The Happy and the Sad

Today was one of those "mixed" kind of days. Except, here in Haiti, it is often "very happy" or "very, very sad".

First - the happy part. The picture shows a mother with a beautiful pair of twins, boy and girl. Her husband was in Port Au Prince at the time of the earthquake and was killed. She and her other 2 children, ages 2 and 4, were with his mother in the town of Abricot, farther west of here. She was at the center for 2 weeks before delivering. In talking with her, she said the boy looks like the father and the girl like herself. And when I got ready to take the picture she begged me not to wake the boy - because "he yells and yells when he cries!"
New lives beginning!

Remember the last post where I talked about the baby with the high fever? I went to the hospital yesterday to see how he was doing and was told that he died over the weekend. Heartbreaking!

And then this afternoon, one of the children at the Center who has not been doing well, had a series of convulsions. Medication rested his poor body but didn't answer what else is wrong with him. In the U.S. we would get him to a regional center as soon as possible, run a battery of tests, and get to the bottom of the problem. Here, we try to find a pediatrician in the COUNTRY who can help us and then have to figure out a way to get the child and his mother to where ever he needs to go. And it is not just getting him there - they have to have a place to stay and food to eat. The place they need to go is probably Port Au Prince, but, despite the earthquake having been in January - and this is June - there aren't places to stay, and many hospitals haven't been rebuilt. Land line phones are practically non-existent, and cell phone numbers seem to change repeatedly. Often the only way to communicate is through the internet and, like publishing this post, this is the first time I got a connection in days!

So, tonight you have heard from me both the good and the bad. And, you know what, it does affect one! It is at a time like this that we learn what real poverty is all about, including the poverty of our own impotence in situations like this!

Take care. God bless. And do say a prayer for the people of Haiti and the poor throughout the world. Mary Ann