Hello Friends,

Spoke with Max tonight. Finally an organization -International Medical Corps (IMC) – brought nutritional “cookies” – LOTS of them – up to Hospice! Max distributed them to smaller groups in the neighborhood. One of the guys asked Max if he had any tents – Max did not. This guy only had 2, but gave Max 1. Max was very grateful – he finally has a 6 person guest room!

Some medical people came over from a place called Matthew 25 and saw over 100 children. When they had to close down and go back, there were still 95 mothers and children waiting to be seen. These medical people were part of a group that came on their own – not with any specific organization.

Another friend of Max’s brought some doctors over – they went out into the neighborhood and saw another 200 people.

So many who could barely do anything before now have the extra burden of missing a limb – making life all that much more difficult. All of this mostly from lack of any medical care in the fist several days. I asked Max if the people were at all able to make any sense of what had happened. He said that it’s hard to make sense out of non-sense, but they are trying. And they know they have to go on – they are still here for some reason.

I would also like to take this opportunity to name all of the wonderful people who made up the first medical team that went a couple of weeks ago. Inspired by Dawn Pinder, 3 year volunteer team member at Hospice who now lives in Florida, the group included David Chesire, Lucie Fontaine, Laura Ford, Leroy Himebauch, Joan Huffman, Sheldon Malcom, Rose Numa (Max’s wife), Tom Richert, Mark Schuller, Erin Snyder (also a previous Hospice volunteer), Bobi Wall, and Pam Stewart. Each was a FIRST RESPONDER in the truest sense of the word! Max said they cried when they left – feeling so attached to all the people they saw and wishing they could follow-up on each and every one of them.

Please continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. The enormity of this devestation is overwhelming.

Peace, Sue