Taking it Day by Day

Our internet is down from the thunderstorm so I am blogging from “Pages” as of right now. Thunderstorms in Haiti? I would’ve never thought thunderstorms in tropical areas...just friendly down pours. It almost feels like home hearing the thunder again minus the intense humidity. The locals tell me it will rain all through June so I better just get use to it.

Plans for the children in Lilavois are still being discussed but were put on hold for a few days after we visited another children's home called Tree of Life in Bon Repos Latan yesterday. We dropped off silverware, plates, and towels and discovered some very sick children in doing so. The children were healthy the last time they were checked on which was about a week ago but once one child gets sick they all get sick. I could see just by looking at some of the children that they were malnourished and others very ill. One boy in particular was put in another room due to a recent respiratory infection. I went in, assessed him, and took a look at the medication he was getting. A doctor prescribed him oral suspension flagyl near the end of May. The staff also showed me an xray of the boys chest which really surprised me. I'm not too familiar with radiology but I tried to make an educated guess. I really wished my mom would have been there to decipher it more accurately for me. I took a photo of it which now makes it superimposed but I posted it below. Maybe my medical readers can help me diagnose it accurately. Anyway there were three bottles of flagyl, all halfway empty, and the boy still showed no signs of improving. I wonder a lot of things: Is he malnourished? Is he getting the medication he needs everyday? Was flagyl an accurate medication to prescribe him? It's such a challenge working in these environments without the resources I have in the United States. I expressed my frustration to a woman I had just met in Haiti last week, Jane, via email. She reminded me I am here to do God's work and that is always worth it and I need to know in the long run I did my best. Her words were comforting but I'm still struggling with it all. I'm slowly realizing how many issues are really going on in this country. I want to help everywhere but there is so, so much. Randy gave me good advice the other day; Look at the day and focus on what you can do today. Take things day by day.


After assessing the situation yesterday at the Tree of Life we all agreed we need to visit the children's home more often. We ended up finding what was causing the children to get sick (diarrhea, vomiting, fever, congestion, runny noses) that same day. We spotted their well in the backyard and found the answer to our question. The well has clearly been contaminated from the rainwater washing their defecating grounds into the well. It's not visible but its all happening underground. So today we delivered 50 gallons of Culligan water for cooking, drinking, cleaning, etc. This will hopefully keep them well stocked until we deliver a filtration system.
While there Andrea and I assessed the children to see if they qualified for a program called Medika Mamba. This program supplies enriched peanut butter to malnourished children and has been proven to fully restore a child back to their normal weight in 60 days. Its based on weight, age, and the circumference of the childs arm. Our coworker Tipap translated for us while we assessed and administered vitamins and medication for their fevers. We also educated the head of the childrens home to continue to administer these medications while we are gone. She was a quick learner and seemed to care a lot about the kids so I know she will do well with it.
We arrived home and discovered 5 of the 24 children qualify for Medika Mamba. We plan on learning more about the program tomorrow with one of the World Wide Village staff members. Hopefully we can get this started this week! I'm looking forward to watching these children heal over time! I will post photos of their progress over the weeks! GOOD NIGHT America and please say a prayer for all the Haitian people in tents tonight. It's flooding here and even the sturdy homes are starting to flood. 

This is the xray from the little boy.

Taking measurements for Medika Mamba (Mamba means peanut butter in French)

I feel so bad for this poor little girl. She qualified for the program thankfully.

Many of the younger children were sickly. The older children appeared to be healthy.

This little man put up a fight for measurements! Thankfully his mother was there to help out.

Measuring the circumference of this little boys arm.

This is a picture of the toddler who had an xray. He could barely stand for my assessments.

I'm pretty sure this little boy qualified also.

The well the children and staff were using.