Dear friends and family,
It's about time for this trip to end. There have been too many things happening to be able to share more than a small part. It is going to be rather humdrum back home after being here. One thing that has stood out to me on this trip is how blessed it has been for us to be in the right place at the right time. The cholera epidemic has been a challenge but also very rewarding seeing the many very sick people helped. This week we have moved back to caring for regular patients and turned the cholera patients over to Doctors Without Borders who are going to be running our cholera treatment center for the next month or so. Currently there are about 40 patients admitted there and hundreds more treated at home.
Gary did a foot operation on a young girl yesterday with a badly infected foot and everything went okay. She will be discharged tomorrow to outpatient treatment. Tuesday the pipe broke to the hospital as someone digging a ditch hit it with a pick. We were without water about 24 hours which wasn't bad for us but was tough for the cholera treatment center. I have been on call with Gary all this week but it hasn't been too bad as the patients are still being a little afraid of the cholera and are staying away. The motorcycle accidents never seem to quit and injuries can be rather severe especially because hardly anyone wears a helment.
This week everyone has been anticipating an approaching hurricane which has been downgraded to a tropical storm. Initial predictions were that it would pass right over Gonnaives where terrible flooding occurs with hurricanes. Today in prayers our chaplain talked about trusting God in the storms of life as he shared the story about Jesus calming the storm when the disciples thought their boat was going to sink. I was inspired by the way he with great confidence said he wasn't afraid because God would be with us. Then we prayed for God to have mercy and send the storm away. Later today we hear the storm now is expected to be headed quite a ways to the west of Gonnaives and probably only the edge will touch us. Later today I put on a tape I brought with me which goes, "So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise. They don't worry me. For I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God." It's great to know that when the storms of life approach we don't have to worry because we are safe within the arms of God.
I was all ready to send this off and got called for an emergency which turned out to be a gunshot wound to the chest with a collapsed lung and Gary and I had to put in a chest tube. It looks like he should do okay. Everyone in the neighbor hood was crowding around to find out what had happened. Such is life in Dessalines.
In Him,
Jerry and Gary
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