No School

It continues to rain and there’s no school. But we still had to go down the mountain to Quisqueya Christian School (where Jodie teaches and Jessica attends) for a memorial service. On this past Saturday morning a lovely 25 year old teacher and staff member from the school was found dead in her bed. Katie was one of the really loved and appreciated persons on that campus and this has been a real downer for the QCS community. In addition to being the teacher recruiter, basketball and soccer coach, athletic director, and student council director she was an all around loved person who lived out her Christian life in ways that impacted most of the students she came in contact with.

I guess my rag with the whole thing besides the obvious is the fact that we have to have a reason for it all. I heard more than once that “God had taken her home to be with him” or “today she is up in heaven having a better time than she ever did here on earth.” Why can’t we just grieve? This beautiful young lady died far too early in life of probable natural causes and she never had a chance to marry, have kids, grandchildren, nor had she a chance to do lots of other things that many of us think are a desired part of life. I think that really sucks (I didn’t say that!) and I get tired of seeing people avoid that reality when simply stating it would help us to get through the difficult times. Now don’t get me wrong. I have no knowledge about the afterlife. I simply have beliefs just like everybody else. Katie may be having a great sun soaked day in heaven and I personally hope she is. But she isn’t here and she should be. It’s time to grieve. We miss her and want Katie back.

And so it goes!

John

Katie Broecker

A couple days of Rain

It was so strange that yesterday during the clinic it began to rain. Hard! I used to tell friends that if they would come visit us I would guarantee that the weather would be beautiful. Don’t get me wrong: we have our allotment of rain in this Caribbean haven but the rain almost always happens at night. Actually, this rain did start at night, two nights ago, rained all day yesterday, poured all night last night, continued today and is still raining as I write. This morning they cancelled school because of rain. Have you ever heard of that one? In my time here I never remember it raining so much for so long a time. So what has changed? We’re not going there.

Actually the culprit is a tropical depression named Noel. Like the others, he formed off the coast of Africa about a week ago and drifted our way but unlike most he didn’t keep drifting to the west. He just got big and started to move north and quietly is in process of devastating lots of lives here in Haiti. To be honest I haven’t heard that on any news reports but because of the length of time the rain has continued and with the “heaviness” of the rain, I just take it for granted that we will begin to get reports within the next couple of days that someplace in Haiti some community or communities will be an afterthought. Their people will be ravaged with water and mud and their families will be mourning losses again. It always seems to happen. So, prove me wrong this time. Show me that no communities will be wiped off the side of a hill killing every last one. Feel free to write a comment telling me how dumb I am. I hope you’re right.

We are already seeing some of the effects of this rain in Port-au-Prince. The usual dark blue color of the water in the Bay of LaGonave is now brown. Check the picture out. I took it a couple hours ago.

I ask you to join with me in prayer for those who are (probably) at the present time fighting to keep their families out of the water and alive.

And So It Seems to Always Go!

John

Still Crazy after all these years

31 Years of shear marital bliss. Doesn't that sound crazy? It has been fun.

And so it goes!


And continues to go.


John

Now We’re Really Back

Although we began to see patients at the clinic last month there has been something missing since our return. The missing part has been the people from Bellefontaine. Now they’re back.

Bellefontaine is a small, poor farming community that is far from the main streets of Port-au-Prince and even far from the doorstep of our clinic at Prospere. I have noted a number of our regular patients were walking for many hours over the mountain but had no idea what sacrifices they were making to get to our humble clinic. Just for our own knowledge Eden and I took a day and drove out to Bellefontaine about three years ago. It took about 8 hours to get there driving on roads on the ridge of mountains then down in river beds where the 4 wheel drive was an absolute necessity. The wear on our bodies and the vehicle was enough to make us realize that a clinic out in this area, although having large numbers of patients, would be impossible to do on a regular basis. We were happy to visit the home of many of our patients but a regular visit was just not in our future.

So instead of our going out to them the people of that community have become regular visitors to ours. But, since our return in September we were seeing none, until this week. The lady at the bottom of this blog is Mdm. Charles Mandeau. She and a friend came in complaining about their aches and pains. (Who wouldn’t have aches after walking all that way?) They said that they had left home the afternoon of the day before and arrived at 11pm that night. They spent the night sleeping in our new waiting area. They had crossed a number of streams on their way and said that the persistent rains have been what was making it impossible for them or anybody else from Bellefontaine to make it to the clinic.

We’re happy they’re back.

And So It Goes!

John