A Palace of a Different Type

Dusty, dirty, and early. The bus departed for a part of the city that most of us had not seen. 600,000 starving Haitians squatted in the Plaza area of Port Au Prince. The team was entering the unexpected and a little anxiety cut through the mood as we approached. In a semi military fashion our scout van preceded the main bus to identify the best location to set up our clinic. 

With the location identified immediately in front of the beautiful, now crumbled, white palace that formerly housed the non existent Haitian President, we began.  Tents, tables, and tarps erected in 15 minutes and pink crosses taped to the palace walls because we forgot the red tape. Soon a line formed and we handed out our little white admin forms. Our initial  assessment was that we might be mobbed by the 600,000. Armed Haitian police guarded our clinic and eased crowd control. 

The Helping Hands team easily started processing patients, now that the German team was with us.  We now had enough man power to process even more patients. Even with a language barrier we operated like well oiled machine. 

Through out the day many of us witnessed events that changed us. If serving 225 patients was not enough then maybe hearing stories of lost familiy members would be.  Many on the medical staff cried with people who didn't necessarily need a doctor. We heard from Haitians who had lost entire families and a even a teacher who lost her entire class of grade school students. Bandages and Tylenol can not begin to heal wounds this large. 

Because our clinic was in the open we now began to take more seriously injured patients as well. The University of Miami was very generous and allowed us to bring these patients to them. First was a lady with a horrible infection in her broken ankle. Through the dusty streets her and I and Andy traveled with sirens blasting. Upon arriving she was admitted and I was told of her impending amputation. The second of the day was a young man who was recovered from a fallen building. He lost his entire family in the earthquake and escaped with a broken shoulder,  arm , and cheek bones. On to the hospital we went..... This time upon arriving I was asked to move 5 patients to another tent because I was the only person available with scrubs on. While there my patient was bumped because another young man had been rushed there from a fallen building. He had been trapped for 15 days without food and water. A true miracle!!!

As Andy and I returned with our armed escort I pondered for a second on the crumbled white palace before me. Man had built this structure to house another man of importance. An iron fence erected around if to keep people out. Right in front Helping Hands from America and Germany had not erected a clinic but an entrance gate. This gate didn't allow people to enter into the crumbled man built palace. It offered them an entrance to eternal life inside the kingdom of God. There is peace and salvation inside. There is no hunger or suffering. There is never an earthquake. Only Love....... Today January 28 2010 over 100 people asked and accepted salvation and they were granted entry into a palace of a different type.