionary friends there brought him. They had no idea he was like that, living in their own neighborhood because the family was ashamed to bring him out so they kept him strictly at home. He is two years old. He has since been taken in by our friends there who have this year opened an orphanage. Thankfully he is being taken good care of now. He came back this week and had gained a whole kilo more than the expected, which is 5 grams per child's kilo per day. Yea for Peterson!!

Then this monday this little 10 month child came to see us at the clinic. Note her swollen feet, hands and face. Her cheeks are bulging. But her chest and arms are skin and bones. This is a serious stage of kwashiokor. Thank God, there's hope for her. She also came with what sounded like croup and asthma.

Little Jufta also came on Monday. We were told she's over a year. Later her mom remembered she's not a year yet, she doesn't remember her age (very common here). No matter... you can tell right away she's very thin. Her arms and legs were so small. She actually looks better on the picture than in real life.


Another child in the initial stages of kwash.


We have over 40 children in our program right now. Somehow lately the word has spread, which we are real glad for. Some need it so bad. We had one child in Arcahaie this Friday (still haven't uploaded the picture) who is 2 years old and weighed only 6.25 kg (about 13 pounds). That's the weight of some newborns!!

Another special occasion last week was a visit from Karen from Victoria, BC. She's been coming every year. Made me feel like an old timer to have people come back for the second year since I've been here! (Karen's in the middle)

Bonnie, Bobi, and I took her to the airport last Sunday. After dropping her off, we headed to the grocery store (a must every time we go to Port). On the way we decided to stop at a restaurant we'd always wanted to check out. We stopped, got a layout and prices of the place and decided to come back later for lunch if we felt like it. Well, as we put the key in the lock to open the door, it broke on us. Imagine how that left us feeling!! Now what do we do, in Port, just us three girls??

There were a couple guys from the restaurant that came and started taking the door apart. Not comfortable with that, we called Steve (owner of the truck) but couldn't get him on. We then called Chris, at Clean Water for Haiti, who gave us 3 phone numbers of people in Port. One of them was for a man named Kurt. I have a huge respect for this man now. He and his wife have lived here in Haiti for 10 years. He has a mechanic shop and does mechanic work for missionaries. He has an amazing heart. Even on a sunday after noon, he came where we were and helped us out. And this is a man that when he wanted to come to Haiti, no mission would take him because he was never able to learn to read and write because of a hearing problem. So they came and are working on their own now. (Don't ever limit what God can do through your own limitations!) He was able to get the key out, but we decided not to try to find a shop to make a new key, since there would be the risk of it not fitting anyway, so after getting hold of Steve, we messed up his afternoon too, by his bringing a second key to us.

So while waiting for him, we had lunch at this place. And a good leizure lunch it was and as we were paying for the bill, Steve drove up. No waiting time afterwards at all! (that tells you either how good the roads are or how long it took to eat :)

Today, Bonnie, Bobi, and I took the day off and went to our "lighthouse beach" again. That is one amazing beach! Totally isolated and the clearest aqua blue water anywhere.

OK, this is getting long and it's getting late. Generator will go off soon. Such is life here. Please continue to pray for us. There are so many needs, and blessings here - with the people from the community, all the kids and staff here at Canaan, and also among us "Americans" who serve here. Pray that we can bless the people here always, and not be a hindrance to the work.

God bless!

Elsie