Arrival in Port-au-Prince

Breaking down the tents at the J/P HRO refugee camp hospital. (All pictures from J/P.)

I arrived back "home" in Cap Haitien on November 13. It's now been over a month since my computer and all of its drives were disabled due to viruses. That problem combined with inconstant electricity and internet access has interrupted my blogging. I will post here some e-mails that I sent during that time.

Wednesday, November 3
Hello! As many of you have heard, there is a tropical storm/hurricane approaching Haiti. It looks like the rain should start at about 1 pm tomorrow followed by hurricane weather on Thursday evening or else on Friday morning.

I'm still in Port-au-Prince working with the J/P HRO. The plan here is to continue dismantling the tent hospital and store everything by tomorrow noon. We will attend emergencies and deliveries only. As soon as the rain starts, we'll come back to our base which is a large
house. We have stored all the tents we were sleeping in (on the grounds), and we'll start sleeping inside tonight. As soon as the rough weather stops (on the sixth?) we will go back to the refugee
camp and set up to start attending patients as quickly as possible.

In the morning I was the "designated doc at the camp for emergencies." I only saw a few pregnant women, but the title sounds good. In the afternoon I perfected my taping skills at the house we were staying at!

This is a very well-organized group, and I am privileged to be a part of it. Please pray for the people in the refugee camp. Evacuation routes are still being planned, and they are worried about landslides. Please continue to pray for our Community Health Evangelism (CHE)
teams up north. I heard today that the cholera cases continue to increase in Cap Haitien and Limbe. We praise God that yet another shipment of IV solution, chlorine, and oral rehydration salts were able to come in from the Dominican Republic, albeit with some
difficulty crossing the border.

We are anticipating not having power soon, so I will probably not be communicating via e-mail until well after the storm is over. We are anticipating a lot of injuries in the camp due to the weather conditions, and so we wil likely be very busy for days.

After my night shift was over this morning, I attended the meeting of the (mostly Haitian) medical staff. As their portion of the meeting started they sang "Count Your Blessings," then one woman prayed, followed by all reciting Psalm 23. May God truly shepherd this land
and the people He loves so much.