Time for a short blog again so you know we are okay here.
The children are doing fine. We had a short, two day, visit from a young woman from my home town in Newfoundland, Rana Saunders. The children had been missing Mariah and Beate’s attention so they were glad to have Rana play with them. Rana has been coming to the DR to help the needy every summer for years after university finished. While there she has also come to Haiti for awhile every year. This year we were finally able to connect here at the HATS mission site.
Last week Luckner had two men digging so we could put in another septic tank. They quickly hit water which made the digging process very difficult. What a dirty and difficult job they had. The rented pump did not work so Luckner brought his own smaller one which he hooked up. It would take out water but the hole by then had become mostly mud. We ended up covering the hole for safety of the children until Luckner returns.
Before Luckner took a week’s vacation to Canada, we went to PAP in search of parts for the generator and the man who had repaired and serviced it last year. We had no idea whether or not he had survived the earthquake. We were thrilled to find parts we needed and the repair man. He came and spent two days working on the generator. This is a much better way to go than having to take the generator to PAP to be fixed. Once doing that was enough for us.
Luckner recently brought Ti Luc a large amount of the small sweet bananas that he had grown in his garden. Ti Luc was determined to take some for himself before sharing with the Kid’s Home. As we watched he did actually remove some from the stem and then tried to figure out to place one in his mouth by himself. It was fun to watch him.
Yesterday Sunday, the children were playing in the sand box. They decided to make a special cake for Sunday dinner and called me to come take a photo to share with people. So I am doing just that.
I told you last time about Ti Fi falling and getting her chin stitched at the hospital close by. It was a never ending battle to keep her hands from ribbing out the stitches. Dirty hands I might add and I was very concerned about infection. Thus I started putting diapers and socks on her hands and using duct tape to secure it. She worked hard at removing it with her teeth. Anyway, yesterday morning our dear Ti Fi fell on her chin again. Ouch. I heard the screams and did not get out the door before I saw Antoinette coming with Ti Fi covered in blood. I was able to stop the flow and re-bandage it again, but I told Antoinette I thought stitches had broken and could be infected. Ti Fi was on antibiotics I might add. She returned to Kid’s Home with Antoinette and sat in kitchen next to Magalie as breakfast was being prepared before Sunday School. Can you imagine this – Ti Fi fell again while sitting on a little chair and hit her chin on the cement floor once more. It happened too quickly for Magalie to catch her. Up here again and this time it took longer to get things under control and bandaged again. I knew that going to the hospital on Sunday would be useless so I did what I could. She was watched carefully all day.
This morning she had an appointment at the hospital and Antoinette took her. The doctor said the stitches had released and it was infected. They re-bandaged her chin and she just arrived back home. I am to change the bandage daily. I have decided to put Germaine in charge of watching Ti Fi until the wound heals so Antoinette and Magalie can look after the other children and still get a day off. Never a dull moment for sure. Ti Fi’s seizures are happening more often these days. Her medication has been increased but I am wondering if perhaps it should be changed. The good news about Ti Fi, however, is that she is slowly and steadily developing. She is saying more words all the time and she is showing us a slow and steady improvement in comprehension. We give God thanks for this.
Thank you and blessings everyone.
~Karen
