Trip to Mombin Crochu - May 2009

    “Doc, we don’t care about religion - it’s only Jesus we care about”. I was listening to a member of the Cange Community Health Evangelism committee share about the hunger and poverty in his village in the northeast central plateau area of Haiti. “We trust Jesus for everything”, he said. I had come for a four-day trip to meet with the CHE village health workers, to celebrate what God is doing and to share needs with each other. Invited by our CHE partners in the Mombin Crochu community, we spent four days traveling on dusty bad roads to hard-to- get to little mountain communities, taking part in group discussions on health and health needs, as well as consulting people in need who had heard there was a doctor coming with the CHE team. Thankfully, the old Toyota Hilux truck made the 150 miles round trip without a breakdown.
     From around the mountains of La Victoire, gathered 20 community health workers, some of the poorest people in the world.  An old man blew on a conch horn, echoing from valley to valley, announcing that we had arrived and it was time for all to gather at the mud-walled thatch school building in the village. They were coming to meet together, pray, sing, and share with one another the details of their lives and their faith in God. They came to learn from each other and from the CHE curriculum lessons taught by the CHE trainers, Damise, Enoch, Ossé, and Evelyne, who had come with me in the old truck. The CHE curriculum is a program of holistic Biblically based lessons on such topics as health and hygiene, disease prevention, common diseases effecting their communities, healthy family life, pregnancy, delivery, child rearing, and lessons of the spiritual life of faith in Christ. After a song and a prayer, each person in the circle introduced themselves. People began to share some of their present challenges and difficulties…
* Very dry, no rain has fallen in over 5 months.
* There was a scarcity of food in the local markets and a lot of hunger.
* Gardens were dry with almost nothing coming from many of them.
* Mangos had not yet ripened.
* Lacking green pastures to graze, cows are giving little or no milk.
* The four hurricanes that hit Haiti last fall wiped out crops, which would have provided seeds to plant this spring. 
* In addition, the hurricanes’ heavy floods transformed many gardens into rocky fields devoid of soil.
* The midwives told of an increase in miscarriages due to lack of food.
* Chickens have been dying for lack of vaccines, as the farmers often cannot afford the $0.12 per vaccine cost.
* Many still do not have latrines in their homes.
Yet, to this list of problems, the group discussed creative answers and offered help, focusing on working together to solve these problems. We ended with a joyful song and hopeful prayer for Christ to lead us through the difficulties.
    The unconditional loving acceptance of all in the CHE groups leaves virtually no room for criticism of each other as to what religion members belong. Herb doctors, local midwives, farmers, Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, Adventists, and Voodooists, often compose the CHE groups. All are accepted. In the freedom of Jesus’ unconditional love and acceptance in these groups, I sensed the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Many have found Christ as their Savior and been saved through the Christ-centered unconditionally loving spirit in the CHE program.
    The next day, we visited the hard-to-get-to community of Laguamite, where we met with 20 pregnant women and the local health agents. The CHE team discussed with the women several prenatal education subjects, while I consulted about half of them. I had the only Blood Pressure cuff in the group. The women have to walk over two hours to get to the prenatal clinic at Mombin Crochu Hospital so about half of them have not yet had a prenatal exam. In the afternoon, we drove on to the mountainous Bois de Laurence community where we met with the two nurses working at the local clinic. I was glad to see this year that the clinic has essential medicines which they did not have the last time I visited. They brought little 3 year old Katiana to see us. God working through the CHE Vertical HIV Transmission Program saved this little girl’s life. Her mother has since died and her grandmother raises her. We were so very happy to see how well she is doing. I was able to consult one of the CHE worker’s mother, suffering from what I believe is a huge ovarian cyst. I explained to her what I thought she had, and referred her for diagnosis and treatment to the nearest hospital center located in Ouanaminthe.
    The next day, we took part in an education formation class of over 30 lay CHE midwives. About a fifth of the midwives were men. There was discussion of many prenatal topics, and I was impressed with how knowledgeable the midwives were and how adept they were at recognizing danger signs in pregnancy and delivery as well as in knowing when to transport their new mothers to the hospital. Many brought their metal delivery boxes, most of which were empty. Though they have to purchase supplies (i.e. gloves, razor blades to cut the umbilical cord, umbilical tape, and gauze) at the Mombin Crochu Hospital for $0.65, most, if not all, poor as the midwives are, do not charge for the deliveries and services they do for their neighbors. There was a heated discussion about this topic, whether to charge or not. Everyone agreed that the lack of payment of money should never result in refusal to render services.
    After the class, the midwives came to see a demonstration about the Rocket Stove. A group of men, led by the CHE trainers, Enoch and Eric, were making a Rocket Stove from clay, sawdust, and sugar cane syrup. The midwives learned how they can make these stoves at home and how the stoves cook faster than charcoal and propane and use only twigs and small branches as the fuel source. The stoves not only save money in families not having to buy expensive charcoal but would help with the deforestation problems and soil erosion of Haiti. Also, the stoves produce almost no smoke, which could help with the world’s air pollution problems.
      In the afternoon, we were able to meet and consult six diabetics in the community and give insulin to two young Type 1 (juvenile) diabetics, thanks to gifts of insulin from friends in North Carolina. One of the diabetics had a huge leg ulcer involving the entire circumference of the lower leg. Damise cleaned and dressed his wound with a special wound dressing (Tegaderm) that we brought with us, also thanks to friends in North America. We were able to leave these dressings with him. He had been so discouraged with the condition of his leg before we arrived. As we left, he shared how hopeful he was, as Tegaderm had been used to cure a leg ulcer he’d had several years ago. We thanked Jesus for bringing us together and providing for him and spoke of our faith in Christ with him.
    During the week, I shared meals and lodging with my Catholic priest friends, Father Magloire and Father Jean, at the Mombin Crochu Catholic Parish House. We had moving times of sharing our faith and love of the Lord Jesus together. They have both played a vital role to the CHE program in this community. Before we left, we were able to meet the two new doctors working at the Mombin Crochu Hospital. They shared how glad they were to have the CHE program in the community and invited me to come for a longer time to share my medical, surgical and anesthesia experience with them, as God leads.
    Thank you for your love and support for us all here in Haiti. We are your partners.
   
                            In Christ’s nonviolent love,

                            Dr. Steve James