There was a bit of excitement and anticipation for our team this morning. The task of helping Mierta move into her home, a home so many hands from America, the community, and now our own have helped build…fell to us. After the move, our next task was to run a mobile medical clinic. We were excited.

medical clinic
Medical Clinic
First stop was the camp to pick up a table and chairs for Mierta’s house. When we arrived, there were five woman who had walked a LONG way to have the children seen at the clinic, only to find the clinic is closed on Saturday. Our team made the good decision to see these ten patients, and good thing, too. Most of the children were extremely sick with pneumonia. While our medical team was busy in the clinic, we were off to move Mierta.
Moving Day
Mierta’s home was constructed with the majority of the work completed a week before the earthquake. Pastor Pierre was out of the country when the earthquake hit and because of the demands of the disaster response, Mierta’s house has been missing the final details. Well all the details were finished today, and it was moving day. Mierta had her Grandmother with her who was very, very sweet. She was 83 years old, and was very concerned to move a small bucket that we figured out held all of Mierta’s money.
The new home was only about ten yards away from the old home, but this was an event worthy of ceremony. While Mierta pedaled away on her cart, we pulled a chair to the front porch for Grandma to have a seat. She began to brush off the seat, but would not sit. We couldn’t understand what she was saying (even our translator couldn’t tell), and she wandered off. Pretty soon we see her emerge from the old house having put on a very dressy outfit.
Here was an 83 year old woman who was sitting on her mud floor in her old house, and didn’t feel worthy to sit on the chair of the now concrete floor she will be living in without her best clothes.
We were led in prayer by our elder on our team (Brian) as we asked for God’s protection and blessing on their new house. It was a special day. It was moving day.
Prayer at Mierta’s House
While part of the team was sweeping out and attending to the final details of the house, the rest of the group was playing games with all the kids. Significant relationships had been built, made most evident when we gathered to pray. We all joined hands to pray at Mierta’s, and Erica had first one, then two, then three…eventually six kids all were grabbing on to her as we prayed. Apparently she made quite the impression on the kids as the only girl kicking it around with the boys on the soccer field.
One person in our group debrief time summed up the experience in three words: God was there.

Diane and Baby
IDP Camp Medical Clinic
We saw the Body of Christ in action as we gathered around Adam as he performed “surgery.” Let me explain…Our medical clinic began by finding the elder of the camp (who was a very large Haitian named “SEXY.” I didn’t think I would be writing this in a blog…I digress) and asking him to hand out fifty slips of paper that were numbered. We were going to see fifty kids, and only kids because we didn’t have capacity to see all the people that needed to be seen (which is a really tough thing to do). So we started seeing the children, and there were lots that had all kinds of issues…scabies, all kinds of lung infections, fevers and so forth. One young child came in with his grandmother. As the grandmother sat and after the child was seen, she began to explain that she had all kinds of pain from when some concrete fell on her during the earthquake (possible broken rib). Try and present a need to a care provider and have them say “no.” (We did see one other adult…a man who had stitches in his left arm that should have come out about three weeks ago…it was healed over and nasty infected…how do you say no?). Back to the grandmother…we learned she was in her 80’s. She never saw a doctor because she could not afford to, so she said. That was when we also discovered that she had a very infected boil in the small of her back. This is when Adam and the surgery began.
Adam did a masterful job of removing the infection and packing the wound. He was clearing the lead man. But just about everyone else on the team played some role. Chris assisted…Lynn was giving supplies…Mallory was cleaning up…Aaron was keeping kids away while Gary patrolled outside…guys were running security, Shelli and Thomas were digging meds, needed tools and supplies out of totes…I think some were praying…it was truly the Body of Christ at work as we cared for this elderly woman.
As she got up to leave, she gave Adam a big smile and a huge thanks and said it felt much better…another patient cared for!

Diane's baby
A few other notes:
-One of our, shall we say, more experienced team members got to go back to being a grandpa as he sang and rocked a baby girl named Tiki to sleep on the front porch of Mierta’s. It was beautiful to see.

Bob and a Beauty
-A mom who was eight months pregnant and was absolutely beaming after seeing her little baby on an ultrasound.

Aaron and Baby Dashka
-One of our medical staff (Adam) is a big, quiet, tough Army guy. He is not married and does not have any kids. And yet some teammates observed him caring for a young child, rocking her to sleep as they administered a breathing treatment. Amazing.
-One of our younger teammates was blown away by her ability to connect with a young gal, for two hours, without speaking the same language. When she left, she gave her hairband to the little girl, and the girl was beaming and so excited.
-Patient #51. A mother who did not have one of our 50 slips of paper held her baby for nearly three hours. She stood right next to 6 foot 5 inch Brian and was not moving until we saw her child. The child mostly slept, waking up once to nurse. We thought the child might be dead at one point because it simply did not move. We would later learn that Mom was pregnant standing there the whole time. Her child had a terrible ear infection. I think we all learned something about perseverance and how a good mom cares for her child. We were more than happy and willing to slip her in as patient #51.

Those Eyes...