Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 2:50pm
Bonswa tout moun! (Good afternoon everyone)!
I am sitting here, thinking of everyone and enjoying a VERY quiet Sunday afternoon. Almost everyone has gone to the beach today and I am here with just one other housemate. It’s strange that the house it so quiet, but it’s kind of nice too. I’ve very much enjoyed living with all of these different people, but I’m starting to realize that I go a little bit nutty without any personal space or quiet time! So this is a nice treat!! They also brought us four more fans this week so now we have one for the downstairs living area and it’s actually quite comfortable during the day – amazing what some moving air does!

This week was quite a blur and I’m not sure where it went. We got off to a strange start – on Monday morning, as we were loading up the mini-bus to head to the office, we received word that there was a “manifestion” (in French, aka a demonstration/protest in English) of the people in the city and that it would be a security issue for us to go to work, so we waited . . . and waited . . . and ended up having the day off! I was feeling a bit antsy as I had gone 10 days without working (with my vacation and then my delayed return)!!!!! But we had a nice day. My housemates were quite creative in coming up with activities for us to do. We started with hitting balls back and forth in the bottom of the empty swimming pull then someone thought to string up a mosquito net in the back yard and we played “volleyball” for several hours. A couple of them even stayed out there after it started downpouring rain. Oh, and in the morning we carried out a rescue mission to save a large wayward lizard that had gotten trapped in the swimming pool – it took about half the house and involved a trashcan and the security guard making a noose out of some string and a long pole to lasso the lizard! So all in all we had a pretty entertaining day!
The rest of the week I was back at Diquini Hospital in Carrefour and it was great to see some familiar faces! Kettely and Ketya were still there and I received a BIG hug from Ketya when I came back!! I was so happy to see them, although they had a couple of rough days this week. Kettely’s muscle flap ended up failing and now they have her on a wound vac (which is a machine that helps wounds heal). On Wednesday they had to change out the dressing for the vac which was very painful for Kettely and very traumatic for Ketya. I still cannot imagine being sixteen years old and having to sit there and comfort my mom while she is screaming and crying – not to mention that the wound looks pretty rough too. I was just glad that I could be there, even though I felt completely helpless. I just held both their hands and gave them big hugs. That same day, Kettely’s mom and her other daughter came to visit – which was perfect timing. Her mom stayed with Kettely the rest of the week and Ketya went back home with her sister for a little rest break – which I am happy for her to have. She’ll be back on Sunday, so I’ll be glad to see her on Monday. She told me she really wants to learn English – I’m not sure how good I’m going to be at helping with that, but I’ve decided that will be my project for next week on my lunch break! I’ve attached a picture of me with Ketya (in pink) and her sister and another volunteer at the hospital. Please keep them in your prayers!
There was also a stomach bug going around this week – which luckily seemed to miss me . . . at least until yesterday – but I only felt a little bad and took some medicine right away so I came out pretty good. Unfortunately the rest of my housemates had it a little tougher. My coworker at Diquini got sick on Wednesday and had to go home early and couldn’t come to work at all on Thursday. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to get everything done by myself, but figured I would just do the best I could. I hadn’t been at the hospital 5 minutes, and one of the doctors approached me bringing another woman – they had a PT who came with a group from Atlanta and wanted to help! AMAZING!! She was definitely God sent and together we got everyone seen! At the time I didn’t even see it, but looking back it’s amazing how God takes care of me, providing for me before I even know to ask!
Well . . . . two more weeks to go. It’s definitely going to be bittersweet. I am starting to feel really ready to come home (at least for a little bit) but it’s also hard to imagine getting back to life as usual in the States. And I’m going to miss everyone here. For now, I’m really trying to stay in the moment and focus on being a better instrument of God. It seems that I’ve been getting caught up in all the things that I can’t do lately and I need to remember that it’s not up to me, but that all things are possible for God. I found a great prayer in my prayer book and I think I’m going to try and make it my prayer for the week: “Lord, the more I live in the love you give me in this moment, the more perfectly I am able to suffer whatever comes my way” And not just suffer the trials that come my way, but the more perfectly I will be able to serve Him. In each moment, God is there giving us His love, we just have to open up our hearts to receive it!
Big Hugs! Bise! (kisses – since now I’ve been trained by all my French roomies to kiss everyone on the cheeks for hi and bye)
Jen