Author: Castillo

Now it seems unlikely that at 28 years old I could actually be a grandmother – but sadly – it’s probably not that unlikely anymore. When I was 9 years old I used to play with the children in the nutritional center. That’s actually how I learned Creole. I still speak it like a little kid! LOL! 

A lady there named Selida weighed 70lbs when she gave birth to a one pound little girl named Naomie. We didn’t have a birthing center then. If I’m not mistaken I think Miss Pat actually helped deliver her. I immediately fell in love with her. Too small to take a bottle – I fed her a few drops of formula through an eye dropper every 15 minutes. Many people thought she would die because she was just too small. She’s actually part of the reason I decided to become a nurse – so that I could change the lives of little babies just like her.  

While we didn’t live in Haiti at the time, every trip I was there (about 8 times a year) I took care of this little girl. I would send for her every time my feet hit the island and then be her full time care-taker until I had to leave. 

When I was 10 years old – we didn’t have electricity or most of the things the mission has. We all slept outside under the stars and when it rained – we ran for cover. I’m not sure we even had any dorms back then. It was more like – this wing was for girls and this wing was for boys and everyone brought tents or slept outside. There were no indoor places to really sleep. I kept Naomie in a cardboard box because there were no rails along the roof. I remember having her in that little box and my dad walking to his bed – kicked it across the roof. That little head just POPPED up like a little snake. 

We grew up together – just 9 years difference but I always took care of her like she was my little baby – spoiling her rotten and doing my best to take care of her family. She lived with us for a few years when Jose and I moved to Haiti. I was so excited……remembering what it was like when she was a little baby. But she wasn’t a baby anymore. She was a teenager! YIKES!  It’s not like I could bring her a box of Barbie dolls and pretend she was mine like she used to be. I learned quickly that teenagers aren’t a lot of fun when you’re the parent!

But one day something happened to her. She was different. She began having seizures and some random mental problems. She often talked about seeing her dead brother and sometimes she would run out into the middle of the courtyard screaming. Selida thought that Naomie had been cursed because she was living with Americans now. So she asked to take her back home.

I told her that curses can’t hurt Christians and Naomie was definitely a Christian. She was at every church function anytime the church was open and she had accepted Christ a long time ago. She took her back anyways and her illness seemed to calm down some but Naomie has never been the same. 

I’m sad that I’m not in Haiti right now – as she is now married and delivered a beautiful baby boy yesterday! She didn’t make it up to the mission in time and delivered him on the road. That always makes me nervous because Rosie was born on the road and her umbilical cord got infected with the dirt and she got Tetanus. But they all tell me that she’s healthy and so is the little boy. I asked if they had named him yet and Momma Gigi told me they were waiting for me. 

Maureen just sent me some pictures! He’s cute – looks kind of white! He may actually be lighter than when Gabriel was born! But today I present to you my new little grandson………

Those are the thoughts and feelings I have right now as I just got off the phone with Momma Gigi. She had called to find out how I was doing. However – I could tell in her voice that she had some bad news to give me. I told her just to say it – what’s wrong? She got really quiet. 

I immediately asked her if Gigi was okay and if her family was okay. I thought perhaps someone had died. She laughed and said no one has died. I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she was afraid I would come back home and be very disappointed in her. 

She said that there is still no power for a good portion of the day. They use a small generator to pump water. She has tried her best but she said when you sit down at the dinning room table – the bamboo chairs – they’ve been overrun by those little Roaches! She said even our living room furniture which is also wood with cushions – she said they’ve made their way there too. We’re not talking about a little roach problem with a dozen or so roaches. We’re talking about hundreds of tiny little gray ones. 

Jose and I are anxious to get back into Haiti and yet with news like that – no power and house full of bugs – it takes away a little of the joy in thinking of returning home. Gigi is still sleeping in Heaven’s Waiting Room at night because of the heat – and it just breaks our heart that we can’t be there right now.

I told Momma Gigi – we should just burn down the house! She told me that she took all the furniture upstairs on our roof in the sun and we continue to go through a can of bagon a day! 

I know this sounds crazy – but I’m asking for prayers for our home! With the last few stressful weeks – I just don’t want to think about coming home to that. We’ve got Jacques looking for foggers in Port-au-Prince but seriously – maybe we should just burn it down!

Now it’s true. It’s 4am and past history should tell me it’s never good to blog when I really should be sleeping. However – I feel a little compelled to write as I’ve received yet again a beautiful email about how if I had insurance then I wouldn’t have all these bills.

Now when I say that Insurance companies are the devil…..I’m not telling them to “go to” the place where the Devil reigns. I’m thinking it. NO – I’m not even thinking it. Because that would be a sin. It would be a sin right? Yeah – it’s a sin. SO – I”m just saying that I think when Jesus comes – he might not take them to Heaven!

I feel like this post might override the joyous post about picking a shirt color. So please make sure you read that one too since I posted these within hours apart.

I feel a little bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Don’t act like you haven’t seen it. You know the scene where Julia goes shopping on Rodeo Drive in Bevery Hills….you know where she goes into a nice store and they look at her in disgust and tell her there’s nothing in this store for her? Then she goes into the hotel and the manager looks at her and says – You need to dress better. Then she starts crying and says – “That’s what I tried to do. I have all this money and no one will help me”.

Okay – for those of you who haven’t seen that movie – if you’re read the blog – Rosie, Rosie, Rosie – then it’s a little like that. Rosie is so high maintenance that she gets kicked out of VBS. Even though the church is collecting offering – they don’t even want Rosie’s quarters.

Now keeping that in mind – let me tell you about our situation…..

I’ve applied to several of the well known insurance companies – Blue Cross, State Farm, Humana, United, etc. I’ve had people tell me – don’t go to those big companies – try my health insurance company. So we did. Now not every rejection letter is written the same but they basically tell me to get out of their store and keep my quarters!

Something about my health history is just a real turn off. I mean I don’t get it. So maybe I’m a little overweight. Big deal – so is half of America! So maybe I had 4 blood transfusions last year. So I may or may not have diverticulitis. So maybe I threw up blood this past year and contract random third world illnesses. So I may or may not have had a stroke this past month. So maybe I will have to continue to see neurologist for migraines for the rest of my life. I mean big deal right? So I live in a foreign country and have had malaria 5 times and one of my kids had typhoid this year. So maybe I have high blood pressure from time to time because of stress. So I have arthritis and a herniated disc in my neck and am told will need surgery in the future. Who doesn’t have problems with their spinal cord? So what – when I was pregnant I almost died during childbirth. So maybe I was in the hospital a week before I had Gabriel and days afterwards due to complications!  So what – all the ER doctors in Miami know me by name now! I mean give me a break already? Who doesn’t have that kind of history and more? Big deal right?

Well apparently it is! You see – not that I have a lot of money but when I offer to give it to them – they tell me NO! Why not charge me 1000.00/month for insurance or something outrageous right? Apparently they don’t even want me in their system.! I don’t think they even want me in their town!! Something about being too high risk! I mean high-risk? Why would they say that? I don’t understand!

So I appreciate all the very well-meaning emails and lectures about having health insurance. I agree with you all. Just tell the insurance companies to take me off their “NO INSURE LIST” and take my quarters!!! 🙂

I ran into an old friend today from high school. Next month is our 10-year reunion. I haven’t talked to my high school friends in years! After we caught up about what we were each doing I asked him if he ever heard from….Let’s just say –  Dog, Cat, Rabbit, Horse, Donkey, or Chicken? 

Now Dog could have any girl he wanted. He was popular, rich, and as far as any of us knew – had everything he could ever want. My friend told me – you didn’t hear about Dog? He overdosed in his house about two years ago. Cat – he overdosed about 1 year ago. Rabbit – he was in a car wreck and died. He was under the influence. Horse – he had a brain aneurism (kind of scary) and died a few months ago. Donkey – he’s in prison for drug possession. Chicken – he’s gone too – suicide. 

WHAT?? WHAT?? WHAT?? I immediately felt the tears stroll down my face. I just couldn’t believe it. All of these overdoses – drinking – drugs – deaths. These weren’t from people that “looked like or had the appearance of”  someone who could ever have a problem with that stuff. Some of these were people that I loved – joked with – laughed with – cried with. How could this be true? 

How do you spend years and years  – over half my life – with people and then you graduate and never speak again until the reunion? How does that even happen? I mean I know everyone grows up and goes to college and the clicks from high school are no longer…..but how did I forget about so many people that I would truly call my friends? 

I was actually here during one of the funerals and never even knew. I saw the crash remains – I saw people gathered crying after it was over – and yet never knew that this was someone I was best friends with in 7th/8th grade. You think I’m funny? You should meet him. When you put us two together – we were unstoppable…..which often got us in trouble! We even got sent to the principal’s office together – several times! Luckily the principal knew I was a “good missionary girl” and we often talked our way out of any troubles. 

It just amazes me how you could spend such a good part of your life – walking the halls together, laughing together, joking together, dreaming together. fighting together – only for that to be your last memories together?

Some of these people – just like in all schools – we even were wishing we could be, wishing we had their money, their house, their life…….only to see their life couldn’t be all that we thought it was or it couldn’t have ended this way. It makes me wish that we got past all those superficial things and really knew the hurt they must have had. 

My friend and I talked for a long time – like nothing had ever changed and the 10 years we were apart meant nothing. I told him I was afraid to ask about anyone else….I don’t think I could handle it. There were a lot of beautiful stories of people who got married, have kids, have great jobs, and have all the appearances of a wonderful life.

I’m just not sure I believe in “appearances” anymore because if appearances were reality – I wouldn’t be so sad right now.

When Jose and I built our house – we took extra time and money to seal it off. We filled in all the holes, cemented all the cracks, we keep all our windows closed, we even have the only storm door in Haiti just to protect ourselves from mice, roaches, bugs, or any other critters. 

We have a Bagon party every two weeks where we spray all around our food depot and all around the house. Now – with all those protections in place – the only way anything can really get into the house is through the front door. For 6 years – we’ve protected our home without fail!

We lived a nearly bug-free life…….until one day when Jose and I brought them right through the front door – Roaches that is. When our food crate came – we unloaded all of our boxes of food and put them right into the cabinets. Those little german roaches decided to hop a ride inside the food boxes and about two months ago we began to notice all their babies running around on our countertops.

Momma Gigi (who is our nanny and cleans the house) and Jose have an agreement not to let me know when they see things because they know I can’t handle it! That was a great plan until one night I wanted some water and turned on the light to a massive party happening on my countertops!

We’ve taken everything out of the cabinets – this was about two weeks before I left. We’ve sprayed and sprayed. Little by little we began to make some headway. Then I got sick and we left. Then the power went out and the house was so hot it was abandoned. Everyone including the dogs slept outside. Momma Gigi said there was never any water to clean so she didn’t come for over a week. 

Well no one thought to check the freezer or fridge that are in my house. I wish we would have thought to tell them too. We lost over 800.00 worth of meats in our freezer. But that’s not the worst of it – Momma Gigi called me tonight and said we’ve lost the battle. With the heat those suckers have multiplied – there is more action happening in our house right now…..well I won’t finish that sentence!

Those critters have even invaded the fridges! GROSS, GROSS, GROSS, GROSS! 

They seem to mainly be in the kitchen but as we spray they’re headed to other parts of the house. Momma Gigi said the only way to win the war is to tear out the bottom cabinets in our kitchen. That’s become their breeding ground and they hide within the cracks of the wood. 

Now I was in the group kitchen when they decided to rip out a wooden window. I won’t tell you what I saw – it’s too horrifying to recapture what happened as several of us stood by that window and then ran for cover when it came out. 

Tomorrow they will tear out those bottom cabinets with a few of our nannies/friends. The nannies will be armed with Bagon, gloves, and brooms! As soon as those cabinets come crashing down they’ll be ready to defend the house! They’re putting towels and sealing off the other rooms just to protect them. I can only imagine what tomorrow will look like!!

So pray for us tomorrow. While the roaches won the battle – we will win the war. I just hope the only casualties are from the other side! YUCK!

I am beginning to feel much better now – although I do have my bad days here and there. Now if I can only get my days and nights back in the right order. I’ve created the habit of staying up until 3 and 4 each morning – afraid to sleep so I don’t wake up in pain. So now I’m wide awake late at night and dead asleep at noon! But overall – I’m doing well. 

I have received a few emails asking whether or not I was able to get aid for my ER bills. We got a letter from St. Joseph Hospital who told us they waived their fees! They said that doesn’t include the Radiologist, ER Doctors, or any other specialists. We thought that was still really great! I mean how much could the ER doctor be anyways? Right? How about 748.00 for the ER doctor who told me I would need brain surgery? WHAT? That’s what I said! We called their collecting agency and asked if there was anything they could do. They told us to send the letter where the hospital waived their fees and to write a letter. So we did both and mailed it out yesterday. We haven’t received our other bills yet – I can only imagine what the radiologist will charge if the ER doctor is that expensive! That’s crazy!

The power situation isn’t any better yet in Haiti. We have a small generator we’re using to pump water. But outside of that there is still no power for anything else. The small generator doesn’t pump enough water for us to share with the town – so that’s still very sad. We’re still looking for parts for the large generator we normally use.  We talked to Courtney in Haiti today and found out one of our little baby orphanage babies died today. Please be in prayer as the staff there grieves for little Jude. 

This was our little down syndrome baby – one of our sets of twins.

This is Courtney (intern) with him. 

Janeil and Heather are now back in the states! For the few hours Janeil was here – I bet his phone rang 15 times! It’s amazing – he gets calls from 5am to 11pm. I told him he needs to make a Top 10 list like I did!! They drove from Miami and arrived here last night – only to get in the truck this morning and head to Kansas City! So pray for them and their kids as they are constantly on the road. No time for them to rest and they looked so worn out last night.  When I think my life is crazy – I look at what all they have to do – wow – their plates are fuller than ours! 

Well – I’m going to drug up so I can sleep when it’s dark out instead of the day time! I’m hoping to get myself back on a normal schedule! Thanks for your prayers, comments, and emails! We truly feel loved.