Today, we had a long, rough trip to Carrefour, to Diquini Hospital. Philemond was driving, and we had Dieuferly and little Lionel with us, and Jean Gardy. Lionel’s fingers have fused together since his birth father held his hand in boiling water. He also has one finger that is fused crooked.

Dieuferly has horrible pain in both feet. He has had a lot of surgeries on both feet since he was three… some of them, pretty bad. Now, he has a lot of pain every day in both feet.

Getting to the hospital was a nightmare… Going through downtown Port-au-Prince, was heartbreaking and disgusting. The old Iron Market is burned down, and garbage is piled high on both sides of the street… Garbage is “everywhere!” We passed a dead body on the right and the left… They were just “blending into the garbage.” My heart was broken and discouraged, seeing all the filth, the garbage, the flies… and human beings selling their stuff right in the middle of it. I could see where there had been streets blocked from gangs… I thought, “Poor Haiti. This is the Capital!”

The hospital is big and maneuvering through the lines of people and trying to pay for x-rays, etc. was tiresome. We arrived at 6:30 a.m. and left there at about 1:30 p.m. The surgeons and everyone there were very kind.

Dieuferly is thinking about his surgery. He is afraid to go through that again, but he has no choice…

Lionel will have his surgery at 6:30 a.m. Someone will be with him this evening. And tomorrow, we will send a nurse from the Clinic. He may or may not stay tomorrow night. There are charges for surgery, but then again, the hospital has to pay its way, so we understand.

I just keep thinking about all the poor who cannot afford to go to a clinic or hospital… and all the people in the dangerous areas of Port-au-Prince and other areas of Haiti. I came home a very sad person. I know how Jesus felt when he wept over Jerusalem…

Haiti is not the same Haiti I once knew and it is so sad.
Sherry