Gillaine Warne, January 22

Precious friends,

We thank you for all your prayers and messages of encouragement, they give us much strength. I know you are all waiting for more news and I’m sorry it has been so long, but I’m sure you also know that time has galloped away and I’m not even sure what day it is!!

Firstly, to back up a little, as you are aware Charles, Breck and the son of friends in New York, Jake Turlinsky, arrived on Saturday, coming through the Dominican Republic with many a story to tell of that passage – but leave it to a Warne to add a bit of spice to the trip!. Once through the frontier and certainly not wanting to spend the night in a very difficult area, it was decided to ride on to Beladaire where ZL has another hospital – yes! – on the back of motorbike taxis. Bags and boxes of supplies loaded on to the handlebars, they took off, much to the amusement of the surrounding spectators, and rode the 3ks. to the hospital. Those on the side of the road saw 3 crazy ‘blancs’, and the ride has now become the stuff of legends.!
You may think I am being a little frivolous, but the few laughs available are therapeutic.

The last few days have been very difficult, with cases coming in that have been waiting in other hospitals for a week to be seen, or have been sent on here for difficult surgery. The same syndromes go on – crushing, fractures, several paraplegics, some with complete paralysis. The great news is that wonderful teams of surgeons – general, plastic surgeons and orthopedic, anesthetists, (with one from SC) have arrived and are working nearly around the clock. Plasters are being put on, operations and of course the inevitable amputations, which have been many but many have been saved. Breck and Jake are a formidable stretcher team and have all the young volunteers running almost as fast as they, Breck using his first responder skills to the max. Charles has been wearing many hats, filling in wherever necessary.
Many of the very complicated operations have been moved to Hinche, including some of my first little friends, and it was so hard to see them go. Breck has been making the difficult trip with them, and is in awe of their courage and strength in the face of incredible pain. Today several patients were moved back to PauP for kidney dialysis, but with little hope of survival. We have lost two patients, one who was paralyzed and none of her systems could work, and the other a paraplegic. The sound of wailing women is very difficult for the staff and all the other patients lying in the church.

Sunday was one more unforgettable day but in a different way. Having the church occupied by patients, church service was set up in the External Clinic Auditorium, with the Alter on the platform, and seeing it all set up as in any other Episcopal Church was of great comfort. As you can imagine the space was packed with people overflowing out on to the road, but everyone dressed and clean, children polished to a shine and voices lifted in glorious harmony.

Even some of the choirs were able to squeeze in, and thanks to a few words to the music staff, the speaker sound was reduced so as not to shatter eardrums! Words from both Fr. Lafontant and Fr. St Louis were hard, very hard, with the descriptions of the losses in all areas -- but with the final words of hope and prayer, and Communion being served to everyone. I’m afraid to say that this was my moment to break down a bit, and I guess my neighbors didn’t quite know how to deal with a normally very smiley Guilene with tears streaming down her face. But tears were soon mopped up and the plea to be given "'Strength and Courages' to do the work He has given us to do” resounding in all of our hearts, has given just that.
Both Priests visited the Church, hospital and surroundings taking words of comfort and communion to patients, the small Acolyte choir singing a couple of special hymns.

Difficult situations of sanitation and trash are being dealt with, as even now the risk of infection and disease is real. Tanks of drinking water are being filtered through our system, a connection to the septic tank outside the church has been accomplished and even the showers and latrines at the school are being used. Jackie is on an endless march against trash being left around the complex and has made huge bags to be put in many areas. Even with all this, people still chuck stuff beside the bags and don’t seem to see what they are doing. Jackie’s patients are smelling just wonderful, she having tapped in to her precious stock of French soap and creams to be used when bathing patients in the morning. Her “Pollyanna” attitude has helped us all remain focused and positive.
Shock is still high, and the second shake yesterday morning threw everyone into a panic yet once again, with people not wanting to work inside some of the buildings for a while and others refusing still last night to sleep indoors. Beautiful Cange, has held strong with no evidence of damage.

After dealing with all the casualties of the moment, my mind has continually been moving on to that saying that I have been using in other areas of our work here “and now what”, and I am convinced that we here in the Plateau Central will have a huge part to play in the rehabilitation of Haiti. I am working on a very large and optimistic plan for the agricultural side of this, and know that as much as this is a rural country it is from this source that help and strength will come. As you can imagine, my little brain is buzzing with ideas and am off to a meeting about that as soon as I close this off.

Charles and the others are waiting impatiently at the door, so will send you these words and hope to continue again later tonight.
Next message will be a tough one because ---

YESTERDAY I WENT TO PORT AU PRINCE.!
We all send our love, and are hanging in there. Nap Kembe
Gillaine