Hi All:
We wrapped up a warm week of work at Centre de Santé Lumiere Friday evening and woke up at 12:30 am for the trek back to the U.S. Actually, only Sam, Jim and I came back. I took Duane, Ruth, Ken and Gail to the Wray’s camp Friday afternoon (a good excuse to reduce the length of yet another administrative meeting with its endless deliberation that seems to prevail in almost any decision made in Haiti). The Haitian staff wanted to meet for more discussion regarding the new rules of accountability we have been trying to install for the last 2 years. These new policies have always met with resistance by the administrator, who in the past has even refused to let me store my tools in the room that contains the safe. It is located in the surgery hallway and I wanted to keep my ratchets, screwdrivers and other limited tools there as, at times, I need to adjust equipment like the dermatome, put new blades in equipment, and tighten screws that always seem to work their way loose. It is a small room/cubbyhole but still plenty of space for me to store my tools close to the OR. I tried leaving them in the general OR area, the hallway that leads to the OR is locked, but tools kept getting borrowed and not returned, it seems. Since I now keep them up in my bedroom closet, it is a bit farther away, but underlined his reluctance to let anyone, even me, into the hallowed room.  We obviously didn’t feel this was a wise accountability procedure and tried as a committee to encourage him to allow us to put in rules that always required 2 people to enter into the room and safe. Duane had even placed double locks on both the door to the room and the safe inside quite a while before, much to the dismay of the administrator.

When Duane came to replace the larger generator that died in August, the administrator was on vacation. No one could get at the money nor the checkbook and it precipitated a crisis that we used to more strongly encourage better accountability (as well as availability) in the system. Duane is a force to be reckoned with, so since we both were there this time, we opened the subject in our medical committee meeting again with no intention of backing down. In earlier meetings, everyone on the committee, tried to persuade him; this time, after the usual further discussion, we just told him (kindly) that he was outvoted. We again passed the measure and Duane changed the locks within a few hours, much to the frustration of the administrator. We told him he was welcome to go there anytime, just that he had only one key for both the door and the safe and could no longer enter alone and gave the same key to 2 other administrative people, the accountant and the head of nursing. The keys for the other locks on both structures were kept by the doctors, so we had some checks and balances, plus a team of 2 could get at funds no matter who was on vacation, though it always was one member of each department. I think it took him the rest of our time there to recover from the “shock” as he put it. He felt we needed more discussion and planning on how to make the new situation work, but finally seems to accept reality, though refuses to keep a key and does ‘NOT want to ever enter the safe again’? I guess no matter how long I am in Haiti, I won’t understand how some of their minds work.

That situation took a lot of my emotional energy, but I hope it is done and will put an end to the rumors that float around about where “our hard earned funds are going.” Haiti doesn’t have a lot of trusting people around, probably with good reason. Duane and the rest of the crew made some headway on getting employee houses repaired and covered, though Sam and Duane worked with the team of Haitians on one house that was at such a slant that neither wanted to get on that roof to put new roofing on for fear the whole thing would go down. Scary. We were inundated with requests from other employees who didn’t even have a house, for us to help them build a small 2 room house, as well as many of the neighbors of the hospital in the town of Simon, the street merchants and others in the surrounding area who sustained significant damage to their structures. It is hard to know how to best help those we should and how much to do with all the great needs they all have. It is amazing how quickly the trees and brush begin to sprout again and green reappears despite the destruction to cover it up. The bridges that went down still requite some navigation to get over the piles of dirt and debris that make a temporary crossing possible until some sort of repair can be arranged.

The trip home went quite well, I refrained from eating or drinking more than a few bites and unhooked my TPN before entering the airport, as I figured I would never make it through Haitian security with it on. In the U.S. (Grand Rapids), they know me quite well by now. I get a thorough body search and pat down and the bags are swiped and checked for residue, but I think that the situation would be way too complicated for the security in Port au Prince. So, I just sip on some water and have a few crackers to keep things quiet til I get back to the warm house and functioning facilities in the freezing cold. We had every scrap of clothing on while we waited for our carryons to come up to the jet bridge in Grand Rapids Saturday night, a major shock to our systems. But, we are thankful to be back in the routine of the US workload and for all of you who make our service for Him in Haiti possible. Pray for the 4 straggling members who will come home on Wednesday and for wisdom as we plan at least several more trips combining medicine with relief work for those who suffered so much loss in the hurricane. Once again, many thanks also for all who contributed to the “Rice and Goats” fund as we were able to make arrangements before we left for paying for the purchases to make the Haitian employee’s Christmas brighter at least from the nutritional standpoint. It is a joy to be a part of the large wonderful team of folks who work together to help Centre de Sante Lumiere shine more brightly for His glory.

In His Service,
Bill, Duane, Gail, Jim, Ken, Ruth and Sam