One of the best pieces of news I have heard really struck me today on the same day I have heard a bad piece of news.
First the good news. There is a celebration called Rara that is here in Haiti. That is a celebration of spirits, generally evil spirits. This celebration has the roots of Mardi Gras and Carnival. Due to the earthquake the country has decided to cancel the celebration.
The government has decided that too many resources would be used for this celebration that would not be used for rebuilding and that working on the country was much more important than the celebration. Good decision Haitian government!
The bad news is that the baby Mackinson who I wrote about the other day that was born premature has AIDS. This is pretty serious because we believe that the mom does not know that she has AIDS. We also found out that the mom had four kids, including Mackinson, and two of them had died shortly after birth.
We were all dismayed when we heard this information. When we heard that Mackinson had a chance to live we were really happy and elevated. We thought that he had been given a new lease on life. With this news it is tough to say that, although it is still true.
Baby Mackinson was underweight clearly. One of the things the doctor did was test the elasticity of Mackinson's skin . As he pinched the skin you could clearly see the baby had only skin and no meat on his bones at all. The baby weighed in at under four pounds.
This was a complete “accident” that we found baby Mackinson. It was only because we had given food to the family as an outreach to them that this baby was discovered. He was living in a tent away from the beaten path, so to speak, and there was not anyway that the baby was going to live if he had not been found.
The first time I saw Mackinson I thought immediately of the movie ET because the baby was so skinny and his head a simple skull with hallowed eyes.
One of the most upsetting things about this situation is that the mom is distant from Mackinson. She seems like she is not wanting to be with her own baby. She did not want to carry the baby the whole time we were with her. She did remain with Mackinson at the hospital all night. The report from the people at the hospital was the same, she seems out of it, not caring for the baby. It causes us to think about what that woman might be going through in her own life, what she saw during the earthquake. Was the baby due to a rape? Due to some clues we pondered she might even be an indentured slave. We can never tell what is happening in people’s lives.
Please pray for Mackinson and his mother. I’ll keep you updated.
Today was a productive day. It was refreshing to meet with seven other “NGOs” working here in Jacmel. We came to a little bit more in the way of action steps and building our relationships. There are some solid players here in Jacmel and I am happy to see us pulling together to assist others in this dire time of need. It seems there is no politicking going on here. While clearly politics is part of the city life it has not been in our little group.
If you would pray for us to have wisdom as we grow together in serving Haiti I sure would appreciate it greatly:
Calvary Chapel of Ft. Lauderdale
Global Outreach
GO Ministries
Hands and Feet Project
Joy in Hope
Olivetree projects
Pilots flying in supplies
Two days ago we submitted a request to GO Ministries in Santiago for missing medicine here in the clinic. The medicine arrived today in under forty-eight hours from time of order. That medicine traveled more than 250 miles in that short amount of time by bus, truck and plane. Thanks to all of the GO staff who are assisting in helping save Haiti.
No comments:
Post a Comment