Joan's Journal
10/05/07

Build an Ark!! We have entered the rainy season here in Haiti.  It rained off and on during the day on Sunday, and then all through the night Sunday night, and then it just poured on Monday morning. By Monday, there was starting to be some pretty bad flooding in the area here. Many of the streets in Simon, (our little village that is next to the compound), had turned into rivers.  Many of the houses had water just pouring into them and in some cases it was getting up to the beds.  Tim was called Monday morning to help the Bernice Johnson Center which is a place for physically handicapped ladies. The Center sits in a basin and the water was rising rapidly and they needed to get the ladies out. They also loaded up their beds and some appliances to try to salvage some of it so everything wouldn’t be damaged. They took everybody to the director of the Center’s house and they all moved in with him for a few days.  It seems they haven’t had flooding this bad since 1986 or 1987 when it was even worse and two local boys drowned.  The main road that we take to town becomes a river, so we had to go a different route to town for a few days and there is quite a bit of damage to the roads. The rain hadn’t even stopped before we had people at our door asking for help.  It is true that because there is no planning for the future here, any extra problem seems to put them over the edge with being able to make it.

 The rain did bring cooler temperatures for a while and I actually needed a light blanket one night for the first time since we arrived in Haiti.  Now it is just extremely muggy as everything is trying to dry out. They say that more rain is coming, but today the sun was out for a little bit and I think we actually got all of the laundry dry at one time.  (I didn’t finish writing this and now a few hours later, it is pouring again.)

 Otherwise, things are going pretty well for us here.  I have been amazed how much we have been dealing with small health problems, it seems, almost continually. Tim’s feet are doing much better with the athlete’s feet, but it is not completely gone. Faith had a pretty bad case of thrush that we were treating with Ginseng Violet, so she had a purple mouth for a while and that seemed to take care of it, but now I think it is coming back again.  The other kids have a hard time with any break in the skin turning into impetigo and needing to be treated with antibiotic ointment, so we have been using lots of that and band aids trying to keep sores clean. None of this is even close to the problems that we see here at our door, but it is annoying to have to constantly be dealing with it.

Even as I write this, I feel bad for complaining because just yesterday a lady came asking for help who had an abscess on her arm that had burst. She said she just had a baby 2 days ago and that is when it opened. Her whole arm and hand were all swollen and the abscess was open and running.  The week before a lady came with her small boy. He had something wrong with his head and had sores all over it with gnats and drainage out of his ears.  She was asking for money to be able to get some help for him and I gave her some.  Two days later she returned with the boy looking much better and showing me her receipt and medicine that she bought. She wanted to thank us for helping.

It is times like that when I am glad that we are here. I know there is nothing we can do of ourselves that can make a difference in Haiti, but God has given us the privilege to be used in small ways for His work.  Earlier in September we helped some children with money that someone gave us for going to school.  One lady returned the week after school started.  She came just to say thank you. She said it was a big thing that we did to help her children go to school when they had no possible way to go. After being here for just a short time, it was easy to know we can do nothing, so I was quick to tell her it is from God and it is a big thing He did.  I couldn’t help but think of the 10 lepers and how one returned to say thank you.  How it must touch God’s heart when we, as poor needy children, remember to say, “Thank you.”

[Home] [Reinhard News] [Joan's Journal] [From the Kids] [Photo Album] [Prayer Requests] [Answered Prayer] [Special Requests] [Team Photos] [Calendar of Events] [Contact Us] [Links] [Site Updates]