1977 - Our first year in Haiti

In January (6 months after arriving in Haiti) all the missionaries went to La Pointe on the north coast to our hospital complex for meetings concerning the new constitution for the UEBH, the Haitian mission organization, we work with. At that time the missionaries turned over the work to Haitian leadership and we as missionaries worked under the UEBH leadership structure from that point on. It was a major step in the work here.

DAVID’S FIRST SHOULDER INJURY -- David went with a group of others missionaries out to the northwest on a borrowed motorcycle one day to seeing the progress on a water project being done there. I stayed back at La Pointe with the girls. Late in the day someone came over to the place we were staying to tell me there had been a motorcycle accident and David was injured. He was in a lot of pain when they got him back to La Pointe and our missionary nurses took care of him. Shirley took an x-ray of David’s shoulder and then got out her orthopedic text books and tried to match up his x-ray with a picture in the book. She wrapped up his shoulder and gave him pain meds. The next morning we left to drive down to Port-au-Prince, filled him full of pain meds and started out over incredibly horrible roads and river crossings. We got as far as St. Marc and Martha Straubel gave more pain shots to help him make it to Port. We dropped the girls off with Mom and Dad Schmid in St. Marc. Tom Sykes was on a motorcycle and he drove in ahead of us to contact an orthopedic doctor and we went straight to the hospital in Port. That was my introduction of hospital stays in Haiti. I stayed in his room on a cot and was expected to care for him. I drove to and from the campus to eat and get cleaned up. I hadn’t driven in Port before and wasn’t looking forward to it but Dad Schmid gave me their Green Subaru to drive and gave me directions how to get to and from the hospital. Trust me I paid close attention and remember everything he told me including which intersections were dangerous. For a long time that was the only route I knew in Port. At least it got me over my fear of driving in this crazy place.

The doctor was going to put a pin in the shoulder but couldn’t so they wired it together. That wire broke sometime in the last 33 years. When he dislocated his shoulder and tore the rotator cuff during Hurricane Hannah last September necessitating surgery when we were in the states earlier this year, they took out the pieces of that original wire. .

One of many surprises in store for me in the medical system here besides staying in the room with him was when the doctor told me to go out and buy muslin and other materials so they could wrap the shoulder up and make a sling. Another surprise that when they brought him “liver and onions” for breakfast one day. I knew I wasn't in little DuBois, PA anymore.

No we don't have Lions, Tigers or Bears but we do have lots of LIZARDS...

We have big ones, little ones, ugly and cute ones. Trust me it took me a while to think any of them were cute. When we first got to Haiti they ranked right up there with the tarantulas! The main kind of lizard we have are called “zon- dough- leet” (bottom photo). They change color depending on the surface they are on like salamanders. I don’t even panic when I see them in the house anymore. Once when we were sitting outside together and David had his cup of coffee on a saucer a little spilled on the saucer. As we talked we noticed a lizard coming over and it came right up and drank from his saucer!

Another time I was sitting in the living room and a small lizard jumped on the chair and ran into the cap sleeve on my dress and across my shoulders and out the other sleeve. Trust me I was up and jumping around to make sure it was no longer on me. I’m sure I was vocal about it too.

My least favorite story is the time I got up early one morning and came out in the dark to open the living room windows to get air flowing through the house. I had closed them the night before when it was raining hard. Well, a lizard was on the curtain or somewhere and I startled him and he landed ON MY FACE!!!!! yes you read that correctly ON MY FACE!!! Well, everyone in the vicinity of our home knew something was going on. I was jumping all over the place but those little things have suction cups on their feet and he held on for dear life. Finally he realized he’d better get as far away from this screaming maniac as he could and fled. That was a hard one to live down.

One memory of lizards involves Amy. Remember she was 2 months old when we came so she grew up used to seeing them. Then we went on our first furlough when she was 4 years old and lived in DuBois for a year. When we returned to Haiti when she was 5 she would go outside to play and within minutes be back inside scared of the lizards. Finally I told her that she would be spending the rest of her life inside (and even then she'll see some inside-yikes!)unless she got used to seeing them. She loved playing outside so soon adjusted to seeing them all the time again.

The other kind of lizard is what we call a “ma-boo-ya” (top photo). These look like little dinosaurs to me. The one pictured here is a small one. They get about 8-10 inches long. I’ve never seen one outside but they live in our front and back yard areas. They can stay there as long as they don’t come inside! They just look nasty compared to the little ones. Anyway, there are other families of lizards but these are the most common.

I may address other “critters” that reside in this beautiful tropical country in future entries but then again I might not because just talking about them and remembering my encounters with them give me nightmares.