JenNomides.com =)

  I don't really expect that too many people will be reading this anymore but I just thought I'd continue to write for those who are interested as I continue to try to unpack what God taught me this summer and what he continues to teach me as I'm back to the grind in medical school. I can't believe that I've been back in the States for about 6 weeks now and am a month into school. I've already got three tests of year 2 under my belt. This second year is really going to fly. 

 My biggest struggle right now: Trusting God with EVERYTHING! These past two weeks have definitely been the toughest as far as school goes... really intense. I've never seen my class look so tired and freaked out.

 Passage of the year =) :

Luke 12:22-34

“And he said to his disciples,‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more that food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that,why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed life one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  For all the nations of the world seek after these things, andyour Father knows that you need them.Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

I know where I want my treasure AND my heart to be. And God has been so faithful to give me an amazing peace that passes all understanding, despite that a lot of people around me seem to be losing it. (although, don't get me wrong, I have my "losing it" moments too.) 

Anyway, so back to Haiti.... among the millions of lessons and things that I feel like God revealed to me is the one about truly being able to have an ongoing conversation with Him thoughtout the day and meditating on His word constantly, constantly surrendering and being able to hear His voice more clearly amidst chaos. This summer was good for that because I went into it thinking, oh this is going to be great; it will be quiet, I'll have little distractions, I'll have these great quiet times... I'm going to be able to get so close to God in a way I felt like I couldn't because of the constant distractions of med school.  Well.. as you well know, I couldn't have been more wrong and soon came to realize that I would have NO privacy and "good" quiet times the whole time I was there. But the realization also hit me that I was so very wrong about needing that to grow closer to God. It really isn't about me working to get closer to Him at all. How foolish of me to even think that! I'm not saying that putting time aside daily to spend with the Lord is not good. But I felt like the growth of my relationship with him depended on me working for it. And that is such a lie. God has worked in my life so much these past few months and it had NOTHING to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with him. 

And so now I'm back, back to the consuming thing we call medical school and I feel so much more prepared to tackle this year.  He is Lord of my life in a way that I've never let Him be before.  I've just gotta let Him do His thing.

 And praise God for that!

Wow. I can't believe I'm back already. Its strange.  I really don't know how to begin to write about this past week. It was intense and kind of a blur now. But I'll try my best to remember the important and most interesting parts. I'll also try my best not to bore you to death.

 

Not this past Thursday but the Thursday before that I met up with my mama and sister and the rest of the group they came down with in port au prince. Part of the group helped to do some repairs on a boys orphange in Carrefour while the medical team did screenings for the boys that lived there as well as for the girls in two other orphanages near by.  On Sunday we headed to Jacmel.  Once again, the construction team was assigned work to do at another boys orphanage near Jacmel.  The medical team was split in half most of the week. Some people stayed at that orphanage to do screenings for the boys there and also set up a clinic for the community.  On Tuesday and Thursday I went with a smaller team up to Marbielle to run a clinic up there.

 

What an adventure! To get to Marbielle, you have to drive over two hours up a river and river bed in a reliable four wheel drive vehicle.  Its tricky because if the water is too high, its too dangerous to go up so you have to time it right.  We got up at 4am on Tuesday morning to prepare to go up there. That day we took two trucks, which was a good thing because one of them got stuck in the middle of the river and we had to use the other to pull us out. I was actually sitting in the bed of the truck that got stuck so I got a little wet getting out (but I left the pushing up to the guys.)  After you get to a certain point up the river, you have to walk about an hour to make it the rest of the way up to the site where we held the clinic. There were soooo many people that wanted to be seen. However, they told us we had to leave by 1pm because it was going to rain and we'd be stuck.  Unfortunately, we didn't leave soon enough because walking back to the trucks we got caught in a downpour.  We were thoroughly soaked and my camera was in my backpack so the last few days (from Tuesday on) of my trip are undocumented.  Hopefully I can get the pictures off my memory card that were already on there.  Anyway, to be more accurate I should say that we didn't walk back to the truck, we slid because it was so muddy  and slick that I literally didn't have to move my feet at some points to get down.  Once we reached the trucks, we couldn't go anywhere so we huddled on the porch of a nearby peasants' house.  They were awesome and cooked food for us while we waited a few hours for the rain to pass and the river to go down. For awhile we thought we would have to spend the night there.  It let up just in time to dry up a little bit before it got dark.  One of the families across the river made us coffee while we waited and walked across the river to get it to us as well.   Driving back was slow because everytime we had to cross the river, someone had to get out and wade across to check the depth and figure out the best way to cross.  We finally made it back a little after 9 o'clock I think. Its a good thing because there were some members of the team waiting back at the hotel that had been pretty worried about us.... God is good though and everything worked out.

 

Thursday 4 of us went up there again so it was another early morning and long day but this time much less eventful. It was difficult though because after we saw about 55 patients (in less than 4 hours with only two of us actually seeing patients!), we had to go and the whole room was still filled with people needing medical care. (we saw some pretty nasty stuff; there is no doctor anywhere near there) When we were trying to leave people just kept crowding around pulling on my arms and trying to get my attention. It really was heartbreaking. 

 

The one thing that was nice was being able to speak the language and not needing an interpreter. It made things run much more smoothly.  We made it back by 4:30 and went straight to the other clinic we had running in Jacmel and helped out there.  Friday morning I also worked at the Jacmel clinic.

 

Friday my friends Jhonny and Kerry from Fondwa came to visit and I got to say goodbye to them on Friday and Saturday. Friday night we went out Kompa dancing. The hotel staff had a really nice dinner for us on Saturday night, our last night.  We had shark; it was delicious!  Yesterday coming home we long but fortunately uneventful.  There was some concern because its been a rough week with a lot of kidnappings in Port au Prince, where we had to fly out of but praise God, we're all safe and sound. 

 

This is getting long so I'm going to get going but I'm happy to be back and can't wait to see you all. There are still a lot of things I have to process still but I'm ready to tell stories and show pictures to whoever wants to hear and see.

 

Love you lots!!!

 

 

Tomorrow I leave Fondwa and head to Port au Prince so I've begun to say my goodbyes. I am sad but ready to see my mama and sister. (You too Jeremy.) Last night they had a really nice dinner for Rosemary (who left today) and I complete with a beautiful cake and music. We ate and danced; it was fun.  This morning I went up to the university to see my friends there one final time and later this afternoon I'll go spend some time at the orphanage; that will probably be the most difficult good-bye.

 

The most exciting thing that I have to report though is that I FINALLY got to sit down with Sister Karmel and discuss with her the refeeding protocol that she uses when children come into the clinic who are severly malnourished. That was really really helpful and one of the most important pieces of information that I came down here to obtain. Only took 6 and a half weeks to get it. =) To her credit, sister Karmel has been really sick the whole time that I've been here so that made things a little more difficult. Wadson (the little boy that has been coming in to the clinic who was very malnourished) is doing really well. I can't remember if I wrote about this before but he has gone from 7.7kg to 9 the month that I've been here. He is running around and singing and just looks really great.  Praise God! We now have another little girl coming in everyday who is even worse than he was when we first saw him though, which is really sad.  Hopefully she will improve as much as she has. Don't worry mom, I'm brushing up on my Creole medical terminology for the clinics we will have when you get here.

 

Oh before I go, I want to officially invite everyone of you who reads this to take me out to breakfast when I get back. =) I want eggs, bacon, french toast and pancakes with lots of fruit. If I see any bread with peanut butter (breakfast every morning here), I will throw the plate.

I was laying in bed this morning thinking back over the past six weeks and realized that I’ve only cried once. Now, for those of you reading this who do not know me well, this might not seem like such a big deal, that is, for a person to cry once in 6 weeks. However, I can assure you that, especially given the circumstances, this is a miracle for me, since tears are the way my body releases stress as well as every other emotion. (Basically, I’ve always been a crier. For example, I was once watching Winnie the Pooh and I started feeling bad for Eeyore ( I think I spelled that wrong) and the tears started to fall. Pathetic I know.) Anyway, I’m writing today simply to say that God is soooo good. He really has been and continues to be my Rock and source of all Comfort.

 

Psalm 18: 1-2 says:

“I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horm of my salvation, my strong hold.”

 

Psalm 23:1-4 says:

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

 

This second passage in Creole reads:

Senye a se Gado mwen. Mwen pap janm manke anyen.  Kote zeb yo pi bel, se la li fem pran repo. Kote dlo a koule poze, se la li mennenm bwe dlo. Li fem repronn fos, li fem mache nan chemen dwat.  Pou sa seci yon lwanj pou non li.  Menm si m’ap pase nan yon ravi’n. Kote ki fe nwa anpil, Mwen pap pe anyen, paske, senye, ou la avek mwen.  Se baton ou ak Gol ou ki fe kem pa kase.  

Good stuff.

With Love,
Jen

Let it be known that if any person has a problem with something that I am doing, I would like for him or her to tell me to my face rather than talk about me behind my back. Otherwise, I will wish for you to fall off the side of a mountain. Okay, I'm done venting now.

 

Having said that, I want you all to know that I am really going to miss it here. Mom and Kristin (my sister for those of you who don't know) get here in a week and I will be leaving Fondwa to meet up with them in Port au Prince or Jacmel (their second desination... I haven't decided which yet). I'm getting sad and finding it a little hard to enjoy my last little bit here because all I can think about is leaving these people. I'm really sick again (giardia this time) and not happy with the people at this guest center (as you can probably tell from my opening statement) but I love the people in the community and I'm just getting to the point where I'm brave enough to initiate conversations in Creole and am really building deeper relationships. I was at the orphanage yesterday and got really sad thinking about leaving those kids. Also yesterday I was hanging out at my friend Sine's house and he taught me how to play Haitian dominos. (I wish all of you could meet him. He's about 70ish and the sweetest man I've every met. He's a terrific dancer too and plays in a band.) Everytime I walk by his house his wife gives me a kiss and asks where I'm going and how I'm doing. Its really nice to feel like I'm part of this community, like its almost normal for me to be here. Anyway, just wanted to let you know what is going on. I love you all and appreciate all your e-mails and thoughts and prayers.

OH my goodness... What a wonderful weekend. I needed to get out of Fondwa for a little bit and have some freedom so this was perfect. Kerry (another American that is here) and I went with our friends Amenold and John Eli to Jacmel, which is right on the coast, out of the mountains. Its beautiful there but HOT HOT HOT. Despite the fact that I couldn't really sleep at night because of the heat, I had a blast. Amenold rents a room there that Kerry and I were able to stay at for free which was nice. We arrived on Friday night and woke up at 4am to catch a taptap ("taxi") and then a motocycle ride up to 2,000m to a park where they have a protected pine forest and reforestation work going on. We hiked all day and went to see the waterfalls and stopped by the foundation that is working to protect that land and educate the peasants on how to make Haiti beautiful again. Right now they're working on growing bamboo so that they can have something to hold the soil.

 

Oh, the trip up the mountain on the "motos" as they call them was scary enough but going back down.... We definitely had four people on a motorcycle/dirtbike that should have fit maybe two. And trust me when I say that these roads aren't even close to being paved. At parts, there are even small streams that you have to cross. Fortunately we went really slow and we're all still alive. I'm skipping a lot of fun details so you guys don't have a novel to read but you can ask me for more stories when I get home. The photos are betting at telling the stories anyway. Sunday we went to a nice "hotel" on the beach and drank passion fruit juice, had lobster and went for a swim. John Eli cooked an amazing Haitian dinner for us on Sunday night and then we went out to the "disco"- which just means a club. It was right on the beach and outside of course complete with Kompa music (which I'm beginning to love). We had a lot of fun.

 

We got up at 4am this morning again to make it back to Fondwa, back to captivity. Its nice to be able to shower though. Its been awhile =) OKay, I'm done for now. Love you guys.

I really wish I had had my camera with me the other day. Some kids were on the roof of the building next to us playing soccer as usual and all the sudden the game stopped and they all started laughing hysterically... I went over to see what was going on and one of the guys had stabbed a plastic fork into a live tarantula (yes one of the HUGE ones) and was chasing some of the younger kids with it. The legs were wiggling around and everything. He started advancing towards me but little did he know that I'm an experienced tarantula hunter with little fear of such creatures, so I did not run. It was soooo funny.

 

Tomorrow I go into Leogane. I have one day to learn all I need to know about their nutrition program there. Wish me luck. I also heard rumors that there may a chocolate milkshake waiting for me there. If that is not true I think I might die. I can deal with no water for three days. I can deal with a trickle of cold water... no electricity. Fine. no choclate for two months... TRAGIC.

 

Love, Jen

I really can't believe how time is flying. Thank you so so so much (in Creole, anpil anpil anpil) to everyone who is praying for me. I really am going to be so sad to leave. And I'm not looking forward to going back to school. So continued prayers for that would be awesome. This past weekend it was kind of dead around here. Nothing too exciting to report. I'm still a little frustrated about the slow progress I'm making as far as gathering information for this nutrition program goes but I'm trying to have faith that what I'm supposed to have accomplished (whatever that is) will have been done by the time I leave. At the very least, I have some data to work with when I get back and a better understanding of how things work (or don't work as the case may be) around here. Yesterday I went to the service at the Catholic church. Its always an experience being abosuletly the only white person in a crowded room full of Haitians but add on top of that the fact that I couldn't understand a thing the priest was saying and it made for a semi stressful morning. I went with my friend Jhonny (pronounced Johnny) who I thought was going to interpret a bit for me but he plays the drums in the worship "band" so I didn't even have him to sit with. I've gotten to know a lot of the people who were there but wasn't sitting with them either so I had a slight breakdown after I walked out. I tried to explain to Jhonny (who speaks English fairly well) that I wasn't mad, just frustrated but he didn't know that word and there is no word for frustrated in Creole. Oh well. I'm okay now. Its just hard when I want to talk to people and get to know them and can't. This morning I am going to teach the nurse that runs the clinic how to do data entry in excel. Should be interesting since she doesn't speak English at all and has never used a computer before in her life. But, I'm excited that she's willing to learn. That means that there is perhaps hope that things can be organized a little better in that clinic. Although, I'm of the opinion that they are going to need someone that knows what they're doing in there to monitor and train people for an extended period of time, longer than the two months that I'm here. I've found that there are a lot of good projects that are started and never finished because people get bored with them and there is no follow up. This coming weekend I'm going with a small group of people to hike up the tallest mountain in Haiti. I'm not sure of the name or how high it is so if you're interested, you can google it. =) I'm just along for the ride and need to get out of the convent for a weekend. Pi ta (later...)

  I am going to try to keep regular new posts on this so that those of you who are inclined to worry about me being here in Haiti know that I am okay. Mom sent me an e-mail asking if I had heard anything about the Canadian missionary that was kidnapped here this week. I hadn't but news doesn't travel very fast way out here in the mountains. I'm relatively far from Port au Prince so I am still very safe. No need to worry.

 Let's see... not too much new and exciting has happened since my last post except I've now officially got a tarantula kill under my belt.  It was the biggest one I've seen yet. We went out hunting for them the other night and had great success. We're working on eradicating them from the premisis. There was also a big party the other night, a going away party for Danny up at the university. He's a guy from the States who has been here for the past 8 months or so teaching at the university. That was fun, with Haitian music and dancing, lots of food etc. I'm continuing to make some wonderful friends here and am already feeling sad about leaving. I kind of figured it would happen like this... I would just start to get used to it and then have to leave. God willing though, I'll be back. The kids are the best. I love going down to the orphanage and being greeting with little screams of Jenny-fer and hugs and kisses.

 I'm continuing to make some good contacts with people who are doing some amazing work with malnourished children here in Haiti. There are really good programs in both Jereme and Leogane.  Still trying not to get too frustrated with the slow pace of work here.  The plan is to go into Leogane sometime in the next two weeks to chat with the people there.

 Hope you all are doing well. Thank you. thank you thank you for your encouraging messages and prayers.

With Love,

Jen

I thought that maybe this would be a good way to continue to keep people updated on what is going on down here in Haiti. That way you can see pictures too without getting an e-mail with a huge attachment. Time is flying. I've been here for over three weeks now and I can't believe I have just over a month left. I'll be back home in my second year of med school in no time. Pretty sad. I feel like I'm in my element here, minus the "convent" that I'm staying in. I'm even getting used to that though. I've allowed one of the nuns to be my Haiti mother. If you can't beat em, join 'em. (Don't worry, I'm in no danger of becoming a nun however...) Progress in the clinic is slow but somewhat steady now. I have collected a lot of what I hope proves to be useful data about the patients they are seeing here and the typical diagnoses that they make for the young children. I'm going to do a little bit of traveling to some other clinics to look at the nutrition programs they have going on there to get some ideas of what is working. There are a lot of really good, well-established programs in Haiti and thankfully, I've been able to make some great contacts I think. Since many of you last heard from me, I've found out a couple of new things about Haiti. First of all, there are HUGE tarantulas here (I probably didn't spell that right). I'm posting a picture in case you don't believe me but they are at least as big as my hand. Missy and I went on a search for them the other night. She's gotten good as killing them so she was going to teach me. We only found two though. Rosemary found a couple more last night, which she was none too happy about so we think a nest may have hatched. Second is that eating mangos washed with dirty water is just not a good idea. I'm not for sure that is what made me sick but I've had a couple of rough days. I'm feeling great now though and am back to hiking up and down these mountains. Yesterday we went out to visit a few women in the community so I could recheck their blood pressures (follow-up from the clinic we had a couple of weeks ago). That was a fun hot 3 hour hike. Good news is that the meds we gave them a couple of weeks ago seem to be working and it was encouraging that they were interested in doing that follow-up. As I've mentioned before, organization isn't the strong suit here. Okay, this is getting kind of long so I'll sign off now. Love, Jen