Update!

 

Hi you all! :) 


Meredith and I began wondering if our team does not have some magnetic draw on patients! On our last two rounds we had over twenty patients come in! There were times that we were trying to decide who and what is priority. And at times it was even a bit overwhelming. I will admit that my patience was stretched by some of the patients! Especially when nearly half of them put their buckets of waste in the outhouse and didn't cooperaterate very nicely when we were dumping and charting buckets. 


The one young lady I explained to twice what to do with her bucket when there is something in it, and she turns around and tells another lady to take her bucket to the exact place I reprimanded her for putting her bucket last time! Oh well, at least days like that make you feel your need of personal growth in your Christian life!  Overall it is enjoyable to be able to relate to the patients, and to see their interest in the Bible story book that they receive when they leave.

Keep praying for those that have been surrendering their lives to Christ at the CTC, that they may faithfully walk with God and be able to find a stable Bible believeing church.  ~Kirsche~


P.S. picture explanations!
1st- tent nearly full of patients
2nd-Meredith looking overwhelmed:)
3rd-the crew that went to dump CTC waste the other day! Hey there is always room for one more! RIGHT?:)

Doing my job at the CTC ;)

Hello to all once again!

What do I write about this time?? Ummm…

A couple nights ago I was on the midnight to eight shift, and I was just about to walk through the Grand CTC Gate to the inside, when on the outside I noticed a bucket with a kevet on top exactly as such used in the CTC for vomiting and other like purposes.  I decided I probably wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) go and take the kevet off the bucket with my bare hands to see what was inside, so I went through the gate and in to the nurses’ station and told the other girls (Amanda, Kirsche, and Thea) about it, and they said to me, “well, get a pair of gloves on and go see what’s inside the bucket!”, so I did!…I pulled on a pair of Latex gloves and off I went to get that bucket which did NOT belong out there and solve the mystery of what was on the inside…I went back out through the gate, got to the bucket, took a breath and held it (just in case…you never know what’s going to be inside a bucket with a kevet on top!), then lifted the kevet off and “OH EEEHH!!” There was a humongous tarantula in the bottom of the bucket that someone had found and was “saving” there…  I tell you I put that kevet back on top of the bucket very fast! I went back into the CTC to report my findings to the girls, only to find them standing outside listening to my reaction very amused by it all. Humph. Next time I’ll make them do all the dirty work…! ;)

Things have been slowing down once again at the CTC…right now we have 4 patients here and 3 of them are on IVs…we have one more out in a tent that we’re just keeping an eye on for now, so things are a bit boring over here at the moment…but just watch out! Normally it seems when we say things like that, pretty soon a whole herd of people come in with cholera and keep us on our toes.

One night Kirsche and I were in the nurses’ station (otherwise known as the storage room) and we were trying to keep our minds busy so we wouldn’t fall asleep…I was just about  ready to start reading my Bible, Kirsche was listening to music or something,Vickson (one of the CTC guards) came in and said something like “you have cell phones, you have camewas, you have books to wead, but me, I have noffing! Noffing to do wift my time.” So I asked him if he would like to read a “25 Bible Stories” book, and his face got all lit up and he was like “Yes! Thankyou!” Then I asked the other guard if he knew how to read too, and he said he did, and then I asked if he wanted one to read as well, and he got a real big smile on his face and he said “Wi, mesi!”…that kept them busy for a while anyways until Vickson got distracted by a sermon playing out loud and then I think he gave his book away to listen to the message because a little bit later I walked out onto the porch, and there standing under the light was the dad of one of the cholera patients, just poring over one of those little Bible story booklets…that was pretty exciting to see!

 

Sunday everyone except for Anita, Kirsche, and I went to the orphanage for the evening. We had a good time practicing on each other with IV needles back at the CTC…it was a lot of fun and good practice on small and disappearing veins! I think about all of us have some pretty colorful wrists to show for it too. :) Anita poked Kirsche and then we got her hooked up to a small IV bag as you can see on the picture.:)

I guess that time I found a few things to write about huh?! I guess it’s time to close!

God bless each one of you for praying for these people here.

His Servant,
~Meredith Keller

A slight wave...

      Okay, I'll try to give a bit of an update on what's going on around here. We haven't been like overworked, but it's not as slow as it was earlier. In the past week there have been quite a few stretchers come in which always makes for some excitement. One of them that came when I was working, was first taken to the regular clinic and they wanted a consultation. They didn't think or maybe didn't want to think he had cholera, but Anita sent them straight here because they said he had diarrhea and vomiting, which was obviously cholera. Another one that came had a bunch of guys with him. They were all being goofy and wanted to be sprayed down so Steve sprayed them all very thoroughly while they laughed and had fun. That was a little different because they're usually serious and worried about the patient but I guess these decided he was in good hands now : ) I'm posting a few pictures of two of the stretchers. 

On Friday the total number of patients reached 13, but by the time Thea and I came on at 4:00 there were only eight. We had a few on cholera beds lately and that sure is pretty disgusting, but I guess if they're that out of it they have to be on there. 

 Yesterday everyone except Steve's, Virginia, and Kirsche went out to Ti-Goave for a baptism at the ocean. Rhonda's oldest girl, Rose, and two of Darv Siebel's girls, Deidra and Ashley were baptized. They had a very nice baptism, there were about 80 people there, a lot from CAM so we didn't know them. But the ocean was beautiful, the weather was sunny but not very windy so there weren't big waves. After dinner we went to market for a while, then headed up the mountain and were back to the mission by 6:00. I think everyone had a good day. I sure enjoyed getting out for a while.

Right now we have about six patients and only one IV bag to keep going, but that will probably come out today. Two of them were on cholera beds two days ago, they are on regular cots now but I just got done helping clean up both of them. They had been sleeping and had a mess all over themselves and their cots, but thankfully Wilmon was out here to help. 

I am typing this at 3:30 a.m., I thought since someone should be awake out here I'll take care of this now while Thea gets some sleep. I'm looking forward to going to church today since Darwin will be preaching so I'll be able to understand what's being preached. I went two Sunday's ago and I enjoyed the singing and all but the message gets a little long when you don't know what's being said. 

Well, I should stop rambling now. Thanks to everyone for their prayers for us, the Lord is very faithful! God's blessing to all.

~Amanda Sensenig~

Things WERE slowing down!

Bang, bang, bang... "Virginia, you need to come put an IV in!"  That's what I woke up to at 1:00 am this morning.  I was so confused as I got up, wondering why they were calling me.  It took me till I was going out the door to realize I was supposed to be on shift already!  I had slept through my alarm, something I thought I wouldn't do.  I went on over and here was a 40-something year old man terribly dehydrated, ice cold, with his eyes rolled up in his head.  I started praying as I attempted to start his IV.  It took several tries till I got it going, but it wasn't flowing fast enough.  


So I got out the blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around the bag, and pumped it up.  That did the trick, as long as the man kept his arm straight.  His IV was in the crook of his elbow.  He had a bad stomach ache so he was thrashing and moaning.  So I sat with him for a couple of hours holding his arm straight and letting the fluid do its work.  I am so thankful for IV fluids!  If we didn't have it, so many of these people would die!  The man was moaning and groaning so I asked him if he knew Jesus.  He said yes, and I reminded him the He was with him now.  After that he was praying along with his moaning.  After about 4 hours, 2 doses of Pepto Bismol, and 4 liters of fluid, he was able to fall asleep.  I was able to read a my Bible for a little while till around 7:00 am when I heard a crowd coming down the road.  In though the gate is carried another seriously dehydrated, ice cold man!  Thankfully his IV wasn't as hard to get started.  I came off shift at 8:00 am, but I heard that there were at least 13 people that came in today.  Most were treated and released, but there are currently five admitted and two in the observation tent.  Hopefully this is not another upswing in patient numbers.  I realize that people need help if they are sick, but I hope that there aren't a lot that get sick! 

Other things are happening here besides life at the CTC.  The other afternoon I got to go down to the clinic and assist Anita with a delivery.  There is nothing quite like holding a brand new baby!  It was a little girl and she is so cute and tiny- 5 lbs 6 oz!  

One last picture for you- this little boy was in a while ago, and when he was better but not well enough to go home I gave him a piece of cardboard and a pen.  He carried it around all morning, and would sit down and scribble and then come and show me or someone else.  He was so sweet!

Blessings to you all and please keep us in your prayers!

For His Glory,

 

Virginia

"Ou Bezwen Bwen!"

Hello again to all! :) 

This morning Kirsche and I were on shift from 12-8...and I even had Ella Mae Hostetler convinced to come out and help keep us "awake"...as you can see in the picture that Kirsche took of Ella Mae and I under the blanket. Our eyelids were just starting to feel like suitcases were tied underneath, and after awhile of fighting that feeling, you eventually have to at least "rest your eyes" alittle, so that's what we were doing under the blue blanket where no insects could fly in and eat us up. At the moment there was nothing else to do! All the IV bags were taken care of, the buckets emptied, etc. and I had done all the doodling I could doodle, and had gotten almost all the way caught up with my Bible reading. :)  So anyhow, we were peacefully resting our eyes under the blanket, and all of a sudden Kirsche came in and announced that there was a stretcher on the way! Whoa...we both fought away the blanket so fast and jumped to our feet in a scramble! I don't know if I ever woke up so fast before...I mean stopped resting my eyes so fast...I mean......anyways!

 So we went outside and sure enough pretty soon a big group of Haitians came with a young man on a stretcher and Wilmon started shouting out orders to get the cot ready, and the supplies for washing down our new patient...we all rushed around to get everything ready and then Virginia came to give him an IV...he seemed like he was half out of it and didn't have enough strength to sit up by himself to drink his PED.  After several attempts by myself and Virginia to get an IV into his vein which always seemed to disappear whenever the needle was poked in, Virginia managed to get it in right and we hooked him up to an IV bag. He's doing much better now, just a few hours later, and can even get up out of his cot by himself.  

The picture of Kirsche and I has a little story...:) 

Kirsche told me she had some extra scrubs in the house, so I was like, "ok, do you mind borrowing one to me for working in the CTC?" she said sure and she'd go get it..so in she went and out she came with this scrub top and big pictures of cats all over it...and I actually put it on, then somehow people started calling me gramma, and then certain people started singing or referring to a song about being "allergic to cats". But it made me feel a whole lot better when a couple days later Thea showed up at the CTC with a Christmasy type scrub top on and with big SNOWmen all over it...ha! ;) 

 

This morning five of us girls that had off work went on a little hike up the mountain...that was so refreshing! The view was so neat and we had a perfect view of the mission compound. :) 

Right now we have a group of cholera patients out there in the CTC that drink, and drink and drink and drink! whoa! Sometimes we can hardly keep up with their input (and output too, I might add!). Hey and that ORS stuff does NOT taste good at all...I know because I tried it once, just a little cupful of it. Oh...was it ever salty! I didn't want to waste it, so I drank the rest that I had poured into my cup. I licked my lips awhile later (must've gotten thirsty), and all I tasted was SALT. :-/ Poor people...they have my sympathies! But they know "Ou bezwen bwen, bwen, bwen!" (You need to drink, drink, drink!) in order to get better. But anyhow, the group of people out there right now are especially good drinkers, and they're really funny about it too...they'll gulp down their last swallow or two of ORS and then look up with a grin or chuckle and hold out their bottle to be refilled!

Anyhow there's just another little tid bit of news about some of the stuff that goes on around here...:) 

God bless each one as you shine your Light for Him where ever He's placed you. Thank you for praying! 

~Meredith Keller