Hi All:

We just got out of a long day in surgery, I know we did 6 hysterectomies and an exploratory laparotomy and several hernias plus a smattering of smaller cases. It was mostly Dr. Moise and I, as I have William working at high speed to get all the papers in order to leave again in the wee hours of the morning to meet with MSPP (the Haitian equivalent of the Department of Health) and to hopefully complete the last steps to getting them into a residency in October, 2015 up in Cap Haitian. I promised Karen I would be short, but have been on cloud 9 (and last evening maybe 8) for about 30 hours now.

William, our trusty driver/friend/orderly Jean Eddy and myself left at 2 am on Tuesday, as there have been lots of rioting in the streets and we wanted to be sure we got to Port before the days festivities began. On the way to get me this weekend, they had some trouble navigating a barricade and a large stone struck and cracked the front differential. When they arrived at the airport to get me, they told me it was leaking transmission fluid, but it seemed to be a slow leak. They said I needed to be sure the engine didn’t overheat, so watch the gauge. I checked, didn’t have the heart to tell them that there would be no way that this unit getting hot would raise the engine temperature, and carefully limped it home. Hopefully, Greg, one of the Reciprocal Ministries missionaries, can get it fixed tomorrow. He checked it out and said that it would require soldering and he will do it tomorrow, so it will be ready for my trip home on Saturday.

We got to Port at 6 am Tuesday without any major barriers to cross, as even the rabble rousers don’t want to stay up all night to block traffic. We waited til 1 pm to arrive at our 2:30 appointment and, by the blessing of God, had a most warm reception. Dr. Leveille (the gentleman God allowed me to fly into Haiti with and share my burden at length) was there, and true to his word, he had Dr. DuBuche there to receive us on time (a very positive sign in Haiti, from 11 years of prior experience). They had a pot of coffee and he offered us a cup each. It was very black and no cream, so both of us took a chance at offending them by stating that our stomachs couldn’t tolerate that very well. I think the spoons stood upright in the mix, either from the strength of the coffee or the volume of sugar they added. They reviewed all the papers I had brought, including all the cases we had kept a record of (thanks to the program my family, specifically Rachel, set up for me years ago) and stated they were really impressed with what we were doing and certainly wanted to help us continue the work by putting Dr. William and Dr. Adulte in the residency. I had a thick book of the nearly 5000 cases we have done neatly organized on the computer with results, etc printed out for their review. They took the book and flipped through it and kept it for further review. I was stunned that they were so congenial and actually wanted to help our hospital. After an hour with them, including them asking Dr. William about how he thought Pastor Chavannes was doing in the presidential election and asking me what I thought about it, I informed them that my son was the politician in the house and I was unable to carry on an intelligent conversation in that realm. Dr. DuBuche agreed as his son is also a lawyer in the US and into politics (for the other party though, William thought; I wisely didn’t offer my comments in that respect) and we seemed to have some mutual ground to share in our family situations.

Thus, they requested that our guys submit the rest of their papers – we had brought along their certificates of graduation from medical school, their licenses, their CVs, and they gathered all that, telling me that time was short, as the class starts in October, and could I assure them that they would have the last couple papers and their Tax ID/Social Security information before I left for the US this coming weekend? We said our fond goodbyes and rode home on cloud 9. I dropped down a cloud as Jean Eddy and I had some horrid diarrhea, must be something we ate while waiting. We visited with William’s childhood friend who works for Compassion International and was very gracious to us, but not sure what the 2 of us ate that didn’t set well. Riding home for 4 hours without any sort of an acceptable potty stop (unless you call trying to hide behind a tree from the curious kids who wonder what the white boy is doing) was only able to put a brief damper on our praising the Lord for His goodness to us and, with the desperate addition of some Ciprofloxin x 3 doses, I was able to bump back up from cloud 8 to 9 today and operate all day, thankfully.

Will get this out and obey my wife and hit the bed, but one more political twist to things. Last time, Duane struggled with getting the generator to keep functional, as we only had one hour or so daily from the government source. Apparently President Martely came to Cayes in my absence and stumped for his party (by Haitian law, he cannot do a second term until he takes one off) and was met with a lot of unhappy citizens as the electrical supply was so diminished. He promised to rectify it and we have had 18 hr or so of electricity all this week so far, great for all the surgeries I am doing. How long it will last is anyone’s guess. Apparently he also did try to keep his campaign promise to give free elementary education to all under grade 6, but the flip side is that no school can charge fees for the school services, so the poor teachers have had to teach all year without more than 2 months of pay and since the schools may not charge the kids, where does the money come from? Needless to say, the frustration levels are high everywhere in Haiti.

So, thanks so much for praying for our trip and join us in praising the Lord for the good progress so far and pray that all will continue to work out for our trainees to complete their official surgical residencies. Even the Haitian donkey cannot help making a joyful heehaw unto the Lord for all the great things He has done!

In His Service,

Bill, William, Adulte and the rest of the Centre de Sante Lumiere Medical Team