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Thanksgiving, I am thankful to be an American. In the United States I not only live in a country of abundance, I live in a country of excess. I am thankful that I am thankful. I am thankful I am learning not to complain. I am thankful I have choices. I choose to leave my comfortable abundant life for extended periods of time, to live where there is not enough to go around. I choose to live with the poorest of the poor. I choose to live where there are hungry children outside of my door, day and night. Children …

Thanksgiving Read More »

November 08, 2015 We just returned home from bringing the medical team back to PAP, it was a sad good bye. A team of five people four nurses and a pharmacy helper came from Detroit area, and two Haitian Americans arrived from Delray Beach Florida to interpret. Johnny and Anita were also working as interrupters and myself.  The team arrived last Friday, I drove the team to Kalabot on Saturday and shortly after we arrived the clinic opened. Patients were seen on Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, all day Monday and Tuesday morning with a total of 290 people seen. On …

Medical Mission 2015 Read More »

Choices   Limits, Boundaries, borders, fences, walls, guardrails. Freedom, servitude, slavery, bondage. Arrogance, humility. Freewill.   Jesus loves the little children of the world, red, yellow, black and white, Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves me. NO, ME! Choices.   A child is ill, very ill. Few choices. Tradition, based on superstition and fear. A new option, western medical team. The nurse, unable to deal with the life and death crises in the remote mountains, arranges to transport the child to modern hospital. Offer is made, mother agrees and leaves to pack for journey, does not …

A Poem Read More »

October 27, 2015 Dear grandchildren, I am writing this to all my wonderful grandchildren and if you would like to share it with the children in your life maybe it will give them an understanding of life in other places. I want you to know how much I miss you, and think of you all the time. I wonder how school is going? What are you going to be for Halloween? There is no Halloween here, for Christmas people visit family, but there is no Santa Clause, or gifts, no big meal. They also do not have the Easter Bunny …

An open letter to my grandchildren (and yours) Read More »

We have very poor access to good internet, so very little posting. We are in Port au prince and are still having problems.  

Oct 14th 2015 Child Yesterday we had clinic, Sr. Julian told me about a child she sent to the hospital the day before that was severely malnourished. When clinic closed Bob and I took Sister and Johnny to town to check on the child and have lunch to discuss the upcoming medical mission. Sister and I went to the hospital first and found the child needed to go to a larger Hospital in St. Marc ( a little over two hours away). The ambulance only went as far as Gonaive (which is an hour away). I suggested that I take …

Child Read More »

IMG_1114Interesting tidbits from working a Haitian construction crew. We are in the process of building a pavilion and small warehouse at the Fr. Jim Bretl Agriculture Center. Two days before the project was scheduled to start, the “Boss”, Boss Julien, came and told me that there was a problem. The men he had hired refused to work because we were using a different “Boss” than we had used when we built the foundation. In Haiti, it is not acceptable to change “Bosses” on a job once it has been begun.  Even though there has been a two-year interlude, this project …

West of the Equator Read More »

This is a little long, but we have not had internet access. The Vicar General was in Gros Morne Sunday. He came to give the long awaited announcement that areas of Gros Morne and Riviere Mancelle are being combined into a new parish. The areas of Riviere Mancell are Garcin, where we live, and Buchan Richard, where the Fr. Jim Bretl Agriculture Center is located. The areas from Gros Morne include Sr. Pat and Sr. Jackie’s home, the school Sr. Pat oversees in Fonibo, and the area where our friends Elwood and Anita live. These changes will result in some …

Triple post, we have not had internet access Read More »

A good week There is an expression in Haiti, “Mountain after mountain”. I think of it often when driving around the countryside. I have come to understand that it refers to all things Haiti; there are many things beyond what you see. When I think about it, it is the same with humankind everywhere. A project we have been planning is to build a roof structure to replace the tarps we have used for the past several years on the roof of the school where Denise does laundry and cooks. This is also where Emanuel, Bermane and their friends sit …

It has been a good week Read More »

September 17, 2015 Living with very little water This has been an interesting study of living with little water. There are times we have some running water and some water in buckets. Then there are times that we pay people to go down to the road and get a bucket of water for us. How we are so spoiled to take water for granted. This is not even water you can drink; it is for washing, flushing the toilet, watering the gardens. Before using the bathroom you need to be sure that there is a bucket of water available, after …

Update from Denise Read More »