Time to unwind

It’s time to catch up my blog with some of the experiences of the last three weeks – Haiti, returning home, and now Destin, FL.

Here is a picture of the baby orphanage, on the second level of the mission. Below is a picture I took of one of the nurses with some of the babies – everyone’s sleepy!

If you haven’t had a chance, you can check out our posts from Haiti at Andy’s blog (see the link on the right under “Friends”).

It’s hard to put words to the experiences and feelings that Haiti brought for me. Even after many wonderful trips in Ecuador and Mexico, I must say Haiti challenged me in very new ways. So many things that I’ve read became more than numbers and statistics – they became faces, friends, and my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Hunger became more than not eating enough food when:

• a four year old girl fell asleep in my lap at church…and her hair had bald spots and a reddish tinge, both signs of malnutrition and anemia, rampant problems in Haiti, especially in the Northwest region…

• a mother brought her baby to the missionary house in Beauchamp (a new church site in the far west). Her baby’s hands, feet and cheeks were bloated and swollen from dehydration and malnutrition. The little girl was listless and whimpering. The mother was not starving her child – she was nursing her regularly – but a mother who’s not eating enough protein and nutrients cannot produce milk with enough protein and nutrients. My heart ached for her, even after Miss Pat (one of the missionaries) sent her away with pedialyte, formula, and an antibiotic. If the baby became much worse, her skin would likely crack and weep, so the antibiotic was preventative so she wouldn’t become infected if that happened (or so I understood – it may have treated other things as well)

• even beans were expensive! In my Latin American experiences, I’d been familiar with diets that were often bare bones, but they usually got their protein through beans, cheese and eggs, rather than meat. In Haiti, it seemed like even those were scarce, so the signs of anemia and malnutrition, the reddish tinge in the hair, bloated bellies, and balding children…you see these regularly. Although they fill their stomachs with rice, breadfruit, root vegetables, bread, papaya, mango…their bodies are still aching for nutrition.
• Here’s a picture of “kanipps” – a little fruit they eat there. You crack open the rind (like a thin lime rind) and pull out the pulpy pit. Then you suck on it until the slime disappears and only the pit remains (which you spit out). Tastes like a grape/strawberry/fruity something – yummy!

I never understood the significance of malnutrition before this. I still look at my meals back here in the US with amazement – so much protein. It makes me wish I had studied agriculture or water management or something like that… However, the more I learn about Haiti, the more I realize the importance and stability and safety in order for people to rise above poverty.

I’m reading the book, The Uses of Haiti, by Paul Farmer. He is a world-reknowned doctor who has worked in Haiti for more than 30(?) years founding clinics and health programs. He walks back through Haitian history, looking at the roles that the major world powers have played in influencing this tiny country’s many troubles. A heart-heavy book, but thought provoking and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Haiti. It makes me look at some of my Haitian friends in a different light. I wonder how many of them have lost family, friends or neighbors in the numerous blood-baths that Haiti has experienced even in the last 15 years. That has to affect how you see the world.

Lastly, this is a picture of Imanyela and I – she is one of teenage girls who works taking care of the Castillo kids (missionary kids). She taught me some Creole and I just enjoyed getting to know her a little – amiz-mwe (my friend - I don’t know how to spell that…)

Well, good night from Grayton Beach, FL. We’re vacationing for the next two days – yeah!!! We’re staying at Hibiscus Coffee and Guest House…that’s right, our guest room is over the coffee shop – could it be more perfect? Andy was pretty proud of finding this one. www.hibiscusflorida.com

Sweet dreams.