MOTHER's DAY THOUGHTS

One hundred and two years ago TODAY President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. 

As you think about the mothers in your lives, I would like to share a bit about the Mothers we saw in Haiti last November. 

On Sunday we took all the pillowcase dresses we made and gave them to the little girls after church.  The excitement of the little girls was only exceeded by the pride shown by the Mothers as each little girl chose a new dress and put it on right over their Sunday dresses.   We wished we had more dresses so every Mother could see her child’s new clothes.

The days were sunny and the temperatures stayed in the 80’s.  The clinic at Haiti Outreach Ministries where our medical mission team spent the week, serves the people of Cite Soliel, the poorest neighborhood in the capital, Port au Prince. It covers about 8.5 square miles and is home to 265,000 people, most of them in poverty.

CITE SOLEIL

WASH DAY

EARTHQUAKE DAMAGED CITE SOLIEL

Our clinic had no air conditioning…not even any fans to move the air.  Mothers got up at daybreak to begin the walk to the clinic, carrying their small children. Only a fixed number of people can be seen so it is important to be first in line. They dress in their best “Sunday go to meeting” clothes, for they have pride and must be well presented.

HAITI OUTREACH MINISTRY CLINIC

Mothers and children will spend the rest of the day in lines – first the line outside the HOM wall where they must pay a small fee to be accepted for care that day.  Once inside the clinic compound, the Mothers stand or sit in another line outside the clinic, waiting patiently to move forward one by one toward the iron gate of the clinic.  

Children, also dressed in their Sunday Best clothes – or maybe even their ONLY clothes, are held on their laps or made to stand quietly at their knee.  There are no rowdy Haitian children with these mothers. They had no toys or snacks or water bottles, no IPADs or cell phones.

One mother in a blue denim dress was holding a very small baby-- you could tell it was a girl because she had pretty blue ribbons on the little sprigs of hair on her head.  As I checked in this Mother I learned she had walked two miles that morning to bring her girl in for her first checkup.  She had been born one day before. Her mother wanted to be sure she had the best start possible.

The mothers all wait as lines creep forward -- our two doctors and four nurses examine, treat, and often HUG 9 patients and their mothers every hour. Mothers move to the chairs inside the clinic door, then to the chairs in the triage, then to more chairs in the hallway outside the lab or the doctor’s room.  Then they wait in line outside again as their prescriptions are prepared in the pharmacy and explained to them before they leave.

WAITING IN LINE

This whole time these mothers hold their children, keeping them close, watching everything going on. Quiet, patient. A little girl with pretty ribbons in her hair will begin to sing and dance in the hallway and everyone watches. A little boy needs his diapers changed, but the mother has none to use. 

The day I took my camera every mother’s eyes were on me wanting to have her child’s picture taken. Love and pride on their faces.   Smiling in spite of the heat and conditions they must daily endure. Amazing the strength of a Mother’s love.