Time flies when you're having fun!

Another weeks gone by and time seems to disappear here. There’s always some need to be filled here, and I think that’s why time goes so quick. No matter how hard or fast you work to get stuff done, at the end of the day you wish you could have accomplished more. Licia and Lori are two of the hardest workers I have ever met. They go through more emotions in a week than some people do in a lifetime. Witnessing parents laughing as their children are dying, holding that child and not having time to process the death of the 2 year old whose body lies lifeless, emaciated, in your hands as the next patient is bleeding profusely from a severe motorcycle accident. Having to fire a staff member who steals or doesn’t do their job while they plead that their whole family is going to die because of you taking away their income. Waking up early to get office hours in before clinic and going to bed late knowing they will do the same the next day. Trying to teach a Haitian mother that instead of selling her chicken’s eggs to buy rice for her kids, the eggs would be more nourishment for her children, only to see her a month later asking you to take in her swollen kids with kwash and feed them. Educating people about STDs and telling them that they have HIV; and them not believing or understanding and they come back after they got pregnant and had a baby who obviously tests HIV+. Experiencing the joy of an orphan finally going to their adoptive home but grieving because that child has been in your home for 2 years and knows you as mommy. Being discouraged by the never-ending line of sick, injured, diseased people; yet praising God for all he allows them to do to help. Their lives aren’t easy and their perseverance is inspiring. Truly.

I love everything I get to do here. I was teaching the boys about the body- organs and veins etc and telling them that blood was blue. They didn’t believe me until I showed them my veins (you can’t really see on a black-skinned person). They were so cute “Wait until we tell mommy, she won’t believe us!” screams Trey. He often goes to mom telling her what he learns, thinking he’ll change her life with his new-found knowledge. It’s fun to teach such an enthusiastic learner. We traced their bodies and every day I make a new organ for them to glue on themselves and we learn about it. We went on a 7 mile hike Friday and it was amazing. I love the walks we go on… narrow paths through corn farms and friendly communities in between wide gravel roads, often muddy, peacefully quiet- besides the boys and a couple donkeys, stunning mountains and ocean views, often pink, orange, yellow, stunning sunsets, and friendly people passing once in a while; some on donkeys or horses, some driving tractors, some walking. I love Haiti.

My online English class is the hardest thing about my current life. I’ve always had an easy time with English courses and never gotten less than an A- this might just kill that. It’s an argumentative essay course and killing me. The formats my prof assigns are just plain odd, and hard to follow and boring and hard to find motivation for; plus the internet time I have is hard to spend researching and writing when I’d rather be emailing or facebooking friends. It’s hard to focus on writing an essay that I don’t care about when I have Nickenson, or the boys downstairs are calling me to play soccer. The boys in the rescue center are SO great and besides Nickenson they consume most of my free time. J Soccer is their favorite thing for me to join them in, and I can’t say that I’m as good as them, but I’m definitely improving and having fun doing it!

Nickenson has lost a pound... we took him off the medika mamba program thinking his uking might be intolerance to the peanut butter- pray it helps! I am with him SOOO much and its discouraging that he lost more than 10% of his weight in a week... but his smiles keep me going. If he continues to lose I'll take him at night and try to get some extra calories in him. The rescue center admitted 2 new kwash kids- a boy and a girl. The little girl (about 4 yrs old) refuses to eat and they had to put a feeding tube in her and she kept ripping it out, so her hands are in socks, taped and pinned to her shorts. She won't make eye contact and sits groaning all day long... hopefully the food shes getting through the tube will help her have more life. The boy (about 6 yrs old) is so swollen that he can barely stand. His privates are the size of a baseball and yet he smiles bigger than any kid in the place. He says please and thank you and when I was feeding him tonight he said he didn't want to eat; but after I told him it would make him feel better and it was good for him he smiled and forced himself to finish. I can't express how blessed I am to get to be around these kids :)