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