Activities - Monday

Monday was an exciting day full of surprises! We were driving past Delmas 33/Gerard Bataille intersection and saw a body on the ground. As we got closer we noticed it was that of a child. The girl was laying in the middle of the road on the 2-lane road. We stopped our vehicle and then motioned for the vehicles in the next lane to stop. A couple of young men carried her away from the middle of the road. We saw that she was still alive. The guys who were carrying her said that a bus like the one pictured above hit her in a hit and run.

The girl was by herself. A couple of the young guys helped her into the back of our truck and we drove to Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare Hospital with a police escort. She had an obviously broken left leg. The triage department splinted her leg.

Preparations were made to prepare her to be placed on a backboard and then onto a stretcher before going into the emergency room.

The xray machine was broken and personnel told us to transfer her to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Trauma Hospital on Tabarre. In the meantime the parents of the girl arrived at the hospital and they accompanied us to the other hospital. Yesterday afternoon I called the girls' mother to see how she was doing. They brought her into surgery for internal bleeding in her abdomen. She will need further surgery for her broken bones. Her left leg was broken in 3 places and her pelvis was broken as well. The girl was conscious when we brought her to hospital. What worried her the most was that she needed to go to school in August. Pray for this girl and family. She is going to have a difficult time for the next couple of weeks, but she is getting excellent care. The doctors at the hospital told the family that they would need to donate blood at the Red Cross.  I am glad that we were able to get her to the hospital quickly and that she didn't bleed to death while waiting for care.

As we were driving back from the hospital I saw this billboard. Translated into English it reads: "Choose Peace - Violence destroys our lives". It was difficult to understand how someone could just drive away after injuring someone in the accident. I hope that the passengers riding on that bus turned the driver into the police.

Angelica Dorane came to our house in the morning to register for her first year of schooling for the new school year.

She is a bright happy young girl.

This happy young boy is her brother Dieuniferson. We were driving Dieuniferson, Angelica and their mother to the St. Germaine Physiotherapy Center on Tabarre when we came across the accident with the injured girl on the road. The family accompanied us on our travels to the 2 hospitals. Dieuniferson has cerebral palsy. He can't talk but does understand  what is said to him. Hopefully with physiotherapy Dieuniferson will one day be able to walk. The program costs 200H$ plus a 200H$ deposit to make sure that the person follows the program. This works out to $50US for the program. The mother had once been registered into the program but had stopped going because she didn't have money for a tap-tap. We told the administration office that we would make sure that the mother kept her physiotherapy appointments and they agreed to accept Dieuniferson back into the program. Dieuniferson and his family live in the Camp Accra refug camp.

Yesterday Ted Ronaldo Lamisere and his father came to the house to go and see Dr. Pilie to get an echographie done on his heart. He was born with a congenital heart defect.

The echographie costs $60US. We will be contacting 3 organizations that we know who find medical care to see if they can help Ted with a heart surgery. Please keep Ted and his family in prayer and prayer that a heart surgery is found for him.

While we were driving down Delmas, near Airport Rd. we were stopped in traffic and these 2 young boys approached us begging for money.

Peter is the name of this child. We noticed his face had some sores on it. We asked him about it and he said that while he was sleeping somebody burnt his face. He looks to be around 11 years old. He doesn't know his age and has never been to school. He comes from Cap Haitien. His father died and his mother is in the Dominican Republic. His extended family sent someone with him to Port-au-Prince and he was left there. He hasn't been on the street long. He is going to stay with us here at Coram Deo until we can find a placement in an orphanage. Pray for Peter, that his burns heal, and that we can find a placement for him.

Mothers and their hydrocephalus babies are starting to travel into Port-au-Prince from the countryside. Maguy, who is the hydrocephalus project co-ordinator called me yesterday to see if we could pick up a couple of mothers and their babies until the neurosurgery team arrives to Haiti on Wednesday morning. These 2 mothers came in from Aux Cayes.

Yesterday night the North West Haiti Mission called to say that they were bringing in 3 mothers and their hydrocephalus babies in from the north part of Haiti - Port de Paix. We had 6 mothers and babies sleeping overnight last night. Tonight we will have 9. The guys are giving up their rooms while the mothers and their babies are here. Pray for all the surgeries that will take place at Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare Hospital from July 10-12.

Demolition/Construction work is ongoing in our neighborhood. Finally the house on our street corner is being completely demolished.

This house collapsed during the earthquake and 3 people inside it were killed. Since that day it has been a daily reminder of the earthquake every day we drive past our street corner. It is great to see the rubble finally being removed :)

A couple of dump trucks removed the mound of debris on the street yesterday afternoon.

This is a view of Rue Magua on the other side of Delmas 31. Construction is being done for building curbs and sidewalks.

Delmas 31 is now completely paved from bottom to top! Workers are building sidewalks now.

The back road to the airport is also being worked on. This section of road now has a fresh coat of asphalt!

The mayor has ordered owners of properties to move back their walls 2 meters to prepare for sidewalks and curbs!

It sure is nice driving on an asphalt road!

On the corner of Delmas and Airport Rd is a large billboard advertising a project for the construction of an overpass.

This intersection will be one of 2 overpasses to be constructed in Port-au-Prince, a first for Haiti! The project length is projected to last 18 months and is being financed by the Petro Caribe program of Venezuela.

On main Delmas are a lot of solar powered street lights which will illimunate main Delmas during the evenings. Another new project done by the government :) I love seeing positive changes in Haiti! Pray for all the road building projects that are taking place throughout Port-au-Prince.