Here are a few updates on our lives....
New interns:
In the past few months, God has sent us two new interns! Leah Bertschi came to help Desma with English school. 8 kids in about as many grades....a huge job for one person, so we are so glad Desma has help!! Leah is great with kids and has taken ours a couple times to give us a break :)
Kirk Huber is here as a medical department intern...a vague term that means he does a lot of random jobs to help out Dr Lee with all the extra responsibility he has since Eric (the patient care manager) left. We're very thankful for his help and cheerfulness!
So welcome, Leah and Kirk! We hope you can find blessings here where God has led you for a time! May He clearly lead your future of service to Him wherever that will be!
David's projects:
Clinic/ER - up and running! Looks really nice, and getting organized with a lot of help from Kirk.
Pre-op/Post-op/Sterilization - We had a team from Rockville, CT that came to help finish out this project. There are a few loose ends to wrap up, but it looks so clean and bright and open! I just love going through there :)
Electrical building - Coming along, a little slowly :) The roof is being prepared to be poured next week....hopefully done in time for our container to bring us solar equipment and batteries to be stored inside this building!! YAY!! So exciting!!
David's business - This week David said he felt like he was finally getting caught up on some office stuff. For so long he's just wished he could pick up a shovel and dig a hole with his guys, and this week he finally got to a point he could do some of that. He worked on one of the Toyota's with Linonce and on a screen door with Christoph. Next year is shaping up to be pretty busy with the solar project and lots of teams, but he's enjoying getting out and about a little more.
Surgery:
I'm going up to surgery two mornings a week, usually Wednesdays and Fridays. It's a slow learning process. I talked with one of the Nurse Anesthetists who comes and works here occasionally. She said her training program in Cayes took two years! So I guess I felt a little better that I'm not on my own yet :) Our situation is a little different than it was several months ago, too. We've been able to find really good anesthesia providers to come and cover the shifts. So I basically am an assistant with whatever I can help with...checking the equipment and supplies, going and restocking, drawing up and giving meds, handing stuff that's needed :) I really enjoy it, and am glad that staffing is not as much of a problem as it was a few months ago.
Childcare is a bit of an issue sometimes....I found this one day when I got home....
....so from then on I locked the bedroom doors when I left. Then I found this a few days later...
...at which time I sent out a help wanted ad:
Wanted for immediate employment: Person with the title of Grandma, 2 years or more experience required. Loyal, dependable, punctual, honest. Duties include repetitive activities, detailed observation, organization (caring for a 3 year old and 9 month old, diaper changes, feeding meals and snacks, playing blocks, reading books, giving naps, keeping toddler from playing in the bathroom alone (see photo).) 8-10 hours/week. Benefits include living arrangements, meals and lots of snuggles. Must be willing to relocate to an island in the Caribbean for up to 3 years. Apply at listed email address or in person.
So we switched the bathroom lock around so that it could be unlocked easily by Merlene, the babysitter, when Orrin locks himself in the bathroom to go and then be "dezod" afterwards. It did help...I haven't found as many messes, but we're still working on this. We did get a new lock that's easier to open from the outside, since Orrin locked himself inside the bathroom a time or two and couldn't get back out... Madam Ino has started keeping them some and they seem to do better for her, probably since they're more used to her.
Chickens:
After neighborhood kids messing with and breaking open our chicken house, the chickens getting out, then us buying more, then they didn't lay, then they got out, then we lured them back in, we decided to butcher them before we left on furlough this fall. We ate one before we left and it was terrible. So they're not giving eggs, they're not worth cooking, and it's a headache. There's also a really cheap and convenient egg farm down the road from us that started up after our Great Chicken Experiment. So Wednesday, Madam Ino took the last chicken home with her.
Gardening:
I think we just may not be farmers. Watering your lettuce with paint thinner doesn't help either. (It honestly took us over a month to be able to talk about this....) Oh, a three year old pulling out all the lettuce by the roots doesn't produce good results either. Sigh. We've yet to get a good lettuce crop, but we now have some dirt in an old outdoor sink (have to keep it up and away from roaming goats and pigs and chickens) and I think we're going to try again.
Kids' talents:
Orrin has started blabbing incoherently, and I thought he was talking baby talk. But I'm thinking he's starting to experiment with the Creole words he hears. He usually says the same things over and over when he's with other kids. "Ou ka we jwe" ("you can see play") or "Ale" ("go") "Mesi pou jodia" ("Thanks for today") "Antre" ("come in") or "Bon jou! Koman ou ye? Buen! OK!" (Good morning! How are you? Good! Ok!")
Cassia wants to walk - or rather be walked - everywhere these days. She also wants to be outside all the time...which is good and bad. The good is that at least winter here is about 75 degrees :) The bad is that there are fire ants all over our yard, so until she walks by herself, I don't really let her out much. I cleaned out our back porch area (got rid of some chicken feed) and put her out there in a walker....she loves it and I can get something done :) I also get lots of helpers for her after school. This is Galens and Chloe pushing Cass on the swing.
I think that's all for now ~ Thanks for reading :)
