Thursday

Today is a day that is difficult to put into words. We drove an hour
to our clinic site in one of the barrios. Our trip took us through the
hardest hit areas. There is no way that words, pictures, or even video
could help you fathom the devastation here. We saw it and are having
trouble understanding it. Mile after mile of rubble that used to be
someone's home or place of business or church or market. We drove by
realizing that thousands of people are still buried under all that
debris.

On the way back, we went by the medical district and palace. No one
was spared - rich and poor alike are digging out. One by one as we
passed certain buildings, our translators would say, "that was my
university," "that was my nursing school," "that's where my aunt
died." Every single person in Haiti was affected by this earthquake.

It's hard to put it in perspective, because we have no perspective for
it. September 11th was devastating. But imagine all of manhatten in
rubble. Or imagine the White House flattened, the dome of the Capital
building slid off the roof like a scoop or ice cream resting on the
front steps, and the Washington monument lying on the ground. IF you
can picture that, then we can start to understand what has happened
here. The medical school is barely a frame of a building. The
government financial building destroyed. The main hospital is
functioning primarily out of tents. It's catastropic.

Clinic as well was hard today, but good. We saw about 530 patients,
with much more varied complaints. We saw another kid with malaria.
Jess had a kid who would likely be grand rounds at a US hospital with
some sort of hemangioma or facial tumor most likely. She then had the
ethical delimma of deciding whether to tell a mom that her 1 year old
isn't walking or talking yet because she has Down syndrome - something
not understood well here. And we saw lots of hunger. Kids saying as
their chief complaint that they had stomach aches just because they
were hungry. It's hard to take it all in emotionally at times.

On a more encouraging note, Harry, my kid with possible JRA, has
almost regained all motion in his elbow overnight with the high dose
of steroids. And, Elias, who was incredibly sick with malaria last
night was smiling and feeling much better today - fever and headache
gone, just feel run down. God is good!! We're very thankful that the
Lord is healing them.

We have a great team here - I hope to talk more about them later. But
it's been really great to see everyone show up from all over the
place, get thrown together in hard conditions, and then meld together
as a group. Again, God is good!

We've decided to have clinic here at home base tomorrow, so it will be
great not having to travel! My back is sore from loading and unloading
trucks 4 times a day! After clinic, we'll pack up and head back to La
Romana, DR, arriving midnight or later.

Please continue to pray for our team, and most importantly for Haiti.
I've said before that we don't know poverty in the West, that you have
to travel across the ocean to see it - but I admit my error now,
seeing incredible poverty here. This country needs the hope and
healing that only Jesus can bring it. Thank you all for your support
and prayers!

Captions for pictures below - not sure what happened to them:

Jason's bird's eye view. Also meant he was the first to block all the
dust, smoke, and exhaust for thr rest of us during the hour drive.
Good thing we have showers.

This tent city didn't exist on Tuesday. We saw the US military and
Samaritan's Purse handing out these tents Tuesday.

This goes on for blocks and blocks, mile after mile.

This used to be a city block.

US military has these few blocks of downtown cordoned off while
demolition and cleanup goes on.

Three stories all pancaked on each other. No way anyone could have
survived there.

Royal palace - disaster doesn't discriminate.