Loudna

I slept well when I slept last night, but I woke up several times. I walked out on our balcony about 3:30 am. It was quiet and cool. I kept thinking about Loudna Lambert, the little girl who was molested. I'm considering making the aunt an offer that if she will let Loudna go to the orphanage and be adopted, I will buy food for her family for the next five years. I keep thinking of the movie, "Sophie's Choice", I hated that movie. Sophie was a Jew. She and her two children had been taken in by a German officer. In the end the German officer told Sophie she had to choose which of her children would live and which would die. I can't decide if my offer would be like that to the aunt. Will she have to choose food for her family at the sacrifice of Loudna? Really, is she sacrificing Loudna, or offering her a better future? I questioned my team members as to whether this was an immoral offer. I was reassured it was not. I asked the host missionary if it was wrong for me to ask the aunt to choose, and he said, "no". When we got to the clinic, I again asked Yanick, the clinic director and she said she thought the aunt would agree to it. I asked about how much she thought it would cost to feed a family of six a month and she told me about $100 a month should do it.

The aunt and her four year old daughter came to the clinic before Loudna arrived from school for her medication. Yanick, Earla, and I took the aunt into an exam room to talk privately with her. I was surprised at the aunt's responseafter we made her the offer. She said this was an answer to her prayers. She said she would be 100 percent for Loudna going, but she had to talk to her husband first and to Loudna's father and grandfather. She said the grandfather was fond of Loudna and had wanted to "keep her for himself". Loudna had told her grandfather, "You are old, if you die who will take care of me? I want to go live with my aunt". The aunt told us she would have an answer by Friday. Our team members had collected food items they had brought for their lunches and we made a food care package for the aunt to take home. We had collected $85, but decided to wait until she came with her answer to give her the money.

Loudna arrived at the clinic after school with her 9 year old cousin (a daughter to the aunt). We gave her an injection and medication to take by mouth. One of the medications we gave her was for diarrhea, because all of the other medicines will probably make her have diarrhea. During her injection she flinched, but never whimpered. She and her cousin both said "I'm hungry". After Earla and I fed the girls from our backpacks the 9 year old cousin kissed Earla and I both on the mouth. I tried to turn so she would kiss my cheek, but she moved in front of me to plant the kiss square on my lips.

We saw about 15 - 20 patients Friday when we first arrived before the clinic was officially open, about 250 - 300 patients Sunday in the mobile clinic at the church, 102 patients on Monday, 97 on Tuesday and 70 today.

One young boy I saw today was about 14 years old and appeared to have hepatitis. I had Doc Eric come see him to confirm my diagnosis. His abdomen was tender and his eyes were very yellow from the jaundice and his liver was enlarged twice the size of normal. His urine looked like molasses it was so dark. The only normal indicator on his urine dip stick was his glucose. We wrote out a request for laboratory tests to be done. He was to take the request to a local independent lab then return Friday with the results to see a member of the team that would be replacing us.

A young mother came in with her 7 month old. She had conceived this child while she was breastfeeding her first baby (now 2 years old). Her complaint today was she was 17 days late for her menstrual period and wanted a pregnancy test. She did not want to be pregnant, but her test was positive. Such a look of sadness came over her. She said "This is not good." She had her other two babies by cesarean section and knew she would have to have another with this baby. I told her to be sure to tell the doctor she wanted to have her tubes tied with this surgery if she didn't want any more babies. I tried to encourage her by telling her "babies are a gift from God. Maybe she was carrying the next President of Haiti"! She smiled briefly.

The people of Haiti seem so gentle and appreciative. Most are very atractive and have beautiful smiles and teeth - despite a diet low in dairy products and calcium. The scarcity of sweets could contribute to their lack of cavities and the fact that they all breastfeed their babies could contribute to good teeth alignment.

It seems obvious to me that the government is not helping it's people. The way to make a change is not from the top down, but from the bottom up, one person, one community at a time and allowing it to spread.

Woman after woman told me today she dipped water out of the sewers because the pumps were too far to carry water. A few people have wheel barrows which halps them transport more water at a time. Every day begins as the day before, searching for food and water. Until their daily basic needs of clean water, food, and shelter are met, no one can move forward to plan for tomorrow.