Jan. 27

Wednesday morning we were up early, picked up a group of Doctors and nurses, swung by USAID to try and get some antibiotics form them, went to the church/school/ clinic. The doctors and nurses quickly went to work to set up the ‘pharmacy’ and examination rooms in 3 of the classrooms.

Leo meet us at the church and Sarah, Joann and I walked down the mountain to visit with a tent camp. Joann decided that she wanted to adopt a Haitian baby. She found her baby in this tent community. The mother had lost her 3 year old son in the earthquake and went into premature labor with her second son. She didn’t want to the new baby cause she was still heart broken over her first son. The baby was 2 weeks old and tiny! He didn’t have a name yet and the mother wasn’t there at the time, so Joann made plans to return later to get papers signed and pick up the baby.

We hiked back up the mountain – not easy in 90 degree weather and when your body is out of shape! When we finally reached the church, I had to sit and cool down for a while. I spent the afternoon on the computer trying to upload pictures and send some e-mails for my dad. Sarah helped with translating in the pharmacy and my dad went with Joann to pick up her baby.

When they arrived, the mom still wasn’t back. They decided to take the baby and go find the mom (she went to the hospital for a after birth check up). When they went to pick the baby up off of the bed, they realized that the baby was no longer breathing. My dad still isn’t sure why the baby died – could be lots of reasons – born premature, malnutrioned, too hot, etc. My dad left the family with some money to gave the baby a proper burial. Joann had a very hard time with all of this (she later named the baby Isaiah) and David – a Haitian man driving us around for the time being – knew of another little boy that lost his parents in the earthquake.
They drove to another tent camp and meet a chubby little 2 year old named Lovekey.

When they brought him back to the church (where I was at) he only had on a filthy over sized shirt and sandals that were too big for him. I looked and finally found him a clean shirt and pants and a couple of toys. He was not really sure what to think of being around all these white people! We decided to re-name him (cause we didn’t know his name that first night) David -after my dad and the driver. That night, he ate all the food we gave him, Ginny gave him a bath and he slept with Joann.