Perspectives

Five years ago in Nov 2011, David and I came to Hospital Lumiere for the first time.  I remember the week, a lot of the challenges, a lot of the thoughts that we had.  And it is so interesting how our perspective has changed on some of these things after living here in this community for almost 3 years.

*The adventure has worn off.  Or in other words, it's normal to us now.  The crazy driving, being a minority, figuring out how things work....all have somehow slowly become normal.  Even the noise is mostly distinguishable.  We hear the repeating sound of a kazoo (for lack of better word), and know a rah-rah band traveling down the road.  Lots of loud kids hollering around 10am means it is recess at school.  The brass band and the "death" mourning wail down at church means there's a funeral.  Loud shouting noises up by the ball court means kids are playing soccer.  Before it was all a jumble that we couldn't even think what those noises mean, but now it's normal.

We all wanted to ride on the top of the Land Cruiser that trip....now, no thanks, I'll take the moderately cushioned, air conditioned inside of the truck, thanks ;)

*The trash.  That trip, I was looking out the window at the streets.  It had been almost 2 years since the earthquake, and for some reason I kind of thought I may still see rubble.  Maybe there was some left in some places, but I don't think we saw any in our driving.  (We did see "tent cities" left from the earthquake then, which we really don't see now).  I think what we saw was just the trash from daily living in the city.  It is still a little shocking, but now we know that it does occasionally get cleaned up...sometimes by wheelbarrow and shovel, other times by excavator and dump truck :(

*When we came, we went to the local market one morning.  There were boxes of frozen, thawing chicken, with flies landing on them.  I couldn't imagine eating something that was bought from under a stand on the ground of that old river bed.  But now, each week on Madam Ino's grocery list is poul.  I know very well where those chicken legs come from.  But she cleans them with citrus fruit, boils the meat, and then fries it, and I don't think there's anything left to hurt us after that :)  We even go so far as to enjoy eating the "roadside" food....the stands that are along the road as you travel, and we have our favorite places....by the roundabout in Cayes sells great chicken, and the stand in Aquin has great pikliz.  The rice and beans in Cavillion aren't bad either, but the stand by AFD (a food distribution warehouse) in Port-au-Prince has terrible rice but they give you tons of food.

*When we first came, it was like seeing extreme poverty.  And now our thought is, yes, they're poor.  But it's not totally excruciatingly daily sad like I'm sure some think.  And as I'm sure it is in some parts of Haiti and the world.  But we don't see little kids drinking out of dirty mud puddles.  I don't (very often) see the bones of malnourished children protruding from their bodies.  What we do see is a complex country and culture that has brokenness, that has problems that Jesus can solve.  Fatherless homes, unstable government, ease with which people take to the streets in protest, corruption and lack of follow-through in the police force, importing of so many goods and thus decreasing the ability of the country to keep it's money among itself, the belief that if something is different it won't be used.  The one thing that I keep coming back to that seems defining to me is whether or not someone is able to go to school.  When a 14 year old girl comes to my door asking for help with going to third grade, I feel like this is a legitimate needy situation.

*The, "how do these people survive/what do they do" question is slowly being answered in our minds.  In a lot of ways, they're a lot like us.  Although the numbers say that the unemployment rate is 80% in Haiti, that doesn't mean that only 20 out of 100 people are working.  What we see is that that number is the amount of people who draw a monthly paycheck.  There are lots of other ways to make a living that probably aren't counted....selling food by the road, driving a motorcycle "taxi" to take people to market or the next town, selling vegetables or clothes or personal care items at the market, going door to door selling fruits, selling gas along the road for the motorcycles, having a motorcycle repair "shop", selling little snack crackers to hungry school kids, or cold drinks to hot travelers.  Those with freezers sell ice to those selling drinks, or have chicken for sale in the places without electricity on the off-market days.  People cook, clean and watch the children of those who go to a job.  Others take in laundry, some iron, or sew.  Others do woodworking and make furniture. Then there are the paid jobs...teachers, nurses, doctors, translators, chauffeurs, restaurant owners, radio announcers, pastors, stockers at grocery stores.

*I never realized how far out in the boonies the hospital is.  In some way, we thought all of Haiti was the same....just plain poor and that they had nothing like what we have at home.  We've come to realize there are the same differences as at home between country/city, just maybe more magnified since travel is not as quick and easy as it is at home.  Here, Port au Prince has all the restaurants, grocery stores, night life, etc etc etc.  Here in Bonne Fin we have the Hospital.  And church.  And.....yeah, that's pretty much it.  It's becoming easier to see how little we have to offer those who are used to a higher lifestyle who come here to work and then leave to go back to their homes when their work week(s) are over.

*When we came that time, I remember talking to a nurse about the President who had been recently elected, Martelly.  He was saying how this new president would give the children free education, but yet talked about taxes as though he didn't have to pay them.  And I wondered how you can provide such good things when there's no revenue for the government.  Now five years later, a presidency served without much to show that we can see visibly, a failed election last year, an interim president for a year, and Haiti just had elections again Nov 20th.  Last night the announcement was made officially that one candidate, Jovenel Moise, won the election (even though it was just the primaries) with 55.6% of the vote.  There is lots of protesting over this announcement, and from an article I read, they have until Dec 29th to contest him as a winner.  We hope Haiti can have safe and successful elections this time, and a president with integrity and ability to help the people.  Read more in this Washington Post article.

*So now, we are extra thankful for things in America like taxes, our local police force who are heroes to respond to each call for help and walk into dangerous situations (contrary to the popular cultural ideas going on right now), public school systems (and the ability for people to homeschool - that's not even recognized here).

*Bugs, spiders, rats, geckos, roaches, tarantulas.  We have them all, and sometimes in our house (well, never a rat yet, thankfully).  They don't hardly faze us anymore, unless they're hiding and you find them when you almost step on them and then you about break a hip.  Geckos are generally all over, and are the least scary.  But other times, here is what we are found saying, "Oh, huh, there's a roach.  I think it's dead."  Or, "There goes a rat in our yard."  Ants in the sugar?  Depending on the ratio, the availability of sugar, and the length of time to the next shopping trip, sometimes the ants are just extra protein :)  I hope all my friends stay my friends after saying this :/

*Malaria pills.  I remember this being a big ordeal when we were preparing to go, deciding if we needed to take them or not, getting them, having to remember to take the nasty chlorine tasting things.  When we moved, we didn't take any malaria medication, as it would not be good to take this for years.  We learned papaya can help prevent malaria, and for a while drank a lot of papaya mint tea.  David recently got rotten sick with a recurring fever (symptoms of malaria) for several days.  They never tested him, but just gave him the two day medication to treat malaria, and he's better now.  I guess we won't know for sure, but he probably did get malaria.

*The heat.  We were pretty warm when we came to Haiti that first time.  But little did we know it was approaching Haiti's winter.  As I write, it is 77 degrees in our house, overcast, the wind is blowing in the windows, and I have slippers on and am thinking about getting some long sleeves.  Generally our house is around 80 degrees or over, and is totally comfortable (with no AC, just fans).  We have for sure acclimated, prefer to be hot than cold, and are pretty sure we will freeze to death when we go through our first winter back in the States.

*The Hospital staff.  Thinking about it now, there aren't many people I remember from that first week.  Maybe 5 people that we worked closely with.  Now it's so different, and so nice that we can know a lot of the staff that works at the hospital, and in the community.  I love learning that "Oh, that is her brother!  Really!?  How interesting."  Those are the kind of connections that make you feel like it's a little more like home.

Some of the work team and the translators that worked with us.

*The Hospital is soooo much different now.  When we were here, it was just in the beginning stages of renovation.  The OB ward had just been re-done and was curtained off, not even in use yet.  The Pediatric ward was where they had the (I think) one OB patient, or at least very few patients.  Now, our OB ward is bustling, sometimes filled to overflowing, as are lots of the other wards from time to time.  The renovations are nearly complete in the entire hospital!  The care that is given seems to be better too.  I don't see the amount and severity of wounds like we did when we came that week.  It's really good to see how things have changed in 5 years.  It's taken lots and lots of work, lots of people, and there's still tons to do the more you look.

Just a slight disaster mess ;)

*Administration.  When we came here in 2011, Sheila was the only full time missionary here at the hospital.  She was doing all the jobs....and it was so much...too much for one person.  Daryl was coming down a week each month to lead construction teams.  Shortly after we came on the work team, others started moving to Hospital Lumiere full time.  Each person has had a big piece in helping make this hospital what it is today.  It is simply a huge project.  Right now, we are for sure not back to where we were in Nov 2011, but our administration staffing is below sufficient.  I believe I can speak for all of us here, that it is hard and adds significant stress and a lot of things fall through the cracks because there just isn't time to do everything.  Please pray that God will continue calling and sending those to help us, and that people will be willing to answer and come!

*The last thing that comes to mind is the work team experience itself.  When we went on this trip, David was just finishing his Paramedic degree, and things were pretty tight.  We thought we had budgeted for the trip, but when the count came in, it was about twice what we thought it would be.  We didn't even have a credit card with a limit high enough to buy the tickets :)  We were also concerned about spending all that money and getting to Haiti and feeling like we weren't really doing anything.  All that to say, we as humans use our human eyes to see things.  God saw a lot bigger picture.  We did not know that 5 years later, we would be living here.  But God did and I think He used that trip as part of His plan.  So, to those who have thought about work teams but maybe have reservations - not sure if they are "needed", financial worries, thoughts that it may not be a good experience, or that it's just not your "thing"....there are many, many reasons - I encourage you to think and pray about visiting one of Harvest Call's missions.  The ACHC missions desire the involvement - need the involvement - of the whole church.  A work team, a visit to encourage one of the families living at the mission, joining an "awareness tour", bringing your family on a "vacation"....whatever it looks like, I think God can use it and bless it.