Blessings

Just thought I'd take a moment and count my blessings... I was off the mountain for a week, and just got back up here on Monday. I never know what to expect when i come back, so I was dreading my return up here. I brought the generator back up with me, after Larry took a look at it and rigged it to work. Once I finished seeing the patients that were waiting for Margarethe and me, I hooked the generator up and it ran like a charm. My water tanks were empty, so I primed the water pump and pumped water. Then I got on the phone with Starband, my internet provider, and figured out what was wrong with my satellite. So, in one day I had electricity, water and internet. It was great. The only problem was that I pumped all the water out of my cistern and into my tanks, so my cistern was almost dry, and that had me worried. I don't have time to go for water runs every day, and it hasn't been raining. But that worry was taken care of yesterday. I was busy pulling teeth and delivering a baby (boy, by the way... of course), when we heard a car approach. It was Bob and Roro, and they were here to visit and prepare the place for a february Raincatchers team. They painted the roof, and cleaned the cistern out, and hauled water from another cistern into the one at the clinic. It was wonderful to have help and company. God is good.

back in haiti-part two

yikes... so i'm apparently having difficulties with this new blog technology. at any rate, here is the rest of the story that i tried to blog yesterday:

so, by the time i brought margarethe's orphaned puppies up to my house and bathed them, i heard noises coming from the room where the girl was having the baby. so i ran in there, and arrived just in time to see a wriggling baby boy in the grandma's hands, down by the woman's feet. I cut the cord and rubbed him till he started breathing, and then wrapped him up and took care of mom. Later, mom and baby went home just fine, and i continued to take care of the puppies for a few more days. They really liked the formula i was feeding them. After a couple days, margarethe came and got them and brought them to her house. Then a few more days after that, she told me that one of her bigger dogs, Shera, had eaten one of the puppies who came too close to her enclosure. So, the moral of the story is twofold. One, don't give your patient a drug that speeds up labor, and then go putz with puppies. Two, it really is a dog eat dog world. Who knew?

Back in Haiti

I'm back in Haiti after a month and a half in the States, and it's been a harder transition this time than it normally is. My time spent with my family was great. I got to enjoy plenty of quality time with Lukey and Ella and Kate, my amazing nephew and nieces. Family time was precious, and there were always so many people to talk to and things to do, that it was kind of a shock to get back to the mountain and be alone once again. It didn't help that mid-week my generator broke down, and my internet decided not to work, either. It always feels more isolated when communication with my friends and family back home is cut off. I had a minor melt down on wednesday, and called my missionary friends in Jacmel. Danny and Larry came up that same day, and Drex sent a battery with them. They helped get my generator running again, which was amazing. Then they headed back down the mountain. That was a five or six hour round trip for them, and in a questionably functional vehicle, as well. God has given me great friends here in Haiti, let me tell you! I couldn't be here without them.
A rather funny story happened when I first got back to the mountain last Sunday. I was a little tired from driving and moving back in, so i took a nap (shocker!). When i woke up, I heard a knocking on my door. It was Emmanuel, my neighbor and janitor, telling me that there was a woman in labor. So, I took her in and set her up in the back room on the dental chair. She and her mother spent the night, and there was no real progress made on her labor all night. In the morning, I woke up to the sounds of what I thought were lots of obnoxious birds out in the neighbors' yard. I asked Emmanuel about it, and he said that the sounds were actually coming from four newborn puppies in Margarethe's yard. Their mother had gone off and died, and they were roaming around in the fields, crying and looking for food. I felt bad because Margarethe has been wanting puppies for a long time, and she wasn't home yet to take care of them, so I decided to go down and rescue them. But first, I checked on the pregnant woman. She was still not making good progress, so I put her on a pitocin IV drip, and then went down to gather up the puppies. That was probably not a good way to order my activities that morning, on retrospect. By the time I got back with the puppies