Singin in the rain

Nothing beats sitting under a tin roof in haiti listening to the rain and being cooled of by the breeze that it brings! It has rained almost every day this past week which has been refreshing. Canaan is smack dab in the middle of mountains and the ocean so watching the storms come and go is quite the humbling experience. I was so thankful to be able to steal away yesterday afternoon and sit on top of a hill to watch nature at work. Sometimes it takes witnessing greatness for my little peanut sized mind to be reminded that it is not about me, that I was created for his pleasure and to live a life of worship.

Last Saturday a group of 7 arrived at Canaan and they will be here until the end of July. They are with the missions organization World Race which means that over the course of 11 months they will travel to 11 different countries (with one back pack) and this happens to be their first. I honestly have been planning on a team showing up searching for adventure with their little red push pin in hand ready to poke through Haiti on a map. But I was sorely mistaken. Their heart for these kids is astounding and they have brought a whole new wave of energy and encouragement to not only to Canaan as a whole but also to me individually. It is amazing to see how God has unified them as a team and is using their unique gifts to serve in very needed and specific ways here. One of those ways is in the school. Three of the World Race-ers are teachers so they dove right in and I have actually ended up in the school this past week also. To all the teachers out there, I have an entire new appreciation for you. The program that they have here is called ACE and it is a christian homeschooling system. It is not split up into classes or grades, they work more on an individual basis as they progress through booklets called paces. As a student in this system, you teach yourself most of the material so working in the school you serve as more of a monitor/ tutor/ test giver. It definitely is different than any school system I have seen, but spending a little time in there has given me a taste of what it would be like to be a teacher. So much patience is required, love for kids is a must, and eyes to see each child as an individual is necessary. I have loved watching how the kids respond to encouragement and just having someone believe in them. They are only children and without having that influence it is hard for them to find motivation to work hard and try their best. And just to throw it out there, Canaan is currently looking for teachers to come work in the school so if anyone has a heart for missions and kids, this would be something to pray about.

My pretend role as a teacher hasn't fooled anyone though, not a day goes by that someone is coming up to me explaining their newest symptoms, showing me their cut, asking for band aid, or even sending me a letter saying they are feeling bad and need cold water. Even the dogs have paid me a vist. A couple mornings ago I woke up to a giant smelly dog sitting in our house. He got in a fight with one of the other dogs and had a chunk taken out of his leg... it was nasty. I opted out of that one as I lured him out of the house with some beef jerky. I have no desire to be a veterinarian, sorry. On tuesday, the mamba clinic went pretty smoothly. One kid came that was possibly the largest patient I have seen come through to the clinic. He wasn't big from being over weight though, it is from something called kwashikwor which is a symptom of malnutrition. Basically all of the fluid shifts out of your cells to tissues and causes edema. He had edema all over his body and just looked miserable sitting there like he was ready to pop. I am interested to see what the outcome will be if he keeps coming to the clinic. As he begins to be nourished, the fluid should leave his body so he wont necessarily gain weight, hopefully he will loose some at first. If the internet is ever fast enough I will try and get a picture of him up.

I have a count down going...a week from today my dad, mom and brother are all coming! I cannot wait for them to be here and be able to see where I have been these past 2 months.

Sendin my love,

J

Flyin solo.

It has been a while since the last post, I have a feeling now that the other haitian-half of me left they wont be as regular, but I am going to try and stay on it! Morgan flew out a week ago and I am so thankful for the month that we were able to spend together. God was so good to lead us both to this place at the same time. It really makes all the difference to have someone walk with you side by side, spur you on, encourage you, cry with you, laugh with you, and just live life with you. Everything that we experienced I know I will never forget. She is an amazing woman of God and I already miss having her around! Though God allowed our paths to join this summer, He has individual plans for us both and the rest of the summer has much more in store with Morgan back in her home town and me here at Canaan.

This past weekend was really special for me. I got to play mom for about 4 days while I took care of a 9 month old girl that lives here named Maralucia. When I came to Canaan in March for a few days, I spent one day in the mamba clinic just to check it out and see how the whole process goes down. While I was there, a lady brought in a little 5 month old girl that weighed 7 pounds, was completely malnourished, dehydrated and had an extremely high fever. I have seen a lot of really bad cases so far this summer, but none can even compare to this baby. The lady said that her mom was crazy and her dad was dead, and she was not able to take care of her. She wanted Canaan to take her in. After Elsie started to get some sort of fluid in the baby, she went to go find a judge to officiate everything and within the matter of a couple hours, she was handed over to Canaan. In the chaos of it all, I remember not being able to take my eyes off of her. She was so lifeless, so malnourished, so sick, it was hard to imagine what it would take for a baby to get to this point of complete starvation. Elsie handed her over to me and we all got in the truck to drive up to Canaan. I felt like I was holding the most fragile living being in the world, she was so so hot and just laid limp in my arms with her mouth wide open. Every now and them she would lift up her little wrist to her mouth to suck on her hand when she was thirsty. She had a callous there from how often she would do it. The truck ride up to Canaan was maybe a minute but it seemed like eternity. I just prayed and prayed that God would keep her alive and that she wouldn't die right there in my arms. It did not feel real, I had never been so near to death before, especially with an infant. Looking back, I am amazed at the tangible battle between light and darkness, life and death. It was a scary fight, and goodness triumphed in the end. God began to breath His life into her and every hour that passed she regained little bits of strength. I left Haiti the next day after seeing a baby's life be saved right before my own eyes. That was Maralucia's story, and when I got to Haiti on June 1st, I was absolutely blown away when I laid eyes on her for the first time. She was a completely different child, she had grown so much and could hold her own head up. She was giggling and smiling and eating like a normal baby! So when the opportunity arose for me to take care of her, I jumped on it. Every minute I spent with her I felt like I was spending with a baby that had been touched by God. My mind kept flashing back to that day when God intervened in such a huge way, I am certain that he has great plans for her as He has already proven. She is quite possibly the most joyful, adorable, chubby baby that I have ever been around and has a smile that will just make you melt! Her story is one that gives me drive to keep going and makes my responsibility that much weightier to shed light onto this place, and to tell others the about the need that is here. I cannot begin to fathom how many more babies there are in Haiti in the state that she was in, most of them without any means of getting help. It cannot be ignored, I cannot ignore it. I cannot go back to the states and forget what I have seen here. God see's each one of these children's faces, He knows them by name and He loves them individually. I don't think I can pray enough that God would give me a heart that cares deeply about the things that He cares about, loves what he loves and hates what he hates. And that would drive me to act and fight for what is right, and to take part in His kingdom here on earth. I have so much to learn!

Joel Busby and two guys from a ministry called boosterthon came up to visit on monday and stayed for a couple of days. They hung around the clinic for a while handing out boosterthon back packs for the mom's to carry the mamba bags with. Speaking of, the mamba clinic insane on tuesday! I got to graduate the first patient that I have seen go through the entire program and finish at his goal weight. His name was Crluckson and he was one of the kids that we found up in Fon Baptiste the first week we were here. What a rewarding thing to see his mom leave with a smile of accomplishment and him leave happy and healthy with a chance to live a life unlike one he would have before.

Things around here have been much different this past week. Sister Gladys and Pastor Henry both left to go to the states for a couple of weeks, and without mom and pop here the atmosphere definitely changes! The kids also started sumer school on Tuesday so there is much more of a schedule to our days. Elsie is leaving tomorrow morning which leaves me in charge of several responsibilities that I didn't even know existed. Elsie is super woman for those of you who don't know...she does so much here and happens to be raising a little haitian baby on top of it all. No big. Without her here these next 2 weeks, I will probably be doing less in the clinic and more with the kids in school, and mamba of course. There might not ever be one day that looks the same, but hey, tih. I find that if you don't plan everything rolls much smoother than if you do.

Well, signing off. I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July, we have much to celebrate as citizens of our country!

Miss you meeeergannn!

Jess

Thanks to January 12th, when the country of Haiti is mentioned your first thought is automatically earthquake. So naturally when people heard that we were going to Haiti, they assumed that this natural disaster is the reason for our travel. But as you all know, that is not the case. Though almost everyone here has been affected by it in someway, being at Canaan has really separated us from the realities of it. To be honest , I have had to remind myself over and over what this country went through almost 6 months ago. Sunday we went into Port au Prince for the first time and I no longer had to remind myself, it was all around us. I came to Haiti in march and got to see port for a day and it was unbelievably devastating. I think the difference in what I felt sunday and what I felt in march was the discouragement that not much has changed since then. Tent cities are still everywhere, the rubble is still piled high, the capital is still a flattened mess, people are still out of work...I don't know how long it will take or if or how they will ever loose the mark of the earthquake. Not that I expected it to magically disappear, but it is very overwhelming to see. What is even more overwhelming is the thought of hurricane season hitting. A group that is here at Canaan building desks for schools just returned from Leoganne and they witnessed a huge storm wipe out an entire tent city, trees and all. Gosh if only this country could just press pause for like 30 years and take a breath! Morgan and I Iaid in bed and tried to talk about what we saw that night and all we could muster up was a giant question mark in our heads and a heaviness in our hearts. How can one even begin to process something like this, much less try and imagine what life would be like in their shoes, waking up reminded everyday of the horrendous tragedy they experienced.

On a lighter note, last week we hosted a seminar for all the nurses in the clinic. Morgan and I woke up and headed straight to the kitchen to make cookies to bring. We soon found out that any sort of baking in Haiti requires much creativity and accomodation. With the oven baking about 100 degrees higher than you set it as and ingredients being somewhat on the slim side, recipes are more of a suggestion than a strict guideline. Needless to say, the cookies were delicious and the best bite of sugar that we have tasted in a while! The seminar itself didn't quite go as we expected but we had so much fun doing it. We didn't really take into account how difficult it is to communicate through translators, therefore 2 truths and a lie in creole was kind of a bust. Our next attempt to get across to them was with skits. Me and Morgan acted out a couple different clinical scenarios, one of them including morgan falling over dead....watch out academy awards we are coming for you! Chelsea wrapped it all up by saying a few kind words about their purpose and how amazing it is that they are able to work for the God of the universe, shining the light of the kingdom in the Canaan clinic day after day. If anything, they got a good laugh at us making a fool of ourselves, got some yummy cookies and hopefully walked away a little encouraged.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the bible studies that we have been doing with the kids. We meet with them every morning and last week we each told our groups that if they memorized a verse, we could go on a hike up to Capiat (the mountain spring about 2 hours away). I was shocked at how fast a group of girls could memorize a verse when a little reward is involved. It felt like every hour one of them was coming up to me with a big grin ready to recite Ephesians 5:8-10. Come 5:00 saturday morning they had all said it to me and we were on our way up the mountain, pop tarts and all. I think I enjoyed watching them laugh and be kids more than anything. I did have one close call when I got knocked off the trail by a donkey. Thankfully I caught myself on a tree branch and was pulled up by some nice little Haitian woman who was headed down the mountain to sell her plantains. Dumb donkeys.

Tomorrow is mamba day! Pray that all the kids would show up tomorrow having gained weight and with mothers who are eager to restore their child's health. Mother's who are willing to put forth the effort and take ownership over this responsibility make all the difference. Every one of the kids that come are precious and we get so excited seeing the pounds add on! Tomorrow is also Morgs last day...don't really want to talk about it. I am so sad to see her go but gosh I am so thankful that we have had this past month with each other!

Generator is about to turn off! We send our love!

Jess

2 nursing students, 3 med students, and 1 nurse practitioner...

Tuesday we were late to both lunch and dinner. This never happens. But this Tuesday was a different story. Not only was it Mamba day, but two med students and a nurse practitioner are in for the week from the states, which meant that we set up the clinic outside under a tent. So the day began…. We saw over 40 Mamba patients, with many of them gaining a whole kilo in one week. It was really encouraging to see such an improvement in just a few weeks. Jessica and I interviewed the moms and their kids, while Chelsea did some serious crowd control and snapped the weekly photo of the kids.
We saw all the kids, gave out over 80 kilos of Mamba, and then began to help in the clinic. As soon as we walked into the clinic (a cement building with steel bars over the screened windows and no electricity), we found the med students taking care of a five-year-old little girl who was TEXTBOOK for congestive heart failure. For any Ida V. Nursing School people reading this- she literally looked like the cartoon character that we learned last semester in adult 1. She sat in tripod position, she had ascites in her abdomen, her chest was contracting, her legs were very edematous, her arms were stick thin, and her heart was beating so fast it was difficult to get a pulse. Then we looked over and Elsie was putting in a catheter for a urine sample in a different little girl whose entire body was unexplainably puffy. I THEN looked over to see Chelsea interviewing a man, who looked to be about 75 years old, but claimed to be 50 as he explained how he fell out of a tree last week and broke 2-4 ribs. Goodness…

Plan of action? No idea. Then the nurse practitioner, Stephanie, walked by and said, “Calculate that drip rate!” Drip rate? What drip rate!?! We looked behind the curtain that she had come from and found a very malnourished and dehydrated 6-month-old little boy who Stephanie had just started an IV on. So we began calculating the rate for the IV fluids to drip into this tiny little boy on the wrapper of sterile gauze sponge. Jess was able to figure out the drip rate as we also gave an antibiotic through his little IV… We continued to monitor the boy and his fever started to decrease, it was so exciting to see this little one FINALLY break his fever (he has been in the Mamba program for the last 2 weeks and has had a high fever on both visits). Praise Him!

I’m now sitting at a table, waiting for dinner, with one of the med students and Stephanie, the nurse practitioner. We’re talking about the power of prayer versus the use of medicine. Quite the topic for pre-dinner conversation. I’m just listening, trying to soak it all in…. everyone around has so much experience- I wish I knew a fraction of what they knew or had see a little of what they’ve seen. But, one thing I do know is that I (more often than not) rely solely on the little knowledge that I have when we are down at the clinic with patients. I immediately turn to the bit of knowledge I’ve gained through nursing school, or I ask Elsie a question (RN at the clinic who lives here at Canaan), or I look to the med students/Stephanie for the answer. And while I know that this is so valid and I know that I am supposed to use that knowledge that the Lord’s allowed me to learn, I never think to pray for the patient when I’m down in the clinic with them. It’s often not until I blog about our day or I write in my journal that I think to pray for the people Jess and I saw. Gosh, I wish prayer was the first thing I thought to do. I’m not sure why it’s not. I haven’t thought about this long enough to write it in an eloquent way. I’m not sure what to write now. I want Christ to constantly be on my mind as I interact with patients alongside the med students. Please pray that the Lord would increase my faith. Thank you for all your encouragement and prayers. We feel them, big time.
Welp, that’s all I’ve got for now… off to dinner to eat some pumpkin soup…

Missin you guys.

-Morg

Cannot believe that it is week 4 already. Time is flying. We decided a blog post was needed to re-cap our top most haitian/adventurous moments that we have experienced thus far. We have narrowed down and in no particular order.

1. St. Marc. One thing that we have said is a must-do before we leave haiti is to ride a tap tap, and saturday we had our chance. Tap taps are Haitians main mode of transportation, they are usually colorfully painted trucks with a built in wooden roof over the bed of the truck and two little benches on either side underneath. We needed to ride into town to get groceries for cookie ingredients so we talked two of the oldest Canaan girls, Carleen and Fabien, to come along and be our tour guides/ translators/ body guards. After flagging a tap tap down, Chelsea and Carleen snagged a seat in the front and Morgan, myself and Fabien hopped in the back with about 12 others already in there. Within the first 15 minutes, we had about 22 people somehow crammed in this little truck, including the three hanging off the roof. Me and Morgan were trying to play it cool and act like we were regulars, but every time we made eye contact we would bust out laughing. So immature. To get off you just tap tap, they stop, you pay your goudes and go on your merry way. Seems easy enough but when I tried to do it they said I tapped too hard and gave them a headache, totally butchered my chance to prove my Haitian-ness. When we got to Saint Marc, Carleen and Fabien led the way to the grocery and then to Epidore's for lunch (Haiti's version of Mcdonalds). We had our first cheeseburger since we have been here AND fries AND coke. It was heavenly! Such a treat to get away for a few hours and spend some time with the girls.

2. Soccer game. All of the churches in the surrounding towns and villages are pretty dedicated to playing soccer and basketball against one another. They have been competing in a big tournament these past few weeks and two weekends ago was the soccer championship. The Canaan kids love to play soccer so they were all about loading up in the truck to go watch. When we got there, the scene that we came across was unforgettable. We walked through a random path in the middle of a village, ending at a soccer field completely surrounded by banana trees, a cow tied up by one of the goals, and about a hundred supportive fans waiting for the game to start. The two teams, black team and white team, were all suited up in their gear warming up in the middle of the field. The atmosphere seemed harmless, everyone was munchin on pop tarts, I was teaching the girls high school cheers to support the guys, and Morgan was hangin with the Arkansas crew. Somehow we missed the memo that there was tension between the two teams, and it wasn't until about half way through the game when the canaan kids simultaneously stood up to leave that we got the hint. Before we knew it, two large groups of men standing on the side line had formed and they were yelling at one another- they seemed angry, to say the least. That was our cue. We slung on our backpacks, hightailed it back into the cattle truck, and drove away before it got too rowdy. We are still not too sure what happened or why but it was definitely not your average church league soccer game.

Alright I'll let those 2 be the start to our list, we hope that this will paint a better picture of what we are experiencing here. Today Nesly came in for the first time in e few days and we were so encouraged with what we saw! His arm is healing so well, we barely even had to bandage it. He will most likely have pretty bad scaring, but that is the trade off I guess for his situation. We will try and post pictures sometime soon of how he has progressed!

We have a big week ahead of us. We will be doing a 2 day seminar with the nurses dealing with things like professionalism, team building and also to encourage them for all their hard work. Please be praying for us and that they would be able to walk away reminded of their purpose and feeling very valued. We also are starting to do bible studies this week with the Canaan kids. Chelsea, Morgan and myself all have separate groups of different ages and will be meeting with them every morning for a little devo time. Pray for wisdom in how we should lead our groups and that the kids would be willing to participate. Also pray for our patience, it is going to be hard to get these little rascals to sit down in the middle of lazy summer days!

About to start another mamba day! Missing our people. We think about you all the time!

Jess

peanut butter anyone?

Mamba Mamba Mamba! Tuesday was our first day to run the “Mamba” clinic solo without Bobi (she just moved back to the states with her husband to have their baby). Chelsea and I headed down that morning, still feeling like we were ran over by a semi truck thanks to the stomach bug from the day before (Jess was unfortunately still down for the count). Elsie (the RN from the clinic) and Sarah (a missionary who lives down the road) came to help- Praise the Lord. We had no idea how busy the day was going to be. We saw over 45 kids, many of them gained A LOT of weight this week and are already beginning to look so healthy after only 2-3 weeks of being in the program. A few of the severely malnourished kids came in sick with diarrhea and respiratory infections, so Elsie sent them to see a team of American doctors who are in for the week.

Okay, let me give a spark notes of the “Mamba” program that happens every Tuesday. Bobi (who just moved back to the states to have her baby) has been running the “Mamba” program for the past 2 years, so needless to say, she spent the last three weeks training Chelsea, Jess, and me on everything and anything Mamba. This program is designed by Meds and Food for Kids, who specially designed a formula called “Medika Mamba” that means peanut butter medicine in Creole. It’s produced in a factory here in Haiti and is packaged in .5 or 1 kilo bright green re-sealable plastic bags (kind of like what trail mix is packaged in). This formula is made of peanut butter and packed full of all the essential vitamins, proteins, fats, and oils that kids (ages 6 months- 5 years) need for proper growth and development. It tastes like the inside of a peanut butter cup, except a bit grittier in texture.

Every Tuesday, kids come to the clinic from Montrouis or surrounding towns. They have either heard about the program by word of mouth or been referred by the nurses at the medical clinic. We “screen” each child to see if he or she qualifies to be in the program by finding their weight, height, MUAC (middle upper arm circumference) and then plugging all those numbers into a chart that determines their nutritional status. If the child qualifies as severely or moderately malnourished, then we start the child on the Mamba immediately. The child comes back every Tuesday to be re-weighed and we do a quick interview with the caretaker to see the child’s response to the Mamba (if the child has had diarrhea or vomiting etc). The child continues to come into the clinic every week until they reach their goal weight; this normally takes 8-10 weeks. Jess and Chels have mastered the interviewing, while I take care of getting the kids weekly weights and snapping a photo for our files. Then at the end of the day, we take all the files and new pictures and update each kids file with their current weight and picture. It’s incredible to see the change in just a few short weeks.

However, we have to be very stern with the mothers/caretakers if the child isn’t gaining the proper amount of weight each week. It’s often hard for the moms to understand that they can’t (for example) leave their 9-year-old daughter in charge of feeding the Mamba to their malnourished child while the mom goes to the market all day. The child has to be fed the Mamba in certain dosages at certain times. It’s a big commitment to be in this program, and if the moms don’t take it seriously, then the child is discharged. We are all learning how to make that call and when to give leeway. And even though the idea of discharging a sick child (because of the mother’s irresponsibility) seems harsh, Bobi explained that we can’t waste the Mamba on families who won’t take on the challenge when there are MANY other families/mothers that will use the Mamba in the proper way to help their kids gain the weight!

Okay- that was longer than spark notes. But that’s what we do, well, starting to get the hang of doing!

Everybody please keep on praying! Pray for Neslie, the burn on his arm is healing so well (an American doctor saw it and was VERY pleased with the progress). Also, shoot up a prayer that Jess and I would be able to find encouragement in the little things here at Canaan. The stomach bug definitely kicked our “routine” out the window and I find myself tempted to fall into a funk of some sort. So anyways, just pray that our eyes will continue to be open to the little joys of Canaan and how we can best serve while we’re here. Love you all much.

-Morg

p.s.- Searcy, Arkansas Team- we miss you guys already and are praying that you will have QUICK recovery from the stomach bug. Jen, enjoy that pedicure for all of us :). Ms. Kelly- thank you for the yoga mats and skirts- we have already washed and worn them! And the chocolate cookies were delicious!!! Thanks for leaving us all y’alls goodies, you have no idea how much you all encouraged us during your time at Canaan. Love you guys. We just might need to make our first Searcy road trip.

The inevitable bump in the road

All is well here at Canaan, finally! Unfortunately some kind of throw up/stomach bug spread among about 15 people here. It started sunday and slowly began to take out person after person, morgan and chelsea got it on monday and just when I thought I had escaped, I came down with it yesterday. Of course the only people that get sick are the people not from Haiti, the weaklings. Haitians have the most rockin immune systems. Luckily it only lasted about 12 hours and we are back on our feet today. The poor group from arkansas left here with some still feeling pretty miserable, we hope you all survived the trek home! One thing is true, being sick at home with a mom is so much more comforting than being sick while you are hot and sweaty and getting eaten up by bugs. I guess it made it a little better that we had been planning on being sick at one point or another, it was just bound to happen. Morgan and Chelsea were wonderful replacement moms though and went out of there way to be sure I had what I needed.

Before all of the sickness, we had a lovely weekend. Saturday we spent the day organizing the pharmacy. It was entertaining the things that we found in that place, including living things with tails, and actually very satisfying to clean and sort all the clutter. I feel like much of what we fill our time with when we are not in the clinic are odd jobs like this...cleaning out storage buildings, taking a kitchen inventory, filing folders, etc. I think once we began to realize that though these things seem unimportant and silly at times, it is what they need. And it is things that will help them function better. And that is why we are here, to be some kind of blessing and hopefully bring relief to them in any way possible. Having the opportunity to help the people at Canaan, like Sister Gladys and Pastor Henry, who spend there lives pouring out to others is an absolute joy. SG and PH are the two founders of Canaan, they are incredible people and it is such a treat to even be in their presence. They just both exude love for the Lord and have an aroma about them as if they know God in a way I can't imagine. Such great faith, so much prayer, living through countless struggles and victories, this has sculpted them into the wise yet so very humble servants of the Lord that they are today. I kind of wish I could just follow them around all day and hear what is going to come out of their mouths next. The first thing that I heard Sister Gladys say when she arrived was "The Lord told me once to start using the corners of my eyes, both physically and spiritually." And this was just a side note to one of her stories of God's faithfulness.

Saturday night was one of those memories that I will never forget. We have been having trouble with our toilet, you see, it does not seem to want to flush...ever. So Morg and I decided that we were going to try and fix it, bad idea. Here we come marching in the bathroom, tweedledee and tweedledum, and attempt to plunge our sad little toilet. In the midst of trying to put together every bit of plunging wisdom from our dads, the power went out because around 10 o'clock every night the generator shuts off. So it's pitched black, we are doubled over in laughter, totally disgusted with our hygiene, and in an effort to escape the madness we ran outside in the pouring rain. We might not have been successful in our toilet maintenance, but we did have ourselves one hilarious night and a ton of fun goofing off in the rain..with head lamps. If you could have only seen us.

On monday, while morgan and chels were sick, I headed down to the clinic to see some patients with a couple ladies from the arkansas group. While I was there I think I finally began to realize the point of helping sick people in Haiti, as simple as that may sound I have been thinking a lot about it. In this part of the world, good health care is not just around every corner. There isn't a doctor right up the road, and if there is it is hard to get there because you have to catch a tap tap, which requires money. Here at Canaan there are no doctors, there are about 4 amazing nurses that work 5 long days a week seeing patient after patient. Every week there are a handful of cases that they know are just too complicated to take on so they get sent to a hospital. At times the whole concept of health care here is really hard to wrap my mind around. Why does it have to be like this? Are we even doing anything here? Does prescribing medicines and bandaging wounds and getting vital signs do anything? My conclusion? Yes. It has to be yes. One lady came in that was having sharp pains in her ribs and had trouble breathing. After we got done talking with her, her eyes swelled up with tears and she said goodbye as if she was anticipating her death around the corner. We told her that she wasn't going to die, she was going to be ok. We were going to figure out what was wrong with her and she was going to get better. Just having someone tell her that changed her whole attitude, she was beaming ear to ear as if she had just been cured of whatever sickness she did have. And that is why we have to do what we are doing. Offering people hope and showing them that someone on this earth cares makes it all worth it. We just have to pray that they will see there is a hope greater than what we can offer, and eternal everlasting hope in christ that will give them a reason to live day in and day out.

We had a great mamba day yesterday, I'll let morgan fill you all in on that, I didn't make it. Craving some sonic ice today, make that any ice. Shall we try fedex-ing a cooler of ice to Montrois? Oui!

Aure voir!

part of the family...

It finally clicked. The kids at Canaan finally realized that we aren’t a part of the teams that come and go every week. It’s been neat to see this happen. I can’t describe how cool it was to walk into the “cafeteria” and have 3-year-old, bow-legged, Winchell jump up on my lap without me having to first invite him. How exciting it was to walk by clusters of kids and hear them yell out “Mergan!” and “JesEEca!” before we even tried to get their attention (they have trouble with the “o-r” combination, thus I am Mergan). This transition has made Canaan begin to feel like home. Jess and I have just accepted the fact that we’re sweaty all the time, the Haitian women will always be better at washing clothes no matter how hard we try, and that our fans will die in the middle of the night regardless of how long we charge our batteries. The community here feels similar to home, except with 60 little brothers and sisters. The kids laugh with us, laugh at us, and even have moments when they storm off after losing a round of the “hand game”.

We’ve settled into somewhat of a routine this week. We’ve spent a lot of time learning how to update the files in the computer for the malnutrition clinic. It’s tedious work and took a long time (especially the first time doing it), but we know how rewarding it will be to see the kids in the program begin to gain weight. We’ve been going to the medical clinic every morning to see Neslie (the 4 yr old burn patient) and assess his arm. We first peel the dead skin off (debride it), rinse it in normal saline, put on antibiotic cream, and then put on a new clean dressing. He doesn’t even make a sound, but instead watches every single thing we do. His temperature has gone down every day (praise the LORD) and we started him on oral antibiotics instead of IV. Our goal is to continue to keep the wound clean and free of infection until an American doctor comes on Monday. Please pray for Neslie this weekend. Pray that the skin on his arm would continue to grow and heal and that the doctor will know how to best treat Neslie’s arm next week. Neslie is such a cool kid- beyond brave. It’s gonna be a long healing process, but I get so excited when I think about him being able to be a normal little boy again- without gauze and bulky bandages on his arm.

It’s been a really good couple of days. We’ve received a lot of encouragement from a group of girls and their moms from a church in Arkansas. We have worshipped together, worked in the medical clinic together, and even done yoga together on the roof of a building (Ms. Kelli, one of the moms, is a yoga instructor back in AR). They have been a very sweet group, and made me feel SO at home on my 21st birthday. The combination of banana birthday cake, green icing, 60 kids singing to me at breakfast, a package from my family (that mom sneakily hid in my duffle bag- thanks mama ☺), and many sweet emails from friends made for the best 21st birthday ever. Thank you Jessica and Chelsea for making my birthday an absolute blast. Thank you to all you guys back in the states- I really felt so celebrated. What a huge blessing June 10th was!

Okay, I think that’s the spark notes of this week. It’s movie night (we’re watching Yours, Mine, and Ours?) and I’ve gotta turn off this computer because the kids keep nudging me because I’m not paying attention!

-Morg

One week mark

Typing with sore knuckles right now, me and morgan have been out by the well learning how to wash clothes with some of the older canaan girls. Not a task for the faint hearted that is for sure. This past weekend was more than refreshing. It was the perfect couple of days to ease us into the weeks that lie ahead. Saturday we deep cleaned our humble abode followed by a little yoga by our instructor in training, chlesea. She didn't have to ask us twice for us to be her suspects, though yoga in Haiti might as well be called hot yoga! On sunday we got to spend the day on the beach. Most of the time when teams come to stay at Canaan they will spend their last day at the beach, so we gladly accepted the offer to join. It was a great chance to just relax as well as a wonderful reminder of the beauty that IS found in Haiti. God's presence is here. You just have to open up your eyes a little bit, listen to the laughter, listen to the singing, look past the rocky ground and up at the mountains and it is there you see Him.

We hit it full force on monday in the health clinic. The majority of our day was spent taking care of a 4 year old boy, named Nesly, who had third degree burns covering his arm. It apparently happened two days before in a gasoline accident. Because they waited so late to bring him, he was pretty dehydrated and we think they had put toothpaste of all things on the burn. I guess they thought that would help? We got an IV going to get some fluids back in him and began to debride his wound. This little one was such a trooper, he barely even winced and was totally occupied with watching us work. After we got him all bandaged up, elsie decided that the wisest thing to do would be to take him into St. Marc hospital just to prevent any infection and get another opinion of how to best treat him. Luckily, everything the Dr. did at the hospital was what we had been doing. We sent Nesly and his grandmother home with instructions to return to canaan once a day to get a dressing change as well as some antibiotics. And thankfully they did return yesterday and today giving us great opportunity to continue checking up on him and watching to see how his arm is healing. Please be praying for Nesly and that his arm would not become infected and that new skin would begin to form. Also that he would not be in unbearable pain throughout his recovery.

Tuesday was a crazy day in the mamba clinic. This was kind of our crash course in how everything runs on a normal mamba day at Canaan. Bobbi, the lady who runs the clinic, is leaving next week to return home with her husband. She was so patient with us as she trained us and dealt with our million questions as we prepared to take the whole program on for the summer with the help of a few others. The patients that we found in in mountains at Fon Baptiste came to be admitted as well as all of the other patients currently in the program, making a total of 37 patients yesterday. We are so excited to begin to watch these little ones grow and come back to life as well as begin to form relationships with the mothers, encouraging them and supporting them as they take on this huge task.

One week down.

And guess what....it's morgan's birthday tomorrow! Gettin ready to celebrate haitian style baby.

LOVE YOU ALL!

-Jess

It’s our first Saturday here at Canaan. I’m sitting in a small garden next to our house wearing an oversized tank top and Nike shorts J (this is the only place we are allowed to wear this outfit). In moments like this I wish I majored in journalism because my description simply can’t do this place justice. This is the first afternoon I’ve had the chance to be still (but no worries- I just finished cleaning the room, re-making my bed, and rigging up a contraption to fix my sagging mosquito net). It’s hard to believe it’s only noon… We woke up at 5 am to start a five-mile hike up the mountain to a cold-water spring. We were told that some of the older Canaan kids would take us up there, so naturally we figured this was going to be just an easy walk up one of the hills. Hilarious. We were so wrong.

The hike entailed 2 hours up a very steep path with portions of the path being only 6 inches wide (covered in moss) and with one wrong step you would be, in the words of my new 12-year-old friend Wesh, “dead meat”. So at many points, Jessica and I would hum the Rocky theme song and just move as quick as we could to keep up with Canaan kids and avoid the men walking along the path carrying bushels of bananas and machetes. However, WE MADE IT (with, might I add, the beginning stages of a Chaco tan)! The spring was beyond refreshing. We all took our turns jumping in as the Canaan kids laughed at how uncoordinated we looked. We laughed and enjoyed the freezing/clear/fresh water, just in time to load back up and head back down the mountain. We spent the walk with two of the Canaan boys (West-12 yrs and Joelle- 14 yrs) and played the “if you could have any super power, what would it be” game and then finally made it back to a filling brunch of peanut butter pancakes.

So now I sit here in a garden, looking at the ocean, and listening to a woman sing the most beautiful song as she washes her clothes by the well. I just finished reading Oswald Chamber’s “My Utmost for His Highest” and it focuses on Hebrews 13: 6 which says, “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” It’s easy to say those words as I sit here in this breath-taking setting. It’s easy to believe that after a day spent with these Haitian orphans who literally exude the joy of Christ.

But it was hard to believe yesterday morning when we went to the hospital to check on two-year-old Louie (we had taken him there on Thursday night to see the Dr. on Friday morning). Louie didn’t make it through the night; his father said he died soon after we had left the hospital that evening. I’ve sat here for a long few minutes trying to figure out what to say next. I don’t know what to say. I keep seeing the look on the father’s face when we saw him Friday morning. It’s not easy to say Hebrews 13:6 when a father asks why his son died. There are so many emotions and questions that I can’t quite peg down. However, I believe the truth of Hebrews 13:6, regardless of my sadness and anger. I am going to cling to this scripture and I have been praying that the Lord will strengthen my faith. Even though I don't at all understand what happened, I know that Christ will be glorified. Jess and I ask that you continue to pray for Louie’s father. Please pray that he will be comforted and come to know the only true Healer.

We feel your prayers daily. Thank you.

-Morg

Fon Baptiste

Wow, it's day three and what an incredible day it has been. Little did we know what we had ahead of us as we sat and ate our new favorite breakfast food, baked oatmeal, this morning. Today we headed up to the mountains to the town of Fon Baptiste. Chelsea, Morgan, myself and Bobi packed up the car with everything we needed to screen the children of the town for malnutrition. We were so excited to take part in what we have been anticipating for months. The most hilarious part of the day was the drive there and back. Not having driven 30 seconds out of Canaan, the bed of the truck accumulated about 12 extra Haitians wanting a ride up the mountain. Apparently word had spread that we were going and they didn't hesitate to pass up such a valued lift. So hundreds of pounds heavier, our beast of a truck left for our two hour trek up the mountain. The ride was extremely bumpy, but the view was beautiful. We were surrounded by green mountains with the occasional peek at the ocean down below. As we drove higher and higher, the air became cool and crisp, a much appreciated blessing from the Lord. Once we arrived, there was about 40 kids with their mother's waiting for us to begin the clinic. It is amazing how quickly word spread's in Haiti. My cell phone/internet/ TV trained mind cannot comprehend how anything ever gets communicated, but somehow...it just does. It got a little chaotic as more and more people hung around to see what these "blan" (white) folks were here for. We began to screen child after child, weighing them and measuring their height to determine if they were malnourished. Last night Bobi said that she would be surprised if we found 10 children, today we found about 20. The mothers were given instructions that we would return on Monday to begin treating the kids. Because this town is so far away, there is the possibility that these families could move onto Canaan's property for the duration of the program (usually around 8 weeks).

By the time we returned to Canaan, we had another adventure awaiting us. One of the children that we came across in Fon Baptiste was extremely sick and needed more help than just medika mumba (explanation to come..). He was about two years old with constant diarrhea, malnourished, severely dehydrated and could barely keep his head up. After Elsie (Canaan's nurse) got a look at him, she decided he definitely needed an IV. So being the eager beaver nurses that Morgan and I are, we hopped on this opportunity. Because this child was severely dehydrated we knew that this was going to be a difficult stick and that God was going to have to intervene in a huge way. And He did. Morgan inserted the IV with ease and it was flowing perfectly. We both left and just looked at each other with disbelief as the reality sunk in of what just happened. I get the feeling that this type of situation is going to continue to happen this summer. It has been very clear over these past 3 days that we are small beings, very small beings, incapable of doing anything without our heavenly father. We ask for your continued prayer, but specifically for this two-year-old little boy. Please pray that we will know how to best treat him, that he will quickly rehydrate, and that his condition will not worsen.

Well, signing off....the bells a ringin' for dinner time. We send our love, thank you for your prayers, we feel them every day.

-Jess

Well, we made it! Jessica and I are very excited to finally be here at Canaan. The day started early (we met up with Chelsea Rushing, a recent grad from Samford, who will be staying in Haiti till the middle of July) and we have already found ourselves in situations where the only thing to do is laugh and have also experienced a few t.i.h. situations. Before we left, we were told that some moments in Haiti can only be described by saying t.i.h. which stands for "this is haiti"... I didn't fully understand what that meant until we had been through immigration and baggage claim at the haitian international airport. After an early flight out of Birmingham, a five hour layover in the Miami airport (where Jessica was SURE she saw multiple celebs), and a quick flight to Port-au-Prince on a huge airplane, we landed!

We made it through immigration and began the search for our bags. I immediately began to pray that we would be able to spot Jessica's red, pink, and green polka-dotted cheerleading bows tied to our luggage, and we did! Praise Him, first mission- accomplished. Now for the second tast- find Bobi (our Canaan contact). We held onto our luggage tightly as we squeezed through the sea of people to get outside near the street. We were immediately bombarded by many haitians who wanted to help carry our luggage, but we kept moving through and found Bobi. She greeted us with a huge smile and hug and told us just to hold tight and wait for the other group of 21 people that would be joining us in Canaan for this first week. Our luggage and the luggage from the group was piled high into the back of a cattle truck and then everyone else also hopped into the back of the truck (yes, 24 peoples' luggage and 24 people in the back of a cattle truck) to begin the hour long drive to Canaan. The ride was tight :) but so incredible to see Port-au-Prince and the country side as we left the city. It began to rain (it's rainy season-so it will be raining at least once a day) but as we continued to drive, it let up a bit just enough to see the most breath-taking rainbow. It reminded me so much of the Lord and His faithfulness.

Once we arrived to Canaan and everyone climbed out of the truck, we all congregated in the cafeteria for our first haitian meal. It put Qdoba and Chipotle to shame. We got to know the group of 21, they are from a church in Illinois and are here to do VBS for the school in Canaan. After dinner we headed to our new home and began to unpack. We laughed so hard as we tried to figure out where to put what, while wearing our head lamps. I'm not sure why we wore the headlamps, but we did, and we thought we were pretty funny. We all took our turns taking a cool shower, bug-sprayed ourselves one last time, turned our fans on, and crawled under our mosquito nets, just in time before the routine power-down at 10 pm (the generator turns of every night around this time). Chelsea said a prayer thanking the Lord for such an exciting, but safe day and for our time here at Canaan. With our ear plugs in (the dogs bark all night)- our first day in Haiti was complete.

-Morg