Children's Lifeline

We missed our blog last night, we were exhausted after dinner.  We all forgot how exhausted new parents are!  LOL  On Dec. 6 we went to a mountain village approx 45-60 minutes riding in the back of an supply truck with all our equipment.  The road was one lane, with an occasional passing spot, with ruts that threw you all over the back end!  I will never complain about my gravel road back in IA again! These mountains looked like some of the Rockies, especially when you are looking over the edge praying you didn't go over!  We all arrived safely thanks to our great driver Osbe! 
People were already waiting for us when we arrived.  We were set up in there medical clinic/school.  No electricity or running water, that day they decided to run wiring for electricity, we were dodging workers and ladders most of the day!  We sat up quickly and got to work.  Most of the people had not seen a doctor for 5-10 years.  Many people had walked for 4 hours to see the doctor, incredible!  We seen 113 people in 5 hours.  We seen many children who were incredibly ill, malnourished, worms, worms, worms,  many pregnant women,  and pneumonia.  We had a lady who thought her water had broken last week and had walked several hours to be seen, sweaty and tired.  We were thinking at first we might be delivering, but she was not in labor.  Many women die during childbirth due to difficulty during labor, sepsis and no help at home with delivery.  We seen many abdominal hernias on children and adults.  We had to have crowd control at the door again, people desperate to be seen trying to push there way in.  People were still waiting when we had to shut down, due to having to have daylight to get back down the mountain.  Heartbreaking when we shut those doors, because people had been all day hanging on to the windows begging in Creole, madam, madam, I have walked all day, please see me, I need to see the doctor! It brought tears to your eyes, but if you started crying you wouldn't stop, these people are in despearate need!
Many of the men stayed back and built shelves for the eye doctor.  He was extremely thankful!  Some men moved rocks from a foundation so they could continue to build on it.  Hot, hard manual labor!  Craig and Jim road in the back of a truck, with Haitian style driving, to the lumber yard to buy lumber to build the shelves.  The first stopped to change the American money at a money changer, which is a man sitting at a table with a roll of bills.  Then on to the lumber yard, which they both said was an aweome experience. 
When we all returned home, we were so excited to see baby David.  Angie weighed him an he gain 5 ounces.  He is growing and doing okay. 
Day 7-We went to a tent city today!  What an experience.  We were set up in there church, which was a scantly put together wood frame, covered with tarps.  We had a few wooden benches, to work with an a table.  Again we got set up and people were there already waiting.  The pastor of that tent church ahd complete control.  Those people were quite, polite, respectful of each other absolutely amazing.  We seen 153 patients in 4 hours, incredible!  I love this whole thing of no documentation!!!!!  Amazingly the kids seemed to be very healthy, and also the adults.  They hear the word doctor and they all want to come see him, and us.  We are different, and they are curious!  We ALL LOVE THOSE KIDS!  They are so receptive, and just love to be close to you and hold your hand!  We passed out lots of tylenol, ibuprofen for headaches, and generalized body aches.  Also vitamins and sunglasses.  We have seen lots of cataracts from sun damage!  During the day we had a few little boys come to the side of the tent that had a large rip in it.  They hung out and attempted to talk with us, they were selling bracelets.  We Learned the one little boy sold bracelets to pay his way and his brothers way through school!  Again Amazing children! The men prayed over all the patients after they were seen, and the team gave shoes to each person.  People were very happy!
We came back and started working on cleaning out the medical supply storage area.  That will take a few days.  We will be staying at the mission tomorrow and running the clinic here and working on organizing the storage room.  The guys will be building shelves in the medical clinic.
Little David was taken by part of the team to the hospital today, with aunt and grandma, to get checked out.  It was a free catholic hospital, and the er had to Ohio residents working in the ER.  They said the see at least two kids a day like this.  They kept him for IV fluids and feedings, the grandma stayed with him.  He has to have someone with him at all times to be able in the hospital.  He is doing amazingly well. We will keep everyone up dated on baby David!  The pictures are not uploading tonight, will try to upload more pics tomorrow!