Hi All:

One would have thought that it was a first time trip for Dan Boerman and myself as we left Grand Rapids. We arrived at the airport at 4:45 or so for the 6:51 flight with our baggage. I took the two passports and checked myself in with my two bags of medical supplies. The agent then asked me for Dan’s passport and I told him it was there on the counter. He smiled and said it was a lady on the passport. Dan lives about 45 minutes north of the airport and it was about 90 minutes before departure. He and Kim took off and their son met them halfway and we thanked God that that would work out. As they left with their baggage (in case they didn’t make it back) we noted that Dan had loaded a carry on at the last moment with lots of heavy plumbing parts that were needed, so we had an extra carry on, as I always need to use my trip mate’s carry on to fit all my TPN in, as it has to remain cold. I won’t ask how quickly we traveled, but he made it back in good time.

While he was gone, I tried to send the carry on as an extra piece, paying the extra charge, as my two bags were gone and I couldn’t easily put it in his suitcases (plus he had them with him). Apparently, there is a new rule that you cannot purchase a 3rd bag at any cost. Fortunately, the Grifhorsts who were going with us and were already at the gate had only two carry-ons for three people and we escaped that scrape. When we took off, I prepared to switch from my TPN to the regular fluids but started thinking that, as we checked our TPN carryons, I hadn’t noted the spare pump and charger. On arrival in Charlotte, I confirmed with Karen that the pump was plugged into the charger at home! She and our transportation specialist daughter in law, Jenn, spent the next hours trying to find some way to get these to Haiti in the next couple days as FedEx, etc, for all practical purposes, doesn’t exist in Haiti. (Nor does the mail system- a Women’s Missionary Group from the Kalamazoo, MI area wrote me several years ago and mailed it to the hospital; it took 18 months to get here and I am sure they didn’t believe my response as I never heard back from her and presumed I was stretching the truth). Karen also emailed people in Haiti and called Olga, our friend who runs the center for women, and Olga and her husband Caleb sent an emergency email to everyone they could think of. Karen was about to leave for American Airlines with a tiny package to send for a not tiny price when she got a phone call from Val Gutwein, saying that her husband, Jan, was leaving at 4 a.m. on Monday for Haiti. So Karen and Kathy Sytsma, our friend who is always seemingly game to help out, took off with the parts to Indiana and I am praying they will catch up with me tonight and I can return to my normal schedule of IV food and fluids. Last I heard, Kim had to undergo some “retail therapy” at the stores to restore her emotional status. I think we both taxed our wives’ levels of patience and frustration without intending to. We are both blessed with special friends as spouses and we thank God daily for them.

The flights in were good and we arrived in Port at Prince pretty much on time at 5:40 pm. We had heard that there has been considerable flooding in Haiti, especially in Cayes. Travel to the hospital was challenging as the roads were flooded and one has no idea where the huge potholes and speed bumps are under the mud and water.  Forward progress thus was quite slow, plus we had rather vigorous winds that soaked Dan and Dudu in the back of the truck as well as much of the luggage, despite tarps wrapped around them and the baggage. We arrived after midnight and slept like logs.  Evert is a talented HVAC and other skills man who was “recruited”  by the Lord during our last trip to Haiti as he sat next to me on the way down to Haiti and sat next to Tom Failing on the way back; Tom had a totally different itinerary from me! During our time there last time, Evert was up north with a water purification project but was interested in helping us with our broken down OR air conditioning and the equipment for that arrived in a container while we were in Haiti. The Lord engineered that one perfectly and Evert seems to fit in well. He is my age and came from the Netherlands at 25, so we talked about our love for Indonesian food among many other topics as we slogged home in the pelting rain at a snail’s pace.

Today was Labor Day for a good segment of the world, which I had forgotten, thus we ran the clinic and hospital, as well as the OR, on a skeleton crew. We only did 8 surgeries as Dr. Moise and I took off from the OR for several hours to work the clinic and help them see the number of patients who took advantage of the holiday to get checked out. Tomorrow, we should be back to full staff again. Evert and Dan have been working on one of the generators (we carried 2 alternators in our suitcases for the brand new generator that had a defective one), repairing the leak in the water line to the hostels and the dental clinic, trying to fix some more roof leakage, though how much is due to the high winds and deluges of water remains to be seen. They are also going to work on a couple other houses of employees that need some more adjusting, so, as usual, they will not be sitting around looking for work.

Beth Newton is packing up some of her stuff and will return with us, plus we will carry a couple suitcases of stuff home for her, as well as some for Olga’s Women’s Ministry. Jo Marturano, the psychiatrist who comes for a couple of weeks twice yearly, will fly in as we leave on Saturday, as we try to economize on trips to and from Port and we are trying to set up some supplies for her work. Dan and I hope to work on some administrative issues to help set that on proper footing with the changes that have taken place. Please pray for wisdom for all of us, that we may make decisions that are just and God honoring for the work and testimony we want to maintain for Him here in Haiti.

In His Service,

Bill, Dan, Evert, Kelly and Paul