Sunday, October 25, 2009

This and That

End of a long day....love how green the hospital grounds are with all the rain we've been blessed with.

Rich and all his "helpers" starting on the door installation project at the front of the hospital.

Little miss Fednaika (I know, it's a big name for such a little person).


New "facilities" for the hospital....don't have a big fascination with outhouses myself, but I have to say, I think this one is pretty attractive...



Laurie with Docilia, widow's home resident who died suddenly a week ago.




Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Week's Projects

A team of eight from King's Way Christian Church (MO) is here right, and they have accomplished Tons of work! They painted our house....

.....put steel on the shop roof....


...another photo of the house....


.....they painted the front of the new hospital building.....



...and here's one more of the shop roof--from the underside (that's Pastor Grant up there in the loft. There were various projects conquered this week--thanks guys for all the hard work!



Sunday, July 5, 2009

Breakdowns and Birthdays

Happy plants in the garden shadehouse.

The flamboyant trees are beautiful right now.

Happy birthday (tomorrow) to Tyler, whom you see here working hard on the Fourth of July. It was very hot, as you can see. =)


Towing the truck back home, after the transmission went out an hour down the road toward Port au Prince. We were thankful they hadn't gotten any farther, and are now considering what to do with the truck............



All this stuff had to be unloaded, after they had it all organized and fastened down so nicely.




Sunday, June 28, 2009

Good Titles Always Evade Me

One of my favorite jobs.

Rich and Ty painting rafters and purlins for the new shop

This cute little pineapple thrived on our neglect and ignorance. =)






Sunday, June 21, 2009

Good Stuff.........mostly

View from under the shade tree.....where I sat and read a WHOLE book! And it wasn't even MY birthday.

For those of you who remember the famous ship---sadly this is what is left.

Rich, enjoying his peaceful birthday.


No words needed.


Yes, it is..........a baby rat. Rich brought him in to show us, and I said, "Get that thing OUT of my House!" We've not had rats in the new house--thank God.


The meds depot where Laurie and I worked last week.





Tuesday, June 9, 2009

People and Projects

This makes me happy.

Thinking deep thoughts.............or planning the next move.
Vigens, Oze, and Laurie spending time together at the widow's home. Vigens often gets the job of chasing little brother while his mama works.

Oze, the hilarious.

This is the new concrete at the widow's home. Rich was splashing water on it, so it wouldn't cure too fast. I want to plant a flower border along the edge to beautify the space.

This doesn't look like much, but it's important. :) It's the new wall for the darkroom. As usual, I'm out of date, as it already has the first layer of plastering on it now.





Thursday, June 4, 2009

Yesterday, Rich and Ty installed doorframes in what will be the darkroom area of our new x-ray facility.

This photo is just because it makes me happy to look at it. These grow wild all over Haiti.

Rich and Astrel working on the old truck.....after the ambulance and before they start on the big truck, then Steve and Faith's truck.....................


Took this photo of Rich Sunday afternoon. He's dusty and tired, but glad to be home after a long drive from Port au Prince.


St. Eres, Marie Yolande, Docilia, and Yaya enjoying their new shaded space at the widow's home.

A rear view of the new shop. Rich and Ty installed the windows for Astrel's room this morning, so this photo is already outdated.


Here's a front view of the new shop. It's just waiting for its roof and doors.
I also need to issue a correction. I had said in my last post that the driver of the pickup died at the scene of the accident--it was the Owner who died, Rich says. The driver is alive and well.........somewhere.




Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Update

We learned a bit more about the accident yesterday out on Teleco Hill. The driver decided to shut off his engine and coast down the long concrete slope--so that not only did he have no brakes, he was free-coasting with no brakes! No one knows What He Was Thinking, as he is one of the dead. The hospital here is still full--some not-too-ill patients were sent home to make room for accident victims yesterday. Tomorrow, Rich has to make another accident-related run. Doctors here suspect one lady has a neck fracture, so they are inventing a back board for her, and Rich will take her to Gonaives, where her relatives will meet and take her on to a hospital in Port au Prince, where she can get the scans and care she needs. Original intentions were to take her to Jean Rabel for x-rays, but Trois Riviere is high, and no one can cross to Port de Paix, so all the accident victims with broken bones are still waiting at Jean Rabel until they can be transferred. Nothing is easy in this country.

In other hospital news, the little burned girl died last night. Her family is mourning, but she was suffering so much, it's impossible not to be glad she is home with Jesus.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Hard Day

There are no photos for today. You wouldn't want to see them anyway.

We got up early this morning--the crew was supposed to arrive at 6:00 a.m. to start pouring the floor in the main bay of the shop. We fed the guys, Rich got them started...........at 8 o'clock, the first ambulance call came, a possible stroke victim out at Clenette. The ambulance had a low tire, so he changed that and headed out. Just as he got back from that run, we got word that there had been a bad accident out on Teleco Hill (on the road to Mole St. Nicholas, for those of you've been here), so Rich was off again, this time with Dr. Gilles and Dr. Felix. They arrived at a scene of complete chaos--people milling about, wailing; blood in pools on the ground; victims lying every-which-way. Town folks had gotten there ahead of the ambulance, and were loading injured people on motorcycles or pickups, dragging them off any old way. The doctors began triage, and they were soon on the way to the hospital at Jean Rabel with a girl who needed immediate surgery to close a hole (about the size of a tennis ball, Rich says) in her side. After leaving her at the hospital in Jean Rabel, Rich came back over halfway, met another vehicle, and took two more people, one with a broken collar-bone; and the other with an injured/broken hip back over to Jean Rabel. He got home at around 4:00 this afternoon.

Vanise, one of our nurses, was on the pickup that rolled (no brakes, 20 to 25 people on the back). She wasn't badly hurt, but injured her back helping to lift the pickup off some other poor folks. Another nurse, Kerda, was on a motorcycle, and either saw the accident, or came on it right after it happened. She was rather badly rattled, but helped willingly all day. We were very impressed with her dedication.

Midway through the afternoon, Elimeme, senior guard at the hospital, came to me and said, You know, they've been doing wound care all day, and there's no one to clean up down there. It's a mess." Upon questioning, I found out that both of our cleaning ladies had lost family members in the accident, and had gone home to be with family......he had found someone who could help out, but needed to know if we could pay her a bit.=) Not sure how schedules will be at the hospital for the foreseeable future, but we'll "degage" (make do). The hospital is very full; we already had two burn victims--father and child...........

Whew, enough for the day...........pray for Haiti.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Shop Photos

These photos of the new shop were taken about four weeks ago. It's looking much more finished now; unfortunately our new camera went on the fritz--we were quite unhappy about that, but "se lavi". In the photo above, you can see the loft storage area above the side rooms.

The north end and a partial front view.

The back side of the shop--the corner room with the window openings will be Astrel's new "house". He can hardly wait to move in!


Hi Folks!

Here's Tyler having fun welding rafters for the new shop roof.

Jean, this one is for you. These are the triplets you delivered two years ago.

And this is ten-month-old Oze (Hosea). Oze's mama, Wilna, works for us at the widow's home. Oze is hilarious entertainment for the widows, and a full-time job for his family!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Of Babies and Buildings


"Our baby" went home two weeks ago, weighing 5 lbs., 2 oz. and we hear she's continuing to do well. The first photo shows her with her mama just before mama hopped on the motorcycle to take the baby home--not the way we'd take a preemie home, but she survived it.





Here are some photos of the new garage/workshop in its current state--and these are truly current photos, taken only a couple hours ago, as the crew was pouring the roof on the south wing. This is the last roof pour; a steel A-frame roof with now go on the whole building, and these lower roofs will be wonderful storage lofts.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Baby Liz




Here are a couple of photos of Baby Liz, the wee person who is in residence at our house right now. We expect to have her for another 10-14 days, or until she weighs 5 lbs. She's at 4 lb., 6 oz. right now.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Construction Progress











The new mission garage/shop/storage/new living quarters for Astrel is taking shape nicely. It's going to be a very useful and practical place. It will have a room for Astrel (long-term guard and general go-to guy for the mission) in the left rear corner. In the front left corner will be a storage room for large items. The center space is 16'x28', plenty of room to park and work on any of the mission vehicles. The right side will have a storage room with shelves in the rear, and a workshop area with workbenches at the front of the building. There will be a concrete pad out front for welding and other projects.
Rich has also been taking "tet sab" (the sifted-out gravel from the cement work, and using it to clean up and beautify around the hospital. Then someday--when it rains a lot again--he wants to wash the outside of the hospital. These projects take awhile since he does them inbetween all his other jobs.