Life of extremes

This is our life…a life of extremes.  It is the travel back and forth between two realities of life in the states and Haiti: extreme.   The weather…rainy season/dry season; extreme.  Living in isolation when there is no team to a house full of people; extreme.  This life we live is full of extremes. 

Yesterday as we drove home from Canaan, it occurred to me that as we’ve come to know more about the culture of not only Haiti, but also the small community we are serving  in Canaan, there is this love/hate relationship; extreme. 

Why is it we love this place so much and hate it at the same time?  There are times, sometimes weeks at a time where we just live it and there are others it is overwhelming.  Yesterday was one of those overwhelming extreme days.

While we ran two days of medical clinic and saw close to 100 people, extremes were evident.  

One of the most committed teachers in the school in Canaan, one who gave and gave last year with little to no pay came to our clinic with two abscesses on his face.  Not sure he had a clue how serious this could have been had it been left untreated.  Our Nurse Practitioner was able to partially treat it the first day of clinic, then he was to return the second day for further treatment.   When he returned for the second treatment however, he had healed tremendously overnight and only needed antibiotics.  To see his face light up when he returned after finally getting a full night sleep (apparently it had been weeks of pain and sleep loss) and looked in the mirror to see the difference the second day, was awesome!  Half the clinic was cheering for him!

We then turned to a young lady who had been in the clinic the first day with concern for the baby she was carrying.  She was supposedly 6 months into her pregnancy but hadn’t grown in quite a while and hadn’t been feeling the baby move.  After further examination the second day, we had to let her know her baby was no longer developing and was not viable.  About 6 of us gathered around her to pray for her and encourage her.  What words can encourage a mother who has just learned she lost her baby? 

EXTREME

As I have written about Nadege in the past, her condition continues.  She has yet another infection.  We treat her infection and try our best to educate her on little practical things she can do to prevent infection.  The problem is the little practical things are little practical things for us; for her, difficult.  We’re hopeful she can make the changes and that they will actually work.  It’s not just her illness though; it’s Jenny and Ricardo too.  They have scabies and intestinal worms which means more treatment for her to oversee.  Treatment that is hard.  Hard washing Jenny to make sure the medicine works.  Hard washing the clothes and bedding in hot water.  Not hard for us, but hard for her. 

An elderly man came to us with several problems, but the worst was the anxiety he was dealing with over his ailments.  We have the privilege of treating medically, but more importantly, he was encouraged and prayed for.  He left a different person.  A person filled with peace.

EXTREME

A 14 year old girl came in with some issues in her chest.  After several questions to get to the bottom of why her chest was hurting, it was discovered there is no medication for the worst of her problems.  She is a child slave, in Haiti known as a restevak.  We’ve heard many stories of children who have been in this type of situation in their past when they come to one of the homes, but this was a new one for us.  She is living it NOW.  Every day, she is forced to lift bags of concrete and work for her uncle and aunt.  We won’t turn our heads.  We will look to God to provide her a way out. 

We treated almost 100 people.  We educated.  We gave people some peace in the simple fact of knowing what or why they were feeling the way they were.  We treated medically.  We prayed with many.   We provided Bibles to some (  Nadege only had a New Testament Bible to read and study from, now she has the entire Bible.  She had more joy over that than any of the medical conditions she and her children were treated for!)  What an amazing day in Haiti.  Love/Hate.

EXTREME

This is the life of extremes we live.  This is some of the love/hate relationship we have with Haiti.  We hate what we learn sometimes.  We hate what we hear and see sometimes.  But we love more that God has us here and allows us to be part of HIM changing lives.