Ritas Letter about our Trip

Thanks to all of you who kept our team in prayer while in Haiti.  I 

was down with a bug (I think it was flu) the past few days, but I'm 

trying to catch up on a month's worth of

My son and I had a very busy and interesting experience there this 

time.  Roads were washed out, so we had to do much more walking than 

last time.  We were in the heart of the cholera outbreak.   Thank God 

for hand sanitizer!  And bleach!  Those are things not readily 

available to the Haitian people and it was difficult trying to teach 

them to wash their hands (then they use filthy water).  It's all 

about the education thing and it's very basic.

We tried, but I don't know how much we did in two weeks.  Did save 

some lives, though.  Our nurse practitioner spoke French and was able 

to reach the people through speaking at the churches and to the 

children in the schools.

I worked the clinic with the medical mission--I was "pharmacy tech" 

(there's way too many drugs out there) by flashlight.  We worked in 

the clinic in a room that was in the center of the building and 

isolated from the cholera patients--it had no windows and the only 

light came in from the outer doors of the building.  I filled 

prescriptions written by our nurse practitioner and I was massage 

therapist for the team and for the Haitians.  Turns out that Fr. 

Jadotte, the pastor of the area we worked, was in desperate need of 

massage--he had hurt his back.  That gave me something to do in my 

spare time.  I also taught his maids some basic massage to help keep 

him up and running. He has a vast area with 6 churches, 4 schools and 

10 remote outposts.  The man does some travelling and it's mostly on 

foot.  Sometimes he gets a ride on a moped "taxi".

Mike became a "rocket stove scientist"  this trip.  He and another 

engineer built rocket stoves--4 of them--at various missions, all 

about 3 hours apart-- walking.  They had to make two trips to each to 

build them because cement had to dry in between each stage.  It's an 

efficient way to use fire wood which is in short supply there.

Mike was like the "pied piper" there.  He had a passel of little 

Haitian boys following him wherever he went.  They were amazed to see 

a "blanc" (white) guy as big as him and as friendly, too.  They took 

to him like fish to water!

He and Bob also rewired an electrical system that was wired wrong and 

was blowing out the lights.  They fixed the John Deere Gator, an ATV 

and did various other "fix it" projects including work on the solar 

systems and each of the churches.  They stayed busy, too.  They did 

their thing and we did ours and I didn't even see him for the first 

week we were there.

They were trying to fix a butane powered refrigerator (they tried to 

explain to me how fire cools a refrigerator, but my feeble mind did 

not comprehend) and accidentally broke the regulator valve off the 

butane tank.  This was at the clinic we were working in.  They 

cleared the place out in mere seconds!  I was kind of funny, now that 

I look back.  It wasn't when it happened...

Funny thing about the trip,  none of us got sick the whole time we 

were in Haiti.  BUT, American Airlines ran out of snacks on the trip 

back and we were hungry, so after clearing customs in Miami, we 

decided to get some Chinese food and the 3 of us who ate there got a 

little queazy!

Just thank God for all we have here in the USA.  We truly are blessed!

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. Have a blessed and Merry Christmas, too.

Blessings,

Rita