Almost Christmas!

Wow! Christmas in Haiti! Its been awesome! We've been decorating and singing and just having a wonderful time, but at the same time its not cold! NO SNOW!!!!! NO SLEET!!!! NO ICE!!!!

I LOVE IT! I am still walking around in short sleeves and shorts. It gets a little cool at nights, but I'd say around 65 or so :) I love it! I am pretty nervous about my coming vacation. I will be in NH for three days and there I will visit everyone that I can. I will also die of cold.

I then will go to the "less cold" but still basically freezing state of South Carolina and spend the rest of my vacation there with my family. It will be a nice vacation and good to see everyone.

We have had a CRAZY week here. We had final exams and all sorts of festivities. We still have school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week, but we are pretty much done. I STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!!!! Please pray for me in the coming days.

As far as prayer requests go I have to say that the biggest one is just for guidance for the future. God is definitely calling me to stay in Haiti, but right now the question is under what capacity?

I have to decide by February whether or not I am coming back to work here at the school. February is coming very quickly but I already feel God guiding me every step.

He is so good about that.

Here's a little thing that God even cares about little things. I was at the orphanage today getting their Christmas tree set up. I am becoming well known by my Christmas tree decorating talent :) I never knew I had it but I guess my mom taught me well...THANKS MOM :) So I get there and all the lights that they have don't work. I was so upset. I knew the kids really wanted the lights. I knew how important it was for them. So I went into the office and I just bowed my head and cried out to God. I said, "God these kids really deserve to have a beautiful Christmas tree. One covered with beautiful lights. Please God, please make those lights work." All of a sudden the thought came to me that I had brought lights about three or four weeks before from my own Christmas stuff. I sprung out of my chair and ran and tried them....AND THEY WORKED...not only that but I forgot to tell you that we actually had electricty for one hour in the middle of the afternoon. That may not seem amazing to you, but they never give us electricity before 8 or 9 at night. This was truly a miracle, because we would've put all those broken lights on the tree and never known that they were broken. GOD WORKS ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM AND TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE!!!! Oh and tonight when they got electricity they called me and told me how beautiful the tree looks and how happy the children are. :) That definitely made my day.
hmm... I think I need to find some pictures to post here. I will take a look...I will try to get some pictures of our Christmas party and of all our decorations.

Some of you are probably thinking...ok well what is Maggie doing as far as nursing. I am still working quite frequently as the school nurse. I have also taken on more of a role as the staff nurse. I take care of all the staff people's children and the staff themselves. I take blood pressures a lot. I dispense Tylenol and other such over the counters that people can't afford. I also have started doing speaking arrangements at my church. I will discuss different health topics with different groups of people in the church. The first time I spoke with the youth group. My boyfriend, Balmir and I presented the topic of health for young people together. It was really a great experience and people were very responsive. Then a couple of weeks later my pastor invited me to do a seminar with the sunday school. I decided to do it on the topic of how to know when it is important to go to the doctor or the hospital and when it is something you can take care of yourself. That also turned out to be very good and the most exciting thing about it was it was the first class every for me that I taught TOTALLY IN CREOLE BY MYSELF!!!!! That is a big move for me and I am very excited about that. As many of you know that is my heart and passion is teaching health to people who otherwise would not have access to that.

Wow there is so much more I could say, but when I get home I think I will take some time and write more.

God bless you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! JESUS IS BORN!!!!!!!!!!

Love always

Maggie-below is me with one of my sweet little friends :)

WOW! Sorry its been so long!

I have not had internet for awhile. They took it away and we are currently in the process of getting our own set-up. We have electricity tonight so we were able to connect. Its nice to be on again. I wanted to let you all know that everything is well. I have a very strange request to get out of the way and then I will continue on.

I have had some patients with vaginal infections and Haiti does not sell Monistat anywhere. If anyone is interested in purchasing the 7 or 3 day course and sending me a couple packages that would be awesome.

I will be returning to the states on December 17th for 2 weeks. I will be in NH for three days and in South Carolina the rest of the time. I hope to see as many of you as I can during my visit, but please do not be offended or heartbroken if I do not see you as its hard to get around. I also will not have a vehicle so I won't be getting around quite as easily.

I have discovered that children are a gift from God...okay I knew that already...I have now discovered that they are also little animals :) I love my kids, but they are most certainly wild! I do love them so much though.

I am finally posting a picture of myself in my classroom! I do love my job. Its weird getting better at teaching when I know that I am nurse too. So what am I...a teacher or a nurse? I am both. I am a teacher-nurse. God has his ways that are far above our own ways.

I am going to have to include some fun times that I had this weekend. First on Sunday afternoon we went downtown and had a great time visiting some nice sights. Then on Tuesday it was a National Holiday(I think it was like Veteren's Day.) we went to a soccer game. This Soccer game was unlike any you have ever seen. It was in the national stadium and it was a game between Pastors all over the city and DJ's...yep that's right Pastors vs DJs! It was so incredible. Our friend Dan got to play on the Pastor's team and it was so funny, because he was the only white guy for miles. He played really well and got a lot of publicity. It was A LOT of fun.

This is a giant tower that President Aristide started making during his reign of power and ended up getting kicked out of the country before he could finish it. Its really amazing and it would be cool if they could finish it. It would be a great tourist attraction. I think you could see all of PAP up there. Its beautiful.

Here is the beautiful national Palace. As you can see it strongly resembles our own White House. It is very beautiful and the grounds are amazing. We did not go inside. It looked closed.

Here below is a picture that shows the stark contrast between the rich and the poor. The big beautiful white building is the Minister of Justice Palace. Right next door is a VERY poor neighborhood.

I think I have lost my fabulous connection and I am no longer able to get the soccer pics on here. I will have to post them next time. That is quite unfortunate as they are truly fabulous! You'll all have to wait for next time.

Signs of Living Life in Haiti

1. Always having a stomachache and being so used to it that when it doesn't hurt you think there is something wrong with your body.

2. Looking like you have perpetual chicken pox from mosquito bites.

I'm sure there's more, but those are just two that came to mind.
I have so much work tonight so I am not going to write more, but I just want to answer a very important question.
The lady who had a stroke is now back at work and doing well. Little does she know that God has done an amazing miracle for her. She was back to work exactly one week after her stroke. I monitor her blood pressure about once a week for her.

Maggie

I really do teach! Here's proof!

So most of my pictures have always been about the orphans or other such information and I know that I have not posted much concerning my students. As you know it is difficult to bring a camera to class. It is very distracting to them. One day I broke down and finally took some pictures. This is most of my class. I think some of them are hiding, but this is a pretty accurate picture of each of their personalities :) I love them so much. Each one in a very special way.

Up above is a picture of some of the kids as I am teaching Math class. The desks are set up in such a way as to have them separated from everything and focusing. Then when we want to teach them we either have them turn their chairs around or have them come sit at the tables. I have a big class though and my kids have trouble fitting at the tables.

Last but not least I want to show you an amazing picture of a little creature that came to visit my doorway the other day. You have to look very closely in order to see what it really is. If you look closely you can see that it is a big spider with an even bigger cockroach in its mouth. It really changes my opinion of spiders. If they are taking care of cockroach populations then please...be my guest...ok not quite. I still hate them with a passion. I hope you guys all enjoyed this blog entry. I'm doing well and God is so good.

Love always

Maggie

THANK YOU!

I have just gotten a whole bunch of comments! That was so awesome. THanks guys for participating and communicating with me! I love you guys and it was great to hear from you.

So here are the rest of the pictures that I told you I would post.

This is a picture of some of our patients. We saw over 250 people in one day. They saw 250 the day before and 230 the next day. I love these clinics and if I could do this every day I would. I really believe that the opportunity is going to come someday. I am just waiting for it to come.

The picture below is of some children watching from outside and taking in all the activity. They quickly figured out that my name was Maggie(a very very popular spice in Haiti) and would frequently call out my name and wave and smile and giggle when I turned around and said hi.

I took a lot of random shots of the area. I am trying to better at my photography, but sometimes I just plain forget to take pictures. I'll see if I can post a couple more that might interest you all.

This picture contains one of the remains of the previous displays of violence. Like I said, the violence is not like that at this time. Things are pretty much controlled now. God has really opened the doors again to Cite Soleil and is doing many wonderful things there. The children are looking healthier and less malnourished. It is a miracle.

RELIABLE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!! I finally have reliable internet access. Its great!

We now do not have to be dependent on Generator or Electricity. We can even use it just when the invertor is on. Its great! I should be able to update more often now.

I do apologize for not keeping things updated. Of course I have been VERY busy here. I am loving life here and very thankful for what God is doing.

Two weekends ago I got to go to an art fair. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. There was art from all over Haiti. It was a great experience.

There were so many things to see and experience. It was great. I will put a couple more pictures of our experience there.

I had the great experience of learning how to barter well. We used various techniques such as telling them we would come back tomorrow...even though the fair would be closed by then. We would simply walk away or say, "nevermind". ALWAYS they would stop us and have us come back and they would ALWAYS give us the price we asked for. It was great! :) I did all my Christmas shopping in one day! Nope, family, you will not see your Christmas presents in any of these pictures :) I am not that gullible :)

I had a really good time.

This past week I had another good exerience. A team from Monadnock Bible Conference came down and they invited me to go with them one day down into Cite Soleil to do a clinic. One great thing was that I got to see some really great friends from my church. It was a wonderful time. I also got to use my nursing skills and my Creole. The following are pictures from Cite Soleil.

Cite Soleil is one of the worst, poorest areas in Haiti. Things are peaceful there right now, but a year ago Americans couldn't even go there. The UN has done a lot of work there now and things are better. In many of my pictures you will see that many of the children actually look very healthy and I believe it is due to the many wonderful works that missionaries are trying to do in this area.

I am also going to post a picture of a lady that we saw who was 100 years old! I love those precious old ladies. Especially here, because you know how much of a miracle it is!

I actually need to go now, but I will post more pictures about Cite Soleil a little later tonight.

God bless you and keep you

Maggie

Good ER related information and many thanks for the wonderful gifts I have received!

Ok, so I know that I have not written in over a week and that many of you are wondering if I am alive or not...well I am... here is photo proof of that.

Today I had an incredible medical experience. I got up like I normally do and went up to the kitchen to get my breakfast. The kitchen ladies were all there and I greeted them as normal. The oldest lady looked like she really wasn't feeling well. She asked me to take her blood pressure, but they ask me that almost every morning so I told her that I would later on at one of my breaks. She said ok, but she didn't look like it was ok. She looked pretty ill. I then went out, ate my breakfast and I just felt a nagging feeling that I needed to take it. I felt like it was my responsibility as a nurse just to double check and make sure hers was ok. I took it and it was 190/100! Her face was a little puffy and she was very sweaty. I don't have her exact pulse, but it was about 90. I went to my boss and said that she needed to go to the hospital immediately. I knew something was very wrong with her. It was my nursing instinct that just told me that...ok and I fully believe that God told me that too, because on the way there she started showing stroke symptoms. She started having facial droop and slurring her speech. I am not sure how she is doing now, but I will let you know as soon as I know anything. It was amazing just to watch things pan out. Its hard for those things, because I have no idea if she got the medicine that she needed within the four hour time period. God knows...at least we got her there very quickly. I did what I could. Its hard here in Haiti, because you really want to do more and you don't have the tools you need.

I'm interested in putting together a medical team for February 2009. I would like to take a team of 7 or 8 people and it would be for about a week, maybe 8 days. Please notify me by email if you are interested at 44maggs@gmail.com.

So far I have received two packages!!!!! It was so cool to get them. Thank you Megan and Cliff for the cookies and for the medicine and the tea! It was awesome and SUCH A HUGE BLESSING! Ca, thank you for the blankets...they are AWESOME! I also like the snacks a lot. They are perfect for what I need. Please tell your kitties that I said thanks :) :)

School is going very well. The first quarter will be over next Thursday! I cannot believe that it is already almost over. Time most certainly flies WAY too quickly! My kids are doing great. All are passing, with only a couple that are straggling trying to keep up. They are good workers and at a good age to learn discipline and structure. I love my kids...I now have 18! I can't believe that the numbers keep going up this late in the year. I can only hold 21 in my class, but I really hope that I don't get more. I think it would be too much for me. Please pray for me as I will begin tutoring a special needs girl next week. This school is not equipped to handle her and she has a lot of needs. Its hard, because many times we deal with a lot of abuse in kids lives. Abuse is very very common here in Haiti and nothing is done about it. The children are left scarred and only know how to hurt others in return. There is a lot of teaching and loving and healing that must go on for these children to do well.

Ok here...let me try a few pictures! This first one is of my friend Marie-Jo and I. She is the one who is helping me learn how to wash my clothes. She's been a great blessing to me.

This little guy is named Moyiz. He is my little sweetheart and I call him my little boy. He is three and when he first came to the orphanage he was a angry, hurting little boy who was trying to act like a tough grown-up. Now you can see what love has done for him. He is beautiful. He smiles and plays and loves and laughs. He still definitely has many crying moments, but he is doing so well. He is the youngest in the orphanage. He's so sweet. I love all those kids so much.

NEWS FLASH: ANN ACKROYD CAME TO HAITI!

I am so excited. One of my dearest friends, Ann Ackroyd, came to Haiti to do medical work. She will be traveling up to Gonaives tomorrow to do medical clinics in this devastated area. Please pray for her safety as she goes. I only wish I could go with her. We had a great time of visiting together on Saturday. I just realized that we did not get any pictures together, but I did get some that show that we were at the same place at the same time :) It was such a blessing to see her and to spend time talking with her. It was great. She even got to see my room and to visit the school. It was my first visit like that. I really enjoyed it and it lifted my spirits...and yes, they do need to be lifted occasionally. :)

Oh wait! I totally forgot that I have pictures of Ann and I doing laundry. I taught her how to wash too. She did a couple pairs of underwear before her fingers started to hurt as well! :) I am making much progress. I can now wash ALL my underwear by myself. I am moving on to shirts this weekend. Its a lot of work, but I really enjoy the time with the teenage girls in the orphanage. It really becomes a fun JUST GIRLS time :)

Otherwise everything is going well. Thank you Cliff and Megan from the bottom of my heart for the beautiful package you sent me! It was a SUPER blessing!!!! It definitely was a great thing to get.

Another news flash is that I am going to be singing on a CD. Its kind of strange how it happens, but this guy I work with writes his own songs and asked me to sing with a bunch of other people. Its kind of hard because they do everything by ear here and not by reading music and I am pretty much only good at reading music, but as you know...GOD ALWAYS takes us out of where we feel comfortable.

Well it is REALLY REALLY late for me...only 10:30, but I normally got to bed at 9 or 9:30, but electricity just came on at 10 so we decided to come up here.

Goodnight everyone. God bless you and thank you for all the wonderful support that you give me all the time.

Love always, Maggie

Sunday morning!

They gave us electricity(EDH) this morning. Its great! I am just sitting here typing away before I need to go to church. Its a typical warm sunny day here in Haiti and I actually am having some quiet moments to myself. Its very nice. This is going to have to be brief due to needing to get ready for church, but I just wanted to try to send those pictures.

This picture is of the hospital where my friend Julie had her baby and where I am currently seeking to either get a job or get involved with volunteer work. Its definitely the most beautiful hospital I've seen in Haiti. It only has 25 beds, but it is amazing. I really need to start learning my french again. Even if I don't start working there until later it does stand as a pretty good opportunity for me.

This is my friend Julie before her c-section and her wonderful brother Balmir. Ton ton Balmir(that means uncle). It was quite the exciting family affair. We all took her to the hospital and got her settled in and then we all prayed for her and then we left for the night. She stayed Sunday night, Monday night and Tuesday night. Both she and the baby are doing wonderful. I'm going to paste some baby pictures below. And here's the birthday girl! She is so beautiful and so sweet. We love having her around. She is a great baby.

Baby has arrived!!!

One of my dearest friends here in Haiti had her baby this weekend. Her name is Julie and she and her husband run the orphanage that you see in all the pictures I send. The baby was born by c-section on Monday morning at 9:30. Mom and baby are fine. I spent the night in the hospital with them on Monday night. It was a "girls" night :) We had a lot of fun. Needless to say I am pretty tired. The cool thing is that I may be able to volunteer at that hospital. Its a really nice hospital. Its nicer than many American hospitals. If I do get married and live here in Haiti I would not be afraid to have my babies there. They are a new hospital and very clean and very professional. It was a great experience.

The baby's name is Ann-Julie Terreza Ali Joseph. She is so beautiful! I love her so much.
I apologize that I am having difficulty loading pictures today. You might have to wait to see them later.
I am doing really well. My kids just finished a bunch of major tests this week. They are tired and I am too, but its been a good couple of weeks. We are all working really hard right now.
Love you all and I'd better go. We're about to lose electricity.
Love Maggie

THANK YOU!!!!

THank you So much for the comments that you have all been leaving! It has been such a major blessing for me.
I do have a mailing address. It is as follows. Please though if you send a package please put 1$ per pound in the package. I have to pay for customs.
Maggie Horton
c/o Agape Flights PAP# 20874
100 Airport Avenue
Venice, FL 34285
The following are things that I could definitely use if people were interested in sending them. I am almost out of hydrocortisone cream and antibiotic ointment. If someone could send me a couple of tubes that would be awesome.
Ca: yes if you wanted to the kitties could definitely send me a blanket. I would like that. I have been cold with all these storms.
If someone wanted to send me some basic snack items that would be fine too. Also I really need a can opener and for some reason I can't find anything.
I went to a new church today to visit! IT WAS SO PERFECT FOR ME!!!!!!! It is small, but comfortable. The music is good and the preaching is really good. Its a Haitian church and the pastor was trained by people who graduated from BJU. Its pretty cool. I'm so excited. There is so much to do there because they have a lot of needs as a small church. It may give me opportunity too to serve in a nursing capacity too. I may be able to hold women's health classes there.
I'm excited
God bless. I need to go sleep. I'm exhausted and I have school tomorrow.

I FORGET TO TELL YOU ABOUT WASHING MY CLOTHES!!!!

I can't believe I haven't told you about this. I have a new project. I go over to the orphanage every week and I am learning how to properly wash my clothes by hand. Many of you may think that is an easy thing, but I can tell you it is not. The first day I did it my hands were open bleeding sores that stung like you can't imagine and that was only after washing 6 pairs of underwear(kilot) and one shirt(mayo). This week however(my hands have healed) I did it again and I managed to wash 9 pairs of underwear and one bra. So I am definitely making progress. My hands are a little sore now, but nothing like last week. Basically here in Haiti your hands are the actual washboard. Not very comfortable! :) The young girls you see in this picture could not believe that I had never washed my clothes by hand. They thought it was so funny. They would laugh and giggle at me and ooh and ahh at my bleeding hands. I think they all admire my perseverance. I haven't given up even though every other white person is telling me that I'm ridiculous for trying and that I should just hire a maid if I ever needed to do it. I am determined that I will get it and that I will become comfortable with it.

Gotta go! Please pray for Ike that is going to hit us tomorrow morning. I will keep you posted.

Love maggie

GONAIVES FLOODING

These pictures are not my own pictures, but I took them off of an email that someone sent me. They are just so powerful I had to share them.

The following are some horrible pictures of things that are happening to the north of us. They do not really touch us here other than that they touch our hearts. Our hearts bleed for those people. As a nurse I just want to do something, but right now I can't. I don't have the opportunity. Its almost impossible right now to get a vehicle up there. There is so much water. We have had a lot of water recently, but nothing compared to them. Please pray that God would keep the other hurricanes away from Haiti. Please pray for the children that are left without parents, the families without homes. OVER 2000 PEOPLE DIED! If that does not touch your heart then maybe these pictures will. Please pray for the people of Haiti!

Please pray that God would give me something nursing to do. Right now I am just aching to get some nursing stuff done. I love teaching, but nursing is in my blood and I can't get away from it.

Please excuse the fact that I have not written for awhile. I have not had internet. Tonight though we have really great internet so I'll probably be on for awhile.