This is the lady that I have photographed as a vegetable vendor. She asked me if I would be her client. That means that I buy from her every time I go to that market and not from anywhere else. OKAY I am now hooked. When we drive up to the curb and I look elsewhere, she will come up to me and remind me that I am her client. (Just for the fact that she allowed me to take her picture.)


Ruth VanDam is choosing a red papaye. Ruth and her husband, Howard are with CRWM in Haiti. Every Friday morning Ruth picks me up and we go up to the local market in Petion-Ville to do our fruit and vegetable marketing. This coming week we are living at their house and looking after their children while they are at a mission conference in Nicaragua.







Katie Galloway (she lives in the apartment above us) and her son Stevie look on with Ruth VanDam as one of the market ladies show what is available that day.

This picture shows me checking out a family at the clinic. These little boys were very inquisitive and also cooperative. The tiny baby was only 3 weeks old. I prescribed vitamins for all of them. Throughout this clinic I saw about 25 patients. Through an interpreter I was able to find out what their problems were and then prescribe whatever needed. Then they went off to the pharmacy and collected their meds. These patients were all very grateful for any help.


These children loved to pose for the camera. Even more than that, they were overjoyed to see the instant photo of themselves on the digital camera. I will have to get a print made of this and take it back the next time I go on a clinic there. Most of these children belonged to the orphanage on the same compound where the clinic was held. 

This past Thursday I (Mary) went with Ed Amos and a team of volunteers from the US to a do a medical clinic in the ourskirts of Port-au-Prince. Five minutes into the hour drive, our driver in the second vehicle, drove the vehicle into an open sewer hole. Even though it was a four wheel drive, it was unable to back out. There are many of these holes in Port-au-Prince. Some are manhole without a cover, others are open sewers right in the middle of the lane as this one was.


Ed had a tow strap in his vehicle and the dump truck that was following was kind enough to pull the vehicle out. After the 'accident', I volunteered to drive in that vehicle. One of the other passengers did not want to get back in the SUV after her experience. We arrived at our destination without any further problems. I did put my seat belt on though, a habit that I can not undo.




We arrived at an orphanage in BonRepo. It has been previously arranged for the medical team to see a hundred patients. Here you can see the 'pharmacy' being set up. The medicines are all prepackaged in weekly or monthly supplies. These medications are all given free since they have been donated for that reason.





Here you can see Ed Amos with one of the other volunteers checking a young patient. Many of these children are malnourished and they are all given vitamins for the next month.

This past Saturday was a new orientation for me as Mary was attending a women's retreat with the ladies from Quisqueya Chapel for the weekend. Ad de Blaeij took me to Plateau Central to a small lake - Trou Cayman. It is a shallow lake of about one metre. The area here is very dry but a spring provides the people water for both drinking and for irrigating gardens. This is the boat Ad and I, a boy for bailing the water and a man with a pole for pushing the boat along the lake used to see the flamingos.



The flamingos are year round at this fresh water lake, however that does not mean they are the same birds all the time. The flamingos are not making nests near the lake. Probably, their colony are at more quiet places like the uninhabited islands of the Bahamas. There are also colonies in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Each time we were within range to take a few photos, the flamingos took flight and landed at a different part of the lake, until we arrived again.




The lake was formed as the result of a hurricane according to the town's people. Since its formation, it has dried up several times, the last one being in 2003. Since it is a shallow lake, it is great for the flamingos to find the mollusks, which live in the mud of the lake bottom. God created these birds with special bills that are uniquely designed for the task of scooping up and sieving these snails from the mud.

The sight of the flying flamingos is impressive! They make a goose-like noise when they are uncomfortable, and while flying.

Last Friday, Mary visited God's Littlest Angels, about 45 minutes from Quisqueya Christian School. God's Littlest Angels is an independent non-denominational ministry founded to care for premature, malnourished, and abandoned children in Haiti. God's Littlest Angels focuses on three primary areas of ministry to the people of Haiti: Medical Ministry, Adoption Ministry, and Outreach Ministry.
This past week was Spiritual Emphasis Week at the school. From Tuesday through Friday we started with chapel where the keynote speaker was Pastor Larry from New Orleans. The students at Quisqueya had raised approximately $4,000 for the church he was serving to help rebuild the lives of the people after the devastation of hurricane Katrina.
Another snapshot to show the progress of the bananas beside our front steps.
A beautiful view of the country side from the balcony at God's Littlest Angels. Each and every day we do experience God's presence in our daily lives.
Today we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with fellow Canadians, some Haitians, some Dutch, but all children of God. We have many reasons to give thanks. Thank You Lord for Jesus Christ who gives eternal life, for our daily bread, for safety and traveling mercies, for the supportive communites helping us on our way, for pastors who proclaim Your Word, for hands and a heart and a mind so that He may work in me and through me to accomplish His purposes, an attitude of gratitude, and more :-)

Thank you for giving me the morning,
Thank you for ev'ry day that's new,
Thank you that I can know my worries,
Can be cast on You.
Thank you for all my friends and brothers,
Thank you for all the men that live,
Thank you for even greatest enemies,
I can forgive.
Thank you for many little sorrows,
Thank you for every kindly word,
Thank you that everywhere your guidance,
Reaches every land.
Thank you that your Word has meaning,
Thank you, I know your Spirit's here,
Thank you because You love all people,
Those both far and near.
Thank you, O Lord your love is boundless,
Thank you that I am full of You,
Thank you, You make me feel so glad,
And thankful as I do.