Here comes the bride....

There is a lady who works at the girls' home, Sylviana, who has two boys, Keso and Daniel, who live at the boys' home. Last Saturday Sylviana married her long time boyfriend and father of three of her children (Keso and a little brother and sister). I'm not sure what spurred on the desire to marry her beau at this time, but we were all excited for them and happy to attend their wedding.

Sylviana asked if I would take the pictures for the wedding. Navy, a nanny at the girls' home, was the couple's godmother (they have godmother's at Haitian weddings for the bride and groom, not just for a child being baptized). Cendy, one of our girls, was the flower girl, and Keso was the ring bearer. For days our girls were talking about the up-coming wedding. All morning Saturday the girls, Navy, and Sylviana prepared at the girls' home. Traditionally, Haitian weddings start late- hours late. Marlval drove the bride and the rest of the MdL group followed in two other cards. We all showed up about 1 1/2 hrs late. There was no walking down the aisle for the bridal party and bride. I'm not sure if this was because we were late or because the church was pretty small and didn't have a long walkway to dance down. Yes, you read right. Haitians typically dance down the aisle. I was sorely disappointed to not see this display. However, the wedding attendees were so enthusiastic in their merriment and singing of acapella Haitian worship, that I had the feeling I was a part of a musical, always my fondest desire. While another man led worship, the pastor slept in a chair near the bridal party. After the ceremony, we drove to Sylviana's and her husband's house, where we were served coke's and pate's (a popular Haitian food that is similar to a "Hot Pocket", but better). Sylviana, her husband, and their kids will be receiving a new pre-fabricated house, as their other house fell down during the quake. The "house" where the reception was held was made of tin and tarp and built right on top of the other house's rubble.

Every time I looked at Cendy or took her picture, she looked like she was being tortured. But she looked gorgeous and so cute!

Josie, the youngest son

the bride and groom and their youngest son

Keso

the kids are Orlphinka and Daniel, two more of Sylviana's children

No, he's not chewing on trash. He's drinking drinking water (water can be bought it plastic bags here)

Check out these tights on Cendy!

Four Months

Where Are We at Now?

This is an update of post-quake Haiti and Child Hope/Maison de Lumiere that I sent to my church.

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The days and weeks following the January earthquake consisted of much turmoil, yet the grace of God was very evident. On February 12-14, one month since the earthquake, the nation of Haiti was called by the President to pray and fast. At 6 am each day the children, staff, and visitors of Maison de Lumiere met together in the "bens," the sports area attached to the boys' home. We sang in English and in Creole and prayed for the nation as a whole, those people close to the ministry who had lost their family, friends, and homes, and for the children and staff themselves, as well as the ministry of Child Hope. Outside our walls, we heard about people worshipping and praying in the streets and record numbers attending church.

The week after the fast CNN spent five days with our children, completing the filming of a documentary that had been started a few years ago. Food, tarps, tents, radios, and blankets have continued to be dropped off by various organizations, such as UNICEF, Feed my Starving Children, and the Army's 82nd Airborne. We are able to buy food at the markets for the children and ourselves, so we are giving away the donated beans, rice, and MRE's to our staff members, their families, and our community. We received our first team of visitors since the earthquake, Fighter Fighters for Christ, who built desks for our new MdL school, shelves to organize our supplies and food donations, and staffed our clinic for a few days. A few weeks later, a large team from CA arrived to oversee the construction of the walls around the girls' home and the back wall surrounding the guest house (where I live), and to staff a mobile medical clinic we held in the nearby ravine.

Many schools fell down during the earthquake and many teachers are dead or left Port au Prince for the country side. As a result, our children were out of school for more than six weeks. Bill Manassero'sbrother and sister-in-law arrived in late January. His brother, Tom, with his own handy-man business in the states, tackled our list of construction projects. Nancy, a nurse, began working at our twice weekly medical clinic, then took on the task of searching for teachers from the states. In an effort get our kids back into a daily schedule of learning, even though we did not have a full staff of teachers, we began holding school for all of the older children at the boys' home, with Nancy Manassero as principal. We have a few Haitian teachers teaching French and tutoring the boys in sixth grade and three kids in ninth grade in order to pass the required government exam. We've had two pastors staying for a month at a time each that have taught Bible, I teach health, and the other missionaries and many visitors have taught English, math, and various other subjects, all in English. However, we would like ESL teachers to come for at least one year to staff the school, starting this fall. We will have a summer program of studies for our kids that will need to be staffed as well. So far, the children say they are excited about their new school that is mostly taught in English and thankful to not be attending Haitian school, where lessons were based on memorization and strict physical punishment was often doled out.

After we moved the patients out of the front yard of the boys home a week after the earthquake, we also moved the clinic to a new house down the street from the orphanages and guesthouse. The bottom part of the house is the clinic and the upstairs are the classrooms for

the MdL school. We hold clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays for three hours each day. We are now seeing many of the same things we saw before the earthquake- coughs, colds, parasites, with a few cases of follow-up wound care thrown in and many complaints of diarrhea. Health care workers predict that cholera could become epidemic in Haiti due to lack of clean water and sanitation. For now, we are seeing mild cases of stomach issues that can be treated with re-hydration salts and antibiotics. Nancy Manassero and Ashley, as well as visiting doctors, nurses, and paramedics staff the clinic. I am working at the clinic just when time allows, as I am teaching health classes for the older children and taking care of the medical needs of our children and staff.

Please continue to lift up the people of Haiti in your prayers. Pray that rebuilding efforts increase and that the people can be moved out of their tents and tarps into housing to protect them from the rainy season. God has provided a principal for the school until June, but we will need one for the summer session, as well as a project manager to lead various construction projects as Nancy and Tom left Haiti a week ago. We also need teachers to staff our school for the spring, summer, and fall, and for a doctor to staff our clinic. Most of all, please pray for the hearts of the Haitian people to turn towards Jesus Christ, the one who gives us hope and our strength, and for the children of MdL to grow strong in faith and in godly character. Thank you for your continued support of Maison de Lumiere and the Haitian people.

Brooke

Madam Jocelyn Update

Many of you may remember hearing about or you financially supported, an employee and woman in our neighborhood, named Madam Jocelyn. She has returned to Haiti after being in the Dominican Republic for four months for radiation treatment and more chemotherapy for Stage IIIB uterine cancer. As the cancer is not yet in remission, her doctor is recommending more chemotherapy followed by a special type of radiation called brachytherapy, which will both be conducted in the DR. There are no guarantees, but her doctor says that this continued treatment will be effective in eliminating the cancer in her body.

The total cost of the treatment is $3500, which includes room and board in the Dominican. It is urgent that we raise this money within the week so Madam Jocelyn can return to the Dominican for the treatment. The longer the time period between treatments, the greater the risk that the cancer will metastisize or be more difficult to treat.

Will you please join us in praying for the funds so desperately needed to help this dear woman continue her treatment? We know our God is great and can heal her. Please keep Madam Jocelyn and her family in your prayers. If you feel called to help with her medical expenses, you may donate online at our website - just make it clear that the funds are for Madam Jocelyn. Keep praying and may God bless you.

Israelis

A three year old boy is brought to our hospital/clinic by his father, three or four days after the earthquake. How long did they walk to find us? What did this child, his father, and the rest of his family and neighborhood endure in the days before we saw them? The child, Clifford, has an open tib/fib fracture, meaning that his lower leg is broken with the skin open exposing bone, muscle, ligaments, and tendons... as well as miniscule pieces of rock, parts of the cement wall that fell on him. A medical student cleans out the wound with Betadine, peroxide, gauze, and tweezers to pull out debris, an excruciatingly painful process for Clifford without anesthesia. While other patients attempt to sleep on their cots, benches, and tables, floodlights are aimed in the direction of Clifford and his father. An IV is placed by a medical student to re-hydrate him and administer antibiotics. "Don't you see my suffering?!" Clifford shouts out in Creole. The doctors surrounding Clifford suddenly burst into laughter. They are not being cruel. It is just a surprise to hear these words coming from a three year old.

I make the rounds that night, handing out pain and sleep medication to those shifting and crying out on their cots and tables. Ashley sleeps for a few hours at the guest house. Clifford continuously runs a fever so his father and I gently try to coerce him to take liquid Tylenol. That definitely does not fly. So, years of working to get children to take medication (or forcing them to when they don't fall for it) serves me well and we hold him down to squirt it in his mouth. He glares at me with pure hatred. He's adorable. I lay for a few hours that night on a cot outside with the patients. Every time I look behind me, I see a man in black clothing sitting in the doorway to the inside of the boys' home. He is a new guard at the boys home. As I'm burrowing under a blanket I find out his name is Peter. I lay on my cot and start to laugh inside. This situation is extremely funny to me. I keep looking back at Peter and thinking, "Is this really my life?" I'm "sleeping" outside with a bunch of wounded and broken, yet extremely brave, people and a very intimidating looking man in the shadows, having survived an earthquake and a "tsunami." The MdL kids are a few feet away, hopefully snoozing peacefully in "the Bens." But I feel safe. And these people are my family now. We have survived together and endured together. As we have done everything to protect them, I know they and their family or friends with them will protect me. As will Peter.

A few hours later the guards walk Ashley and I between the boys' home and the guesthouse so we can change shifts. I lay on my bed, but again, sleep eludes me. Ashley loving tends to our patients by herself for the next few hours.

We make it through another day tending to the wounded. As it grows dark, the doctors announce they need to perform a more invasive cleaning of the wound- an I & D. Lidocaine is administered, the dressing is removed, and Ashley and I stand by to assist. I assume one of the few positions I had actually filled in the states and in Haiti before the earthquake and one I enjoy- comforting the patient (which also involves restraining him and preventing him from touching his leg). His dad stands with me and we whisper words of comfort, which seem very futile. "Don't you see my suffering?!" is shouted by little Clifford again. Laughter. "Bam ti diri! (give me a little rice!)" Laughter. The docs translate his pleas for relief. He's a smart little kid in a baby body. "Put a diaper on my $%##@!" The yelling continues. "#@%^%& you mommy!" Laughter allows us to deal with the absurdity of the situation. Clifford's dad even releases a few chuckles. The look of hatred is aimed in my direction once again.

After a night of administering IV fluids and antibiotics, Clifford continues to run a fever and his wound doesn't look good. Where can we take him for more treatment? According to Marlval, the roads are a mess and the hospitals that are still standing and functioning are over-crowded. He could lose his leg or his life if the infection in his leg does not improve or spreads into his bloodstream or organs. The day before, a group from a Canadian news channel showed up at our orphanage to interview and film the Manasseros. Susette finds their business card and puts in a call to them, hoping that they'll know someone who will know someone. A few hours later, a small team of medical professionals descends upon the boys' home. We fill them in on Clifford's status and we wish him and his father well. They quickly drive off with our patient and his father to an Israeli field hospital that opened up after the earthquake.

Before getting back to work, we stand around, marveling at how God was working in the details. As we fretted over this child, God showed up in a big way. Rather, he was always there and working... he just revealed himself and his work right then. Just as He had provided the supplies and medical personnel to care for our neighborhood in the minutes, hours, and days after the quake, He provided the Israeli hospital and its people to care for His child.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds forever in Christ Jesus."

Philipians 4:6-7

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging."

Psalm 46

I wish I could say that I was the picture of one trusting in the Lord in this situation and others after the earthquake. Sometimes, all I could see was my inadequacy. When I saw the Lord working as he worked in this situation, I was reminded to look up. To look up at Him, instead of at myself. When I focus on myself, I am disappointed and worry. When I focus on Him, I see His compassion and care for the poor, for the wounded, for the worrier.

Check out a video that features this child and many of ours at MdL here. Clifford is the first bandaged leg you see in the video.

The children share their thanks for helping with Haiti relief and helping Child Hope/Maison de Lumiere here.

I don't have any pictures of precious Clifford, so I thought I'd post some of my beautiful friend, Erta, along with cutie-pie Estaline.

Pictures

Last week I went on a jog with our boys, Semi, Marcorel, and Emilien, as well as Ashley and a new teacher at our new school, John Michael. I was behind Semi when he stopped running briefly to buy a hot dog with some mustard at a roadside merchant. Then he started running again as he chowed on the dog. To add to the fun, Semi took John Michael and I through some alleyways so as to get ahead of Ashley and the other boys- or to shorten our run. Either way, to my humiliation, we were still behind Ashley and the boys.

Some more photos of our kids and others who are near and dear to my heart- completely unrelated to the running story. I just got a kick out of running with Semi. To know him is to love him!

Cendy

Christella. This lovely young girl moved into our girls' home right before Xmas. A friend of the ministry heard she was living in a less-than-ideal situation, after living on the streets, and asked if we could take her into our home. She has especially bonded with the younger group of girls, but is slowly making her way with the older ones, now that she is in school with them.

Nelson and Esther, kids who live across the street from me and attend our feeding program

Lulu. This child in our feeding program loves to "pound" my fist whenever I pass him in the street. He has the widest, whitest, beaming smile.

I think this may be Lulu again. Either way, I just really like this picture and this adorable kid.

Looking back

For some of us working in the makeshift hospital located at our boys' home, myself and Ashley for sure, we often refer to "the week of the earthquake" rather than "the earthquake." Right or wrong, I feel numb to the 45 second, 7.0 earthquake. However, I have vivid memories of the day it occurred and the days following. Here are some memorable events. What I don't remember

are the dates they occurred.

• Arm amputation: Our Haitian doctors, Dr. Paul (orthopedic surgeon), Dr. Andre (general practitioner), and the anesthesiologist (you were lovely and kind, but I always had difficulty saying and remembering your name), decided in the afternoon to amputate a man's arm. It had been severed by a block that fell on him above the elbow, but it needed to be amputated cleanly to avoid more blood loss and infection. Each of us rounded up the needed supplies, my favorites being the little saw borrowed from Dr. Paul's cousin's auto shop and the flat bike tire someone geniously procurred to use as a tourniquet. Susette ran off to the guesthouse to "sterilize it"- soaked it in betadine in a bucket in the bathtub. The anesthesiologist numbed the patient's (Arnst) arm (no general anesthesia or conscious sedation for our patients) and they got underway. I acted as runner for supplies and moved the floodlights nearer the patient when they called for it, Ashley acted as scrub nurse, Susette held the patient's other hand, and Dana took pictures. Our doctors wanted to immortalize the moment with photos so we obliged, sort of feeling like it was insensitive to Arnst to be doing so but not willing to say no. Arnst's blood pressure began to drop precariously low so the anesthesiologist ran back to her house to find a vial of epinephrine, which she administered when she returned. We started Arnst on antibiotics by injection and he left to another hospital a few days later when we discharged all of our patients.

• Foot amputation: at around 1 am (hours after the foot amputation), after other patients in our hospital had been seen by the doctors, they decided to amputate a foot on a patient who had been with us since just a few hours after the earthquake. We cleared the hospital of all the family members who were caring for the patients and explained the procedure to the patient. We had tried to treat her without amputating the foot (she was understandably very resistant to having it done) but infection had set in. We pulled out the flat bike tire again and the docs anesthetized the patient's leg. But don't think it was the anesthesiologist that gave the lidocaine. She was sitting in a chair, falling asleep. The other docs didn't mind and told me not to wake her. The procedure was underway when a cockroach flew at the doctors and they both jumped up and screamed like little girls. After they'd managed to swat it away (or scare it with their screams), one of them burst into song: "La cucaracha, la cucaracha!" It was a great moment of levity, then I felt guilty for laughing in front of this woman getting her foot amputated. The procedure went well, without any other crazy incidences. She was also released to another hospital a few days later.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our kids I took about a week or two after the quake. They are doing well and attending school at our boys' home and the top part of our new clinic, which is down the street from the guest house and orphanages. If you or someone you know has an interest in teaching children in Haiti, please let me know. We are looking for ESL teachers to finish the rest of the school year with the kids and to also teach in the summer.

Daphne's cast is off and the leg has healed well. Right now her gate is off because the injured leg is shorter than the other. But, numerous doctors have agreed that the leg will remodel and grow to equal the length of the other. An xray yesterday shows that that is indeed occurring.

*Numerous attempts to load more pictures have failed. Hopefully I can add more pictures another day. Enjoy Daphne!

Tsunami

Day + 1 after the quake: Also know as Tsunami night

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

Instead of letting an inordinate amount of fear set in that night, I should have repeated this verse to myself and to others around me. 

A midwife, OB nurse, and EMT arrived around midnight after the quake, so they were hard at work when Ashley and I returned at about 7 or 8am, after a brief attempt at sleep. They were continuing to suture patients, place IV's, pass out pain meds (we only had Ibuprofen, Tylenol and IV Diclofenac), and clean wounds. Different people brought more supplies throughout the night and have continued to do so up until now.

Memorable moments of the day:

Soon after I arrived, Ari told me that Erta had been found. "Alive?" I said. "Yes, alive, but is injured. We don't know how bad." Ari and I hugged and cried. Erta had called her dad at some point that morning and he had called Marlval. Again, Marlval went out to look for but wasn't able to get close enough to her location due to either debris or traffic. Later that afternoon she came hobbling in, supported by her mom. "I wasn't going to leave that school without her," her mom said. So, she'd walked around the area of the school and found her sleeping at a park. Soon after her school collapsed, Erta had climbed her way out of the rumble, found her brother, and they walked to a nearby park to sleep with some other classmates. Erta said she'd "seen a light and followed it out." She'd only managed to sustain a sprained ankle! Oh, and her hair. It looked like she'd stuck it in an electric socket. Being the friend that I am, I of course teased her about it for the rest of the day, as well as hugged her repeatedly and told her that I had cried the most for her out of anyone else. Thank you, Jesus, for this beautiful, funny, smart friend of mine!

An Haitian orthopedic surgeon showed up to aid us. Oh, how excited and thankful we were! Most of the injuries we saw from here on out were broken bones or open wounds on arms or legs (especially open ankle wounds) and we especially needed this doctor to treat these patients. The number of people with head lacerations significantly decreased after day one.

I was sitting inside with Daphne, whose leg had been placed in traction by a former EMT currently living in Haiti, when I heard a commotion coming from the front gate at around 10 or 11pm. I left a crying Daphne in a room with other pediatric patients to find out what was occurring. Ashley told me that some people had run by the open gate of the boys’ home yelling in Creole, “There’s water coming!” The doctors, who had just finished operating on one arm of a woman with compartment syndrome, but had yet to bandage her arm, were discussing whether to believe the words of the people running by and yelling. The doctors informed us that the radio had been warning people that a Tsunami would next hit Haiti. The orthopedic surgeon’s wife, our neighborhood’s Minister of Health, insisted that they leave. The anesthesiologist working with him wanted to check on her dad who lives nearby, so she ran out of the clinic right after our surgeon left. Ashley, appearing to know about Tsunami’s, insisted that a tsunami would have followed immediately after the earthquake, not a day later. Also, where would the water come from? The ravine just down the street only has a stream running through it at best. Someone from the visiting team from the states walked in, heard the commotion, and began to insist that we get all of the MdL kids up to the roof. There is no roof top that all our kids can fit on at the boys’ home, so the next best thing was the guest house. Would it fall in with more than fifty people walking on it? While the kids were woken up (they all slept in the “bens”, the sport court connected to the boys’ home), marched between the scared patients and down the street to the guest house, Marlval was screamed at by Ashley and I (sorry, man) to wake up Bill and Susette to find out what they knew about the tsunami scare and what decisions they wanted to make for our kids. Neither Ashley nor I wanted to make that decision, let alone figure out what to do with our patients if there was a tsunami coming. I briefly imagined Daphne and I huddled together and dying in a flood.  Hands down this was the scariest, worst night of my life. We all let fear rule us that night. I think I thought that if an earthquake had occurred, we had turned the boys’ home into a hospital and surgery was being performed there, why wouldn’t another crazy thing like a tsunami hit us now?

Robert grabbed a flashlight and walked down the street to see if he could see more people or “water.” I learned later that when the kids arrived at the guesthouse, the roof was vetoed as not safe for that many people and Cindy (bless her- we all agreed later she was right) thought the idea of a tsunami was ridiculous and based on fear. Apparently the visitors thought differently as they all decided to hang out on the roof for a bit.  Marlval either was afraid to wake up Bill and Sue when he got to their house or the guard wasn’t too keen on waking them up. Either way, they heard the stories the next day. Our wonderful patients never uttered a peep about the fear seizing us- they just stared at us with wide eyes and I’m sure felt fear of their own- i.e. how am I going to get up to a roof with two broken legs or my arm open to the muscle? The kids were walked back to the bens, hopefully having no idea why their crazy American friends were walking them back and forth. Robert found no water and very few people in the area. Soon our doctors returned and resumed their work on the lady’s arm. However, Ashley and I were deeply shaken and found it difficult to place an IV for another lady. I don’t remember now how she got her IV. At around 1 or 2am I laid down on a mattress next to Daphne, Ari, and Erta. Daphne had an adverse reaction to a small dose of Vicodin (some nice person had shared a bottle with us!) I had given her earlier that day, so I was up most of the night with her while she experienced hallucinations and major itching.