Update from Mackenzie

October 4, 2022

Hello from the rolling mountains of Haiti! The last blog post I wrote was introducing myself and telling you a little about myself. Now I have lived in this beautiful but broken country for four months. I’ll tell you a couple lessons I learned in my first four months here. One lesson is that we live in a broken world, and there is death and hurting all around us. I knew this, but it became so real as I worked with the sick and hurting here. Let me tell you a story that illustrates what I mean a little better. I am not a writer so bear with me…it was Monday evening, and Jacinda poked her head into my room and said there’s a baby about to be born at clinic if I could go up and help. I crawled out of bed half waking up because I had been sleeping due to being up all night Sunday night on a transport. As I walked into the room, I heard moaning as she tried to deliver her baby. She was young…19 years old. I thought to myself… Wow! I could be the one having a baby! I’m almost the same age as she is. I grabbed gloves and started assisting Mis Simose. We helped the mom trying different positions and techniques but still no baby came. We laid our hands on the mom’s stomach  prayed for the baby, for God to be glorified, for the mom to have strength, and wisdom to know what to do next. As we all prayed out loud, the family also prayed and poured there hearts out to God. At that moment, I could feel God’s presence, and I knew He was here with us. We decided to transport after no progress. Since I had went on a transport the night before, two of the other nurses and Clyde headed to Fond de Blanc. When they were about half way there, they could see the baby was coming soon. Thankfully, they were near a clinic in Villa. They drove there, and the baby was born as soon as they layed the mom on the bed. The baby had a weak heart beat but did breathe, so the doctors started CPR right away.  The baby unfortunately did not make it, and they returned to the clinic, so the mom could recover. Another lesson I learned here is to focus on the joy of the little things. One day I did not have many patients, so I went and sat on a bench with a couple of parents waiting to be seen by one of the nurses. I started talking to a little girl who was approximately 3 years old, and she had the cutest smile! It made me realize that there is so many little moments of joy in each day that I take for granted by focusing on the hurt or problems that look so big to me but not to God.  Bob Goff wrote, “When joy is a habit, love is a reflex” (Everybody Always by Bob Goff). 

              The day we accidentally matched


            The little girl who brought me joy 

This is a sunrise from that I took on a transport to Fond Des Blancs