Hi All:

I am back in Haiti with my friends, my first solo trip in a while, I think well over a year, as well as a donkey’s memory lasts. Except for a rocky start in Grand Rapids, it went great.  I have always asked for prayer as I try to bring in donated meds, especially pain meds, as I essentially cannot get them in Haiti and I feel sorry for the poor patients who undergo major surgery, such as the ladies who have a hysterectomy, and only have Tylenol or Ibuprofen to help them with the post-op pain. So, all the donated meds are greatly appreciated, as one cannot go and buy pain meds for himself in the US either. However, the sticky end was always in Haiti, where bringing in meds requires a license and a detailed list of what is brought in to be resold. I do this for my container full of meds I purchase from International Dispensary Association in Amsterdam, a charitable source of meds at greatly reduced prices to only be used in hospitals such as ours, who treat poor patients and are registered as mission organizations.

However, as I only bring in small amounts of donated meds at a time in my suitcase and they are never sold, I believe I am upholding the spirit of the law. The letter of the law would be impossible, as you need the license listing the names and quantities of each medication approved in advance, etc. However, this time the snag was in Grand Rapids, where the TSA security people dug through my baggage and wanted to know why I had some pain meds without a name on them (I always remove or black out the names for privacy reasons, of course), and we ended up with a hassle for over an hour. Fortunately, the second policeman they brought in was a Christian who was very sympathetic to our mission work and we were allowed to continue the trip with my baggage intact.

The trip out of Miami was bumpy as a mega rainstorm hit Florida (some effects of Hurricane Danny?) and some of it hit Haiti this morning also with major mudslides encroaching on the already battered roads. On the plane, I ended up sitting next to a group of men from a Texas Baptist Group who formed a nonprofit to help Haiti after the earthquake and have continued their efforts in aiding some orphanages, and we were discussing the residency problems. The leader of the Texas group had visited with a member of the Haitian Governmental Medical Establishment in their hotel in Miami the night before, by the Lord’s design. They all had practiced some Creole in the lobby and he was seated in his wheelchair in the area and sort of joined in. To make a long story short, I ended up spending over half the flight sitting next to this gentleman. He was in first class, but there was an empty seat next to him and by now I know most of the flight attendants on that leg of the journey enough that they are sympathetic to our cause. He seemed very interested and promised to try to help me get an appointment with the proper authorities.  His name is Dr. Leveille and he just called and said that he made us an appointment at 2:30 pm tomorrow with Dr. DuBuche in Port au Prince!  So, we are praising the Lord and scrambling to change our surgery schedule for tomorrow and the rest of the week to accommodate this.

About an hour before I was to leave for the airport in GR, I received a call from a doctor in (with whom I have coordinated mission work for 10 years now. I think we only met once, about 10 years ago on a Tortug (“Torture”) Air flight from Cayes to Port, but we have shared in our efforts to help the poor of Haiti. He brings teams from his town in Missouri at least once yearly to a village about another hour further down the road and they do bush medical evaluations of large numbers of patients, referring the complicated ones and surgical needs to our hospital/myself. They had delivered a baby with gastroschisis, a condition where the belly wall does not close and the baby has the intestines lying out in the open and a small tummy not very desirable of receiving all that tissue back in the small space. In the US, we make a silo of material that we sew to the open hole and then slowly push the intestines back over a week or so, then close the hole. However, things are not so easy out here with our limited resources, but they sent the baby to our hospital in hopes that they could keep the intestines moist and keep the baby alive until I could get here and try to help him. Unfortunately, the poor little one didn’t have the strength to make the night. The referring doctor was from NY and I met him yesterday. He showed me a picture of the little one, the bowels looked rather troublingly dusky (gray) already, for what a picture can delineate. So, another sad ending to a difficult situation for all involved, I fear.

I have more to add, but will stop and have Karen send this out as I just got the call from Dr. Leveille and am scrambling the schedule, but wanted to get the information to all of you who have been praying for this positive bit of news. Please pray that God will enable this meeting to go favorably. Will give you an update when I get back as soon as reasonably possible.

In His Service, With Thanksgiving,

Bill and the Haitian Crew