This past week was a sweet one. 

There are two precious women staying at our hospital this week as they are receiving physical therapy to get used to the new legs they received last week.  Their names are Rose (51) and Myrline (23), and I love them so dearly even just after a week and a half.  They are delightful.  Both are earthquake victims.  Rose was stuck under her house for three full days before someone rescued her.  She told me that her daughter had to beg search parties for three days before they’d go in after her, because they thought for sure she was dead.  The second floor crushed the first floor.  Myrlene’s story is that she was walking in the street in Port-au-prince when the earth started shaking and a telephone pole fell on her leg. Precious women.  Tragic stories.  So thankful for their lives.

Last week they commented that they really liked the fabric flower I had in my hair.  I asked them if they’d like to make some (I brought this extra fabric to Haiti for the very purpose of doing it with Haitian women; I had just forgot about it!), and they were so excited to!  So I brought everything down and some of my friends and I made beautiful things for our hair all afternoon.  Rose and Myrline were so good at it and had made so many that I got an idea to sell some of their items to the short term teams that were there at the time.  That first night, I got to bring them each $39 from all that they sold.  It was so fun to be a part of that!  When I handed it to them, they threw their arms up in the air and said “Hallelujah!  Thank you Jesus!”  Then, they asked if they could work the next day too.  Since then, they continue to work every day and make a little more cash every day.  I am just so overjoyed that God is providing for these women!  AND that He is restoring their dignity as they are seeing their own gifts and ability to work and provide for their families.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.. good stuff!  God is GOOD!  Anyhow, be praying with me for what this could lead to.  I would love to one day employ all the female amputees that we’ve worked with.   There is a market for it and they are incredible!

Aside from that, I continue to go to a few different tent cities every Monday to pick up amputees that then come and stay with us and get fit for prostheses.  I really enjoy that, and now have so many friends in each tent city that I no longer just go to pick up new patients but also to visit with each and every (you can’t miss one or they get jealous! J) patient we’ve ever had.  I love seeing them, and I think they feel really special when I come looking for them.  I also do follow-up on their legs, and see how they are walking with them.  Here’s some pictures of life in the tent cities:

KaKoo and Vayina- Mara's (see below) two little sisters.

Louphine.  This woman is beautiful inside and out, and now thanks to Jesus is WALKING again!!  And she LOVES her new leg.

a little store at the entrance of the tent city.

One of the two tent cities I go to each week.  This one is called Corail.  6,000 people live here.

i am in love with this precious girl!  she is 8 years old, and has spent multiple weeks with us at the mission getting physical therapy after getting a new leg.  if i could take any little girl home with me, this would be the one!  here she is giving me the best hug i've ever received!

Diana’s sister and brother-in-law came to visit us last week in Haiti. It was really fun to get to hang out with them, and they experienced a taste of life in Haiti with us. (Thanks for joining us, Alison and Xavi!)

With them coming to visit, Diana and I started to think about visits to this country, and we read some interesting stuff recently that further intrigued us in conversation.

Some research firm, Mercer, recently ranked the major cities of the world in multiple categories. The full report they released costs money, so I have not read the report, however it has been reviewed in hundreds of news outlets. In the overall rankings, Port-au-Prince, not-surprisingly, did not fare so well. Here is what the report said:

1)      Vienna at #1 is the considered the best city in the world to live in.

2)      Baghdad at #221 is considered the worst.  The survey realized, and rightfully so, that street bombings and rebel forces terrorizing the city make it a bad place to be.

3)      Port-au-Prince, Haiti came in at #213 on the list, placing it in the bottom 10 cities overall worldwide to live in.

4)      It gets worse.

Mercer also did an “eco-ranking based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion” – the standard things you need to live – and on that list, (as Business Week states) “Calgary placed first, followed by Honolulu. Port-au-Prince, Haiti finished at the bottom.”

Or to put it more bluntly, for the basic essentials needed to live, Port-au-Prince is the worst overall city in the world.

There are, of course, many slums in the world that have concentrated pockets of destitution that are similar to or worse than what we see here in Haiti. Don’t let these rankings trick you, this ranking index is for cities overall, meaning that  cities with bad slums and also good neighborhoods are averaged to be ok, even though there are similar and/or worse pockets of despair in hundreds of cities around the world.

As for life in Haiti, we love living here. It is really hard and really, really hot, but we wake up every morning and see the city of Port-au-Prince from our apartment, and we thank God that we get to be here. The country of Haiti has a lot of beauty, and a lot of hope, and it is truly indescribable until you experience it.

However, if you do come, be forewarned that upon arrival, the airport baggage guys now know a new phrase. And it’s all our fault...

When Diana and I were waiting at the airport the other day, the employees were trying to tell us in Creole that we were stingy and should give them money. We of course refused, but they enjoyed speaking to us in Creole, so we kept chatting and joking around. They wanted to know how to say stingy in English, so we told them, thinking it was funny. Then about 20 of the uniformed employees gathered around to learn, and write down the phrase, “You are Stingy.” They were excited to be able to tell the American (or Canadian -- for our Canadian friends) visitors that, hoping future travelers will feel bad, and give them some cash.

So we apologize in advance for every future visitor to Haiti that is told they are stingy upon arrival. Hopefully there are no hard feelings from our friends. And hopefully our friends won’t tell anyone else it was us.

(Diana here)

Life could not be sweeter at the moment.  I love my job here, the community, and all our new friends here at Mission of Hope.  Every day, I am excited to wake up and see what God has in store for the day, and I can honestly say I’ve never been this excited to wake up for any other job or school… God has blessed me so richly in this season of life, and I’m just trying to soak it all in. 

i continue to work as the coordinator for the prosthetics lab here, and feel in awe that God placed me in this position that I never would have dreamed about 5 years ago.  i feel so fulfilled doing this work, which includes communicating with incoming prosthetists, organizing and getting all needed materials, keeping records for and getting to know patients and their stories, going to pick up patients each week from two different tent cities where there are lots of amputees we've committed to help, translating for the patients all week as they stay here, and in between, learning LOTS about the fabrication of prosthetic legs!  i am loving it.  it feels so right to me, and i love, just love, getting to know the patients and seeing their faces change as they walk for the first time (happened TWICE today!) or even just begin to walk better with more confidence.  it is so life giving to them, as amputees in haiti are led to believe they are now worthless b/c they can't get around and they look funny.  today, jean louis, after walking for the first time, threw his arms up in the air and said, "Thank you Jesus Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!  I PRAYED for a good leg and HE GAVE ME ONE!!"  it put tears in my eyes, and i couldn't have had a better day.  it was incredible. 

another man came in today named jean reuben who was about 50.  he was wearing a prosthetic leg that was about 15 years old.  it was the most raggedy, terrible thing i've ever seen.  when we took the shoe off to see the foot, it literally crumbled in our hands.  i have no idea how this man was even getting around!!  anyhow, he was SO HAPPY to know we'd make him a new one.  someone had made his leg that came down for a mission trip 15 years ago, but since then he had nowhere to go to get a new one.  thus.. the silver lining of the earthquake....we are HERE doing prosthetics because of the earthquake, and never would have been here to help him had that not happened.  God uses all bad for good.  the same thing with stevensya, the 2 year i talked about last week.  she came in this week and was WALKING!!!!!  she even kicked the ball back and forth with me! … supporting her weight on her prosthetic leg!  Check it out:

Here's a few more pictures from last week.  First, these are all the patients we had stay with us last week as they were being fitted for legs and getting physical therapy.  Below is us celebrating Jay's 26th bday with a dance party!  

Last Sunday was surreal. I (Jay) was sitting in our room working on a proposal, and Jeremy called my name, saying, “we gotta go, there has been a wreck.” If you haven’t read about it, read Jeremy’s account here: When in Haiti. I was not a part of the initial receiving team because there were about 5 injured people on the first tap-tap, and we had about 10 staff people receiving them. I do not handle blood, injury, pain, or trauma well, so I did not jump right in. But then more and more injured people flooded in (about 30 in all), and God sustained me as we spent the next 4 hours treating severely wounded human beings. 

But I was really sad after all of it, and didn’t really sleep that night. It took me about 6 hours for the adrenaline to wear off, and fortunately everyone lived. But my heart kept reliving the mayhem of the day, and it triggered stinging memories of the earthquake. The influx of pumping adrenaline from seeing injuries no human should have to experience brought back many, many memories. The sense of hopelessness in someone’s eyes when they think they are about to die was exactly the same last Sunday as it was after the earthquake. I will never forget that look. 

Last Sunday night I struggled to sleep as I replayed the day’s events with 30 traumatically injured people, and I contemplated how the earthquake on January 12 created that feeling of trauma for at least 10,000 times more people. But that day they had no hospital to go to as those buildings had collapsed. There was no medical treatment for loved ones as their fathers, daughters, mothers, sons, brothers, and sisters held the injured and dying. And the thought of such hopelessness made me want to cry last Sunday, and I sit here wanting to cry again. 

But I still have hope for these people and this country. I know Jesus came to bring redemption to this broken world. And this world is very, very broken. The sadness is real. But so is the hope. We see people hope every day, when orphans laugh or amputees walk, when sick babies receive medicine or school children are given a meal. We see many Haitians that have hope for tomorrow, sometimes for the first time in a very long time, or ever. And it gives us hope for them too.

Since my last update, I have become obsessed. Literally obsessed.  With prosthetics!!!  The hope it gives people... the art involved in making them… the one on one time spending with patients, encouraging them and counseling them…it is flat out incredible.

I think last week was my favorite week I have had thus far in Haiti… I got to see a 2 year old little girl, Stevensya, STAND for the first time in her LIFE!!  She was born with a leg deformity, so is missing nearly everything below her knee on her right leg.  Her mom brought her in on Tuesday, completely hopeless, and skeptical that we could actually make a leg for her daughter.  I could tell she didn’t believe me when I said that soon she would walk just like the other little kids.  From the minute they walked through the doors on Tuesday, I could not stop thinking about Friday, the day she would receive her new leg!

Immediately after they left, Harold (the prosthetist on site for 2 weeks) and I got to work.  He had been teaching me all throughout the week, and I was ecstatic when he let me do a few things for Stevensya’s first leg.  As I was working on it, I remember thinking, “There is literally NOTHING on this planet I would rather be doing right now than building this little girl’s leg.  Nothing!” 

Trying to paint the white foot brown! 

filing the leg so it is nice and smooth :)

So Friday morning, Stevensya and her mom came bright and early to see if what we promised was true.  The leg fit perfectly!  She was able to stand on it, but didn’t have enough strength to walk on it yet, which is completely normal.  I will keep you updated throughout her journey as she will be coming back every week for check-ups and physical therapy. 

On the wall of our prosthetics lab, it says “Behold, I am making all things new” (in Creole), Rev. 21:5.  When we sent this precious momma and 2 legged daughter on their way, Harold and I gave her a note, encouraging the mom to help Stevensya on this journey, and promising that we will always be here to help her and revise her leg as she grows.   I read the letter out loud to her, and at the end, shared this promise with her, and that God is making Stevensya new too.  Tears flooded my eyes, and her mom nodded and said she knew. 

God is so faithful.  And He TRULY is making all things new!

Stevensya wearing her new little leg!  This is her twin brother on the left.

At one point, Stevensya curiously trying out her new leg.. she is standing on her prosthetic leg while lifting up her good leg!

I recently read an incredible article on “Where is God in Haiti?,” by the president of World Vision.  It is DEFINITELY worth reading..:

Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti, who of us has not asked the question, “Where was God?” The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?

There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked, where was God then? If he was God, why didn’t he save himself?

God had another way. On that cross, Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.

Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless and hungry through the camps. He weeps uncontrollably over the child he has lost.

Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross: “A man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).

“But where is hope?” we might ask. Here, alas, we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

What then must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the already and not yet, and we must wait until then. Until then, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted; give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger.

We are to let our light so shine before others that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors … as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.

 I continue to be amazed at God’s faithfulness here.

He is good.

(diana here). There is so much to catch you up on, but first I have got to share the most incredible thing that happened last week.   On Friday, I was called into translate in the new prosthetics clinic at Mission of Hope.  There was a woman named Marlene who was there to try on her new leg for the first time, after losing a leg when a building fell on her during the earthquake.  She had come earlier in the week for a custom fitting, and now she was back to learn how to walk on it.  You could see the self-consciousness and apprehension in her eyes as she came in on crutches and stump that used to be her leg.  I felt a connection with her in my heart, and was as encouraging as I knew how, wondering what to say to someone who has been through was she has.  As she took her first few steps, though weak and wobbly, I could see her countenance changed, and she began to smile.  In the earthquake, all of this woman’s hope had been sucked away.  With this new leg, God is restoring it!!!!!

So needless to say, I am going to spend all the time I can in the prosthetics lab from now on out, translating and helping wherever possible.  Between clients, I will be working on a new Christian school curriculum that Mission of Hope is writing, which is so exciting too.  The school on site at Mission of Hope is rated one of the best in the entire country, with over 90% of seniors passing the government exam at the end of the year.  Most schools have about a painfully low 10% pass rate.  So what are they doing?  Making the school and curriculum even BETTER.  Their vision is to open 50 more schools across the country,  implement this new curriculum, and change Haiti through education.  And this is just one way they are changing Haiti.  We are all pretty pumped about this place.

The desperation in Haiti continues on a daily basis here. Much of Port-au-Prince still looks like the remnants of a war zone. Hundreds of thousands of people still live under tents/tarps/sheets (including us (more on that below). We commonly see people with limbs that have been amputated. We hear people’s true stories of horror on a daily basis and it continues wears on our hearts.
 
Recently, some of our American friends here told us they needed a lot of help handling, storing, distributing, and keeping up with all of the aid they are trying to use to help this country. The organization that these friends work for has distributed, among other things, over 4 million meals since the earthquake. And they desperately need help to continue helping the hundreds of thousands of Haitians in need of help. We wanted to help, and were very aware that our experiences here and understanding of Creole could be very helpful, BUT we also did not want to move away from the orphans we have been living with. After much prayer, and seeing that the orphanage we were working in is now running well (which was our ultimate goal when we moved here), we felt like we had to go help with the immediate pressing need of earthquake relief in this collapsed country. So, late last week, we moved 15 minutes down the road to fill some much needed roles. We were very sad to leave the orphans, but we still go visit them and go to church there each Sunday, and we know they are well taken care of. 

We will continue to be involved in those orphans’ lives, and we are now busier than ever working on earthquake relief. Time has been flying here. Jeremy and I (Jay) have been building a 3500 sq. ft. tent (See pictures on Jeremy's sweet blog) that will be the medical supply hub for hospitals throughout the country. Right now they cannot even sort through the supplies because they have no place to unload them. We are hoping to have the tent finished tomorrow and then begin distributing medical supplies throughout the country. Diana has been working for the hospital on site here that has seen about 15,000 patients since the earthquake. There are many American doctors coming in, but these doctors do not speak Creole, and there are few people in this country who speak English and Creole as well as Diana, so her help is greatly needed there.

Where we are working right now does not have enough room for everyone to stay because they have volunteer teams that are coming in to help. This means that they need some resilient volunteers to move into tents. We volunteered and it is hard to sleep sometimes with the wind and rain at night, but we have some good neighbors that we are grateful for... [see pictures of our tent and our favorite neighbor's tent below]  Still, living in a tent makes us very acutely aware of the innumerable Haitians that are living under cardboard and do not have a (marketed as, but still not completely) waterproof Coleman tent like we do.

The location we live in has steel fencing and security guards (it’s very safe, Mom and Dad) but the overall compound with the warehouse and such is not yet fenced in. We have are 2 Mexican foreman running the fencing crew here. They were working on the US/Mexican border, as US employees, and then got deported back to Mexico. So their boss sent them here instead. They are good fencemakers. And really nice guys too.

We feel grateful that we get to be in Haiti and that Jesus continues to provide means for us to be a part of His work. We will blog again soon about the status of the fence, tents, and life here in this beautiful and desolate country.

We got two new boys!  Their names are Wismik and Kevin, and they are 9 and 8, according to their uncle that brought them.  Both of their parents died years back, and until recently they had been living with their grandma.   After she died, the uncle brought them in, but with 6 kids of his own, he said he wasn’t able to feed them or send them to school. 

These kids have NEVER been to one day of school.  Thinking of that in contrast to America’s public education system is soo hard.  There is so much injustice here.  All children should be entitled to an education!!  But the problem here is that the government has set up so few public schools that only 20% of schools are public.  And we’ve heard that the only way to get your kids into those schools is if you know someone.  So the vast majority of kids in Haiti will never go to school, because they cannot afford the $50-$100 it costs for the year.  If it were $10 a year, most still could not afford it. 

Anyway, the new boys are adjusting very quickly, faster than all the rest did.  We think it’s because they’ve been in survival mode for so long, going place to place, with no parents.. to them, this is just one more place you have to fend for yourself.  Yesterday, for example, I brought over a bunch of crayons and paper to color with the boys.  When we were finishing up, all the boys started helping me clean up.  I noticed about half the crayons were missing, and then found ALL of the missing ones in Kevin’s pockets.  I think in his mind he thought if he got his hands on them he could sell them for food.  He has no idea that 3 meals a day will be consistently available for at least the next ten years!  Praise the Lord that He is providing for these boys!!! 

We’ve had so much fun doing “new” things with the boys lately.  We started having “movie night” every Saturday night, and they love it!!  So far we’ve watched many a Tom and Jerry, and Finding Nemo. 

We also got to take them to a playground for the first time too!  They had never been to one before!  When they first saw it, one of them said, “How do we play with that?!”  But it took about three seconds for them to figure it out once they started climbing on. J

We have a film crew here right now, which is really neat because they are interviewing lots of children and adults involved with Charles’ ministry here… meaning we get to hear more in depth life stories.  It’s really neat being involved with it and helping to translate and so forth. 

I’m continuing to do school with the boys at the orphanage, and they are loving it!  Yesterday they put their first word together: “boul,” the word for ball.  Thankfully Creole phonics are so easy!  J

That’s it for now… more to come!

wide eyed at the playground :)

learning to ride a bike!  the boys take turns pushing each other :)

this kid's laugh is INCREDIBLE.

playground fun!

jay and i with all the boys

D here.  Two blogs in one day?  Unprecedented.  But just wanted to give a few short updates on top of what I wrote earlier.. 


All around best part: The kids all ran up to us yelling our names, “Daayyyy annn A!  Je!  JaaaarrreMY!”  …and then getting lots of hugs. : )

Hardest part: Seeing all the tent cities as we left the airport and drove into the compound.  They were everywhere.  It seemed so hopeless.  Be praying these people get homes before rainy season (starts very soon) and hurricane season (in a couple months).

Best orphanage moment:  A few days ago, two baby chicks entered the compound.  The boys had so mch fun playing with them, and then after a little while, they decided to make a Baby Chick Orphanage for them.  They said the chicks needed a safe place to rest! : ) [See below]

Funniest part: Seeing my friend Chantal and her new 2 month old baby boy… a little background info: Two days before the earthquake, I went to go visit Chantal and her baby.  I asked her what she named him, and she shrugged her shoulders. “You name him,” she said.  “I can’t think of anything.”  First thing that came to mind?  MIGUEL.  Why?  I don’t know.  She added a “son” to the end of it, as many Haitain names have: Miguelson.   Anyhow, when I saw her when we got back last week, I asked her how her baby was, and what she ended up naming him.  She said, “You should know!  You named him!”  I didn’t really think it was a serious conversation!  So I named a Haitian child Miguelson.  Jeremy said I should have said, “Starlight” that day and then at least he’d have a sweet name.  Jay asked Chantal yesterday if she liked the name, and she said she did only because it was an American name!  Should I tell the truth?!

The most “Ooookay, really?!” moment/s: Every night, at 3:30 am on the dot, a church up the road sings, preaches, and sings some more.  VERY LOUDLY.    I realize Haiti needs lots and lots of prayer, but if only they prayed at 8…