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