November - 11 months post Earthquake

Road into Leogane

Transitional houses on bypass road

Tomas Passes With Minimal Impact to HHM 

Our third disaster of the year was poised to hit on Thursday at noon according to Haitian radio.  All schools nationwide closed, but we saw patients as usual.  It was a light day in the clinic and with Dr. Mainviel arriving late and Jim leaving early we only saw 85 patients.  We sent one OB to Leogane to deliver a post term baby since she had developed a slight case of pre-eclampsia.  Otherwise, just business as usual.  Jim took a missionary friend to Port au Prince to beat out the rain waiting for a flight Saturday morning.  Getting past the rivers en route to the airport is no guarantee in heavy rains.

We closed all our clinic curtains, moved things away from windows to avoid wetness, and then locked up. It drizzled lightly from mid afternoon Thursday and increased in intensity all day Friday but no downpours.  We were surprised to hear that Leogane had flooded so since it had come in a very sedate rate with no wind of which to speak.  We understand that 2 died in Leogane.  We hear from a friend in Seguin that 4 were washed down into a ravine and died up there.  Here are some photos from various places.

Momance river - usually mostly dry

Leogane river overflows its banks

We took a drive on Saturday to see what had occurred.  Here is what we found in Leogane.  You could not travel past to get to the other side of town.

Our friends in Jeremie reported high winds and very heavy rains on Friday.  Here is a photo of a garden in front of their house under 10 feet of water.

Nancy Kavan Revamps Pharmacy

Nancy arrived from Alaska via Texas on October 21.  She came prepared to work and really made an impact on our pharmacy.  Nancy is a pharmacist who found out about us from our good friends and co-workers at Bonne Fin, John and Joy McCall.  She reorganized our pharmacy storage area, created a new labeling system that tells the patients more about their medicines, and brought many donated medications.  

We are still working on getting the new labels completely translated and will be inserting them inside the baggies in which we pack pills.  We are hopeful to better educate our patients and improve compliance.  Here is Nancy hard at work printing off the labels she had made so far.  What a blessing this was to our pharmacy techs.  She also had some classes with them to help them better understand the medications.

Congratulations to Teresa and Ryan Price

Titus Christopher arrived on Nov 6 at 8:05 PM weighing 8#12oz.  He and mommy are doing fine.  

Prayer Requests

1.  Praise God for his protection once again!

2.  Pray for the cholera epidemic to die down and not spread.

3.  Continue to pray for direction for our board and us regarding the clinic construction plans.

4.  Pray for Caleb Lapp as he sells his business and winds up things in the US and returns on Nov 14.

5.  Praise God for little Titus Christopher Price.

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Jim and Sandy