Hi All:
We had a pretty uneventful trip back home after a great, eventful week in Haiti. We got up at 1:30 and left a bit after 2 am, despite Dr. William thinking we could go at 3 as our plane left at 10:21 for Miami and it would usually take 4 hours at that time of the day, as there are few crazy drivers/people other than ourselves, so he figured a 7 or so arrival would be decent. However, I am notoriously a slow driver in somewhat less than perfect conditions, and potholes, uneven pavement and a large number of vehicles without tail lights, a significant number without headlights travelling in the dark adds to the challenges of navigating a vehicle in Haiti with innumerable obstacles to safety. Using signals is purely an optional suggestion, assuming, of course that they even exist or work. Add to that the couple hundred speed bumps (the raised bumps added to slow down the crazy drivers) and the tens of “dos d’ane”s that are strategically placed to wipe out unsuspecting vehicles with a dip in the road placed to further inhibit speed, one has no need of speed traps for myself. These dips, called after my relative, the Haitian Donkey’s back, the dip that the poor creatures have due to the chronically large burdens they carry, are often at an angle to the road direction, so one wheel drops and, while it is coming out of the planned dip, the other front wheel drops and one can really lose control of whatever already careens down the road at an angle due to being piled high with goods (and a person or so braving the trees while riding way on top). We saw a bus that lost control and ran off the road last week, killing all 45 people inside as well as the people in the house it blew through, a grisly sight.
Duane, who would leave at midnight if he could further avoid the traffic on the road, and I decided 2 am would be less likely to cause us ulcers in fearing a late arrival at the airport, and we were thankful we did. Even at that time of the morning, there were an unusually large number of private vehicles, plus quite a few fuel tankers and other heavy trucks out, presumably as they had been blocked by the riots/demonstrations all week and wanted to take advantage of getting somewhere before others had similar ideas and would try to stop them. Even the market in Port au Prince was already quite active, including the wheelbarrows hauling 3 or 4 skinned pigs to the sales, where they would be chopped with a machete into however many grams of meat you would desire, including the bone chips produced during the cutting process in the price, of course. So, we were very happy to arrive at the airport at 6:45 am and just check in almost the first in line. We had 4 suitcases of materials for the women’s center, as this Haitian Donkey doubles as a hauler of the embroidered materials and other handiwork back to the States for churches to spread out for donations back to keep the center financially solvent. Duane had put the power washer part in his carry on and was rejected by security, but otherwise we had a great trip back home, even switching out the part in Miami and putting it in one of our suitcases (which had already been checked when he was sent back from the Haitian version of TSA, so he checked his carry on to Miami and we corrected things after immigration in Miami, as Duane and Ruth stayed in Florida a few days to visit grandchildren). As our flights went through Philadelphia, we avoided the still troublesome Chicago area in our travels and were thankful to the Lord that He had caused me to use a new flight course (not an option in the past with American, but it is a hub for US Airways). The old route was too short a layover for a group to risk in Miami, so I opted to choose getting home at midnight instead of the alternatives. Everyone but myself welcomed the air conditioned American Airlines lounge temperatures on our arrival in Port, most everyone joined my opinion when we received a cool welcome at 45 degrees in Grand Rapids.
Our Friday was busy but profitable. I ended up doing a complication from our sister hospital, a patient I had seen and treated a couple years ago, then had further surgery there a couple weeks ago and now decided to visit me again to correct the abdominal hematoma from the latest surgery. I drained the large blood collection, washed it out and left most of the wound wide open and pray that she will do well postop. The young man with the possible poison that Mike and I admitted on Thursday with presumed renal shutdown (a favorite method of getting the voodoo doctor to put a curse on those who oppose your life choices in Haiti), seemed very much alive when we last checked him Friday evening and we pray this will continue. We shared tracts with him to read as he recovers, or even to consider if he doesn’t, as eternity seemed (and still is) a very near and distinct possibility for him, as dialysis is not an option. He was weak and troubled but definitely alert and communicative, so hoping that our desperate treatment will have long lasting results.
My attempts to make a site visit to Cap Haitian to look at residency options available there, both for ourselves or possibly having one of our doctors go up there for a 4 year training stint, has run into a dead end street for the time being, as Dr. Mario Florestal, the OB Gyn physician who graduated from our medical school and managed to get a residency slot there a bit over 4 years ago and now works for our sister hospital, Bonne Fin, works 3 weeks straight and then has the 4th week off starting in November, but I am reluctant to spend either Thanksgiving or Christmas away from home as my own future is not all that definitive and would like to maximize family times when possible. So, hoping to go in January, 2015 while our team is working on roofs, remodeling termite eaten cupboards and shelves, putting up the toilets behind the clinic on that new septic system and a host of other projects that seem to sprout up and demand attention. The power washer broke down while Duane had the guys blasting the layers of grease, dirt and other questionable items deposited on the areas around where the merchants cook and peddle their wares in front of the hospital gate. We plan to move them across the road to see if we can keep things cleaner around the hospital itself, then use this site to let our patient’s families cook for themselves and the patient, as well as doing their own laundry there and sleeping in the hostels, instead of all over the hospital floor, making movement and patient care a risky business, especially by the dim lights when we only use a few batteries to light the wards.
We spent a fair amount of time as the leadership of the hospital, trying to figure out how to reduce costs with the government mandated minimum wage increases, especially with our increased number of diabetic patients who come with nonhealing leg ulcers/gangrene and we end up trying to keep debriding the wounds for months before getting to the almost inevitable amputation under life conditions in Haiti, thus causing a bill that, even by our charitable institution’s lower rates than most anywhere else, is too much for the already impoverished individual to settle. Almost all other Haitian hospitals just refuse to care for the patient, so we end up with considerably more than our share of these indigents. I never mind caring for them, but it is a struggle to try to keep the hospital solvent and also sustainable in the future while showing Christlike compassion to these seriously ill individuals with such chronic, incurable conditions. Pray that we will have His guidance, attitudes and wisdom in doing His Work His Way at Centre de Sante Lumiere.
In His Service,
Bill x 2, Sue, Jen, Duane, Ruth, Mike, Joshua (and we sent Dr. Mary Preston home to Virginia on her own today, haven’t heard if she made it yet)