(This is Brent typing.) It's late Tuesday night, and I just got an email from Mark L. with today's update. I will cut-and-paste his message here:
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Friends of Haiti,
One of my travel mates offered a quote that fits here. "when one person dies, it is a tragedy, when 10,000 die, a statistic." paraphrase of Stalin, I am told.
If you know them, touch them, recognize them, they are part of your emotions and it doesn't get more personal. Otherwise, a stat, a number, maybe a series with zeros in it.
Lord knows we have that here. After walking in the front gate, we guide each "moun" (person) from station to station. With the help of translators, we learn their names, if their parents are blind, and how they do on reading an eye chart. We see if they limp (many do), if their eyes have pterygium growths (many do) in the whites of their eyes, if they are missing teeth (many are). And we know their names.
When they answer questions, we learn about their lives, to help explain their answers. An accident with a machete, where they work, if they have ever visited any medical professional.
This trip has also had a preview as we have been emailing to get as many child cases due to the presence on the team of Dr. Olitsky. We learned names and stories of perhaps 6 or more patients before landing here.
One of our interesting offers is prosthetic eyes. Each trip perhaps 10 patients are fitted with handmade eyes. Dave LeGrand is an artist with humble tenor. Think of the involvement it takes to paint an eye to match the other. Even with almost all "brown" eyes, so much variation.
So, we become a little Haitian, as they say "piti piti Ayisian." I think that is good. The Tower of Babel (Genesis 6) shows how human pride set us on a path of many languages, the goal to confuse us. Even if we don't speak much Kreyol, we can hold a Haitian hand or remember a name after we leave. We don't totally go home. That's personal.
A couple items:
- You will want to know that more than 500 patients have received services and about 40 surgical procedures have occurred. Space is slotted for patients on Wed and Thur, with reservations being made for February.
- Three of the team have been hampered today by a bug that saps their energy. All are doing better now.
- A horrific tumor was removed where a woman's eye once sat. Larger than a hard boiled egg, it appears this 37 year old mother of a 3 month old has but months to live as lymph nodes are affected and no hope of other treatment exists.
Pray for all these patients, even though you don't know them. We do.
Mark L.
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In regards to the 37-yr-old woman w/ the large tumor near her eye, Connie said they ''had to remove her whole eye down to the eye socket, but at least she isn't in pain anymore. Very sad.''
Connie also said that there was a great message at church tonight (They attend church at the mission every evening.) ''It was very touching.'' She wants me to blog that she is doing well but she doesn't want to be praised. ''Tell people to give the glory to God, not me. He is why I am here doing this!''
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