Day 6

Up by 4:45am to drive from Victory Compassion to the village to pick up Stanley, an 11 year old boy who had a cement block fall on his head during the earthquake. He has never received any medical attention for it in the last year and a half. A Colombian Doctor staying at Dr. Willie Severe's will take care of it for us for free (Dr. Suarez).

When we arrived at the village, we picked up the boy, his mother, and the President. The boy and I played for a few minutes yesterday, so he greeted Kendra and I with a kiss on the check. It was very cute.

Arrived to Willie's compound and saw the doctor cleaning his scissors and such. The little boy didn't really realize what was going on, he was so happy and smiley.

Ever since I was small I have absolutely loathed visiting the doctor. I was always so afraid, so when I saw the scissors and the boys head would be close together, I decided to stay far away. He had enlisted Kendra as the assistant and that was fine with me! Then, he asked me over to open the peroxide bottle, then the iodine, and eventually, I stayed to be the boy's official hand holder. Now I understand what my Mom meant by "when you have to - you do it". As the boy sat on his mom's lap I tried to distract him by helping him wiggle his toes and then he taught me to count to 30 in creole. I would mess up on purpose and he would correct me. We did it 3 or 4 times.

When the doctor was finished he bandaged up Stanley's head and then Stanley shook the doctors hand and said thank you. A very sweet thing for an 11 year old to do.

We took Stanley and his mom back to the village and then went back to have breakfast.

Johnbern, Dr. Willie Severe, Dr. Suarez, Pastor Patrick, Kendra, Emily
(Clockwise around the table)

Headed back to village to prepare for Dr. Suarez to come down because he agreed to do a health assessment for everyone in the village - for free today.

Dr Suarez assessed the patient while Johnbern translated.  I wrote down all the medications that each person needed.  Everyone in the entire village was diagnosed with anemia, parasites and malnutrition.

Dr Suarez with Famie and her mother, Lucianna Alfred.

Famie is one of two extreme cases of malnutrition in children in the village.  We also had a prostate infection, that is probably cancer, but in Haiti that type of healthcare is not available.  In addition, we did two pregnancy tests - one was negative for one woman and positive for another.  To be there while JB was translating for the doctor, telling this women she was pregnant when she just had a baby six months ago was heartbreaking.  She started to cry as the father is the man she is currently separating from because of domestic violence.  We assured her we would support her and be there for her during this time.

While Johnbern and I helped with the health assessment, Kendra spent her time working with Simon to fill in the giant hole.  Unfortunately, the Bobcat fell into the hole while they were filling it.

It took Floyd (the van) and a pick-up truck to pull it out!  What a day!