Medical stops can be difficult in Haiti, rough conditions and limited supplies are a challenge, but we still have fun with the kids who have illness or injury!
Last September while in the countryside we met a group of kids swimming in a local river. They must have decided we would be more entertaining, because they decided to follow us a round and we got to spend some time with them. They were particularly impressed with our Kreyol – which has made us instant friends in Haiti time and time again.
This kid, with the bandaid on his mouth, thought he was a comic telling jokes in Creole faster than I could keep up-this seemed a good solution - haha!
He sat quietly while I treated his thumb, which he explained he caught in a sewing machine and the needle went right over the nail-bed of his thumb - ouch! He hadn’t cleaned it, and was in that river!! God thing I had a full first aid kit including antibiotics.
We also treated a arm full of road rash from a moto accident, a 4 inch slice on the bottom of a foot from stepping on glass in the river and many inflamed and scratched (to extreme) insect bites. Not bad for another non-medical trip.
I was reminded this day just how powerful God is, that he knew before he laid the foundations of the world that on this day, we would be in rural Haiti, and prepared to treat these medical needs for these kids he loves so much. That really overwhelms me. He knows the end from the beginning and knows each of us to the level of the number of hairs on our heads.
Thank you Lord for continuing to overwhelm us, let us never fail to recognize it and let us never stop expecting it.