Hi All:

The Haitian Donkey is enjoying himself, pretty much, as the heat is nice, he sweats a bit but it beats shivering and being cold. We finally have some rain, but the people are suffering already with the plummeting of the Goude compared to the US Dollar, making it harder to stretch the food supply to care for the family, etc. To make matters worse, other than somewhat of a splash from Hurricane Erika, at least our part of the island has had very little water and the corn fields look as scraggly as the Haitian Donkey’s knobby knees. All in all, it means that, after 2 very hectic trips, this one is a bit slower as many of the patients I have seen in surgery clinic are scrambling to find funds to have the procedure and can’t find enough to get it done yet. I did bring a fair amount of funds to replenish the Poor Fund, but that only goes so far to meet the great need. Plus, school has started with extra costs for the families to try to send the kids there. Since much of the food supply comes from the US, the dropping Goude is so much more obvious as the exchange rate affects market prices very rapidly. Thus, we need both greener fields and more greenbacks to purchase supplies.

So, we have been doing a bit less surgery than the last times, still quite tolerable. However, with all the potential changes on the horizon, I have more than filled up the hours with administrative meetings, not my cup of tea, surely, but I suppose I can only escape it for so long. I think I have done my share of head butting with the administrator this week, both in private meetings and in the Medical Committee, maybe I should switch to being the Haitian Goat, as the horns may make progress more effective? For the most part, I think we have 180 degree opposite philosophies of how a Christian should lead an institution and at times he doesn’t want to just agree to disagree. Much of this has to do with a lack of understanding as to what we doctors have to do for our jobs, especially if one is conscientious and comes in at night to care for patients when the physician on call is too green to handle it well and asks for help, plus the uncertainty of the patient needs causing one to spend more than a few minutes each day trying to sort out the proper diagnosis and treatment, given our limited access to medical equipment and treatments. So, at times I have to dig in my hoofs to protect the rest of my medical crew. Also, he wants to put more legal contracts (he is a lawyer by training, of course) on Drs. William and Adulte than the CSL-USA team thinks is necessary or appropriate. I think some of it boils down to a power struggle, so I need wisdom as to how to handle the situation in a God honoring fashion.

I still have not obtained any answers as to exactly how, if, etc the residency program will come to pass and don’t want to miss out on making the proper connections, but moving stones in Haiti is a monumental job. I called early this morning again to Dr. Leveille, my contact on the flight in last time, and he promised to talk to Dr. DuBuche, the head of the Department of Health, this afternoon. I want to try my best to send my colleagues on to greener pastures for the 4 years of surgical training soon. We are thankful to report that Pastor Rhony seems to be making some progress from the severe head trauma he suffered, reports are conflicting but at this point he has considerable residual. We all have tried to contribute to his staggering medical expenses and pray that he will make a decent, even full, recovery. The replacement chaplains are a delight to work with, they are considerably more mature and it shows in the work they do around the hospital, on the wards, in the clinic and with the staff. I again appreciated them during surgical clinic as had my frequent 3 patients with hopelessly advanced cancers showing up for their first visit several years too late, so they could help me encourage them and counsel them spiritually. so, am thankful that they help me give some greener future to the difficulties these poor souls face.

Last night, we had a young orphan from the Bon Berger (Good Shepard) Mission swallow a 2 inch needle. She was brought to me a few hours later with a cough, it appears to be lodged in her left lung. I am stymied as to how to approach it given my limited resources, even the quality of our xrays leaves a lot to be desired. I encouraged them to at least consider a CT scan in Port, as there are some US donors supporting the orphanage and I could not get much cooperation from the patient. Not sure why, of course, that might be part of the picture why this happened in the first place. Then, about 11 pm, had a lady whose husband attacked her with a broken glass bottle and chopped up her knee, the blood all over the place was impressive and freaked everyone out. We managed to repair the pieces in some semblance of order, including placing a drain inside as all the shredded tissue tended to ooze. This morning, another glass bottle injury to the leg arrived, this was an accident, but required considerable rearrangement in the OR. On Tuesday, we did our 5,000th surgical case since I arrived her in 2004, appropriately a hysterectomy, so we are thankful for the excellent track record the Lord has blessed us with during the years and praise His Name for helping us thus far.

In His Service,

Bill (Maybe should be Billy Goat not so gruff?)