I have seen more than I could have ever imagined in Haiti. I have witnessed children pooping worms, getting their teeth pulled due to deep concave holes from cavities, vomiting, heads covered in fungus, gaping wounds, infected eyes, cracked open heads, and all kinds of ailments from tonsillitis, scabies, skin infections, ear infections, typhoid, malaria, and the common cold. I have seen past the ailments and have been able to care for the child who is sick. I hug them, love them, talk to them, and tell them they will be ok. I make silly faces, I hold them when they are scared, and I try to make them laugh.
Recently, I brought some of our new children to a nearby clinic to have some lab tests done. The lab tests tell us more about the child's health. Often we do not know the quality of life the child has had prior to coming to live at our orphanage, so we don't know what kind of health conditions they may have.
The lab technicians are my friends since I frequently go to the lab with our children. I knock on the wooden door to the lab and open it. I say, "Bonjou!" (hello) and Younelle and Geurda turn and look at me with a big smile on their face and say, "Bonjou Kati!" (Hello Kathy). I talk with them briefly about what lab tests need to be done and I sit with the children on the old fashioned vinyl blue chairs that are lined up by the wall. Last time, I held a little girl who didn't want to have her blood drawn. A friend of mine showed me how to hold a child so they can't wiggle during a shot/blood draw. I'm so glad I know how to help the little ones now.
It's amazing to me how God gives me the strength I need to help these children. I still can't believe I hold them and calm them when they are getting pricked by a needle. I can't believe I look in the toilet and when I see a worm, I can identify what kind of parasite it is and can give the child the proper medication. I am not afraid to give a child a scabies treatment. I can examine a child's throat with a tongue depressor and know if the child has tonsillitis or an infection. I pierce clues (kind of like a huge puss-filled zits) and drain the puss before applying antibiotic cream and a band-aid. I clean wounds and bandage kids up. The children call me their nurse and sometimes call me a doctor.
Some have come to me with an owie and have said they want to be the nurse, to clean it and bandage it all by themselves. I sit with them, give them a pair of gloves, and ask them if they know how to clean their owie. They tell me "Wi, ou te montre mwen" (Yes, you showed me). It's so cute to watch them play nurse, as they clean their wound, put the antibiotic cream on the band-aid before putting it on their owie, and carefully remove their gloves the "nurse" way with one inside the other. They watch me closely! We smile and I tell them they are a good nurse. I love helping them. I can't imagine a better way that God has used me in Haiti. He has shown me how to trust Him. In everything...even the things that I didn't think I could do. It is during the most challenging moments that God reminds me that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phillipians 4:13).
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