Mission Trip Report- January, 2014
o We asked them about how many grades they would teach and if they could cover all the subjects
and it sounds like they will. We asked if we would be able to stop the Lavalle school project at
this time and Father was not sure that we could. He said it depended on what grades the Lavalle
kids were in and what grades were being included in the Gandou school.
o Everything still sounds very good with this project.
o Father provided some grades for the University kids. Seems that they have all failed at least one
class but are re-taking it. For the most part they are doing well however…..we are getting a little
worried that they may need to spend an extra semester in school.
o These students asked us to send them their sponsors email addresses. They did not seem to know
who their sponsors were.
o We told them that we are leaving enough money with Father to help them with books and other
things they need. If they need something they need to ask Father for it.
• Clinic/Health Care Workers/Nurse
o In the past we have been asking the health care workers and the nurse to come to our meeting
better prepared to discuss the status of the referral patients that they have been working on.
o We have also asked the nurse to take the lead on this and help the health care workers to get more
organized on this.
o Also, due to the fact that they have not gotten as many referral patients done as we had hoped, we started an incentive program where each health care worker gets a bonus for every patient in the referral program they complete. We decided we would provide a $20 US bonus if they got the patient done. We had told them to be ready to tell us how many they got done to get their bonus, but we had not yet told them how much the bonus was going to be.
o For the first time on this trip they truly were ready and organized. The nurse led us through the process and she would report how many patients each health worker had accomplished and then the health worker would tell me which patients and they would provide details including receipts. The process worked very well. We were able to go through the work of each of the health workers quickly and come to agreement on how many patients they had accomplished.
o I decided to pay them the full $20 for any patient completely done that could be moved from the program, but for patients that they worked on but could not be removed or died I did not pay them the full amount. For example there were two young boys with hernia problems that they tried to get care for but the doctors they were working with on these boys said they were too young and they would need to come back in a few years. For cases like this I only paid them $10.
o Each of the health workers had completed several referral patients and were well on their way with other patients. The final numbers summary was the following:
o Francois-3 surgeries done, 1 child that was taken for surgery but was not old enough, 1 patient that was cared for until she died, 1 exam done that yielded completion. 4 others active. Based on these numbers I told him we would provide an extra $100 for this work.
o Oscal-2 surgeries done. 2 exams completed and medicine provided that yielded a completion of the patients. I told him we would provide an extra $80 for this work.
o Ricgo-2 exams done that yielded patients that were complete, 1 exam that was ½ done. I told him that I would provide an extra $50 for this.
o Xavier-4 surgeries done. I told him I would pay an extra $80 for this.
o All the details of which patients were cared for and all the details of what was done, total costs, and receipts were written down in the referral binder. Most surgeries were accomplished for about $150US. This is likely much cheaper than we could do them for.
o We are very happy with the way that this program is now working. The health care workers and father are as well. Now that they know and see that they are going to get paid by how hard they work I suspect they will accomplish much more the next time. We likely will have trouble affording it, but we need to get the 250 patients that are in our referral program done so we will re-assess the program next time.
o We discussed the motorcycle project with the health workers, Father, and the nurse. They all seemed interested and happy with the project. Father said that he would get costs for us on Monday when he was going to Jacmel, but when he came back he did not prove this to me. He was going to get a quote on a 250cc or less motorcycle and get the quote with and without motorcycle gear. He asked how quickly we could move forward on this project and we said once we have the quote and go to our meeting we could approve and send the money very quickly.
o Sounds like the plan is for Ricgo and Oscal to definitely use the motorcycle and Xavier and Francois will likely use it but since they are older they were not sure.
o We thanked the nurse for her monthly reports but we reminded her again that we have asked her several times for her to tell us stories of her patients and the cases she is seeing. For example if a patient comes in malnourished we would like to know the details and why the patient is malnourished. We told her we would like to have stories to include in our bulletin. She agreed that she could do this.
o We talked for some time about better communication. We only get a monthly report from the nurse and it doesn’t provide any details on the status of the referral patients. We would like to know more of what is happening on a day to day basis and we would like to get updates on the status of the very high priority patients several times between trips so we can ask questions, help with what to do, and make sure people are not going to die. One method that seemed to open the door to more communication was getting the nurse a smart phone. She has been sending Stephanie message from a smart phone and it seems she would send more messages with this rather than by email where she has to be given permission to use the computer by Father. She reported that she had a smart phone but now it is not working. Father and the translator reported that getting her a smart phone would not be any big deal. We would just need to stop somewhere in Haiti and do it. Likely $100 US for the phone and something like $10US per month for internet. I asked if we did this could she send us something every day and she said yes. I asked if we did this could Father send us something every day and he said no. I asked for something once a week and he said he could. I asked if we could cancel the satellite internet on the main computer and they both quickly said no.
o This trip we started to push Father more to take money from the referral program for the patients that we deal with during the week rather than us providing money out of our pockets for them. This did not work so well because Father said he was not prepared for this and he did not have money from the bank to do this. He said he would like us to warn him next time if we plan to do this. I told him from now on he should plan for this before every trip. He should always have money on-hand for care of the referral patients. He said he could do this for the next trip.
• Arts & Crafts to sell
o We did not pick up any more crafts to sell and we did not have any of the people that provided the crafts on the last trip come back to collect the money directly from us, however we did provide it to Father with the names of the people that gave us the crafts for sale.
o We have sold about ½ of the craft and we have obtained enough money that we believe the people making the crafts will be happy. We will continue to sell as we find places to sell and we will continue to take back the money to these people.
• Next Trip
o June 17-25 and these dates work well for Father.
• Extremely Poor Mothers/Families Fund
o Many of the people that we entered into the extremely poor families fund showed up again this trip. The program seems to be working well.
o Most of the families on the program came back and had at least one receipt of having received money from Father. Most were in December. Not sure why it took so long for them to get their money but at least they got it.
o Father reported that there was only one family in the program that he does not know and that did not get their money.
o We had so many extremely poor families that came through clinic this time. We added several more to the poor families fund and we kept most of the families from last trip which spreads the funds a little thinner yet. We really need to figure out how to double the amount we have for this. We will start asking God for this.
• Beds in Gandou
o We had previously sent money to Gandou for beds for the rectory for us to sleep on. We sent this because last trip we really struggled to find enough beds to sleep on. People from last trip did not get much sleep during the trip due to this situation.
o Father reported that he purchased 5 mattresses so far with the money. He said he got those in Jacmel but he did not want to purchase too many there because the price of them there is higher than it is in Port-au-Prince.
o We asked were these mattresses were so we could take a picture and we could try to see if the bed covers we brought with us would work. The cook led us to them and they were in the tents of the construction workers that are working on the church. Our team did not get to use them.
o They are nice, about exactly what we were asking for.
o The covers are great, but about 1 foot too wide.
o Need to confirm with Father in a couple months that he has purchased the rest of them so we have them before the next trip.
• Nurse’s Visa
o Our nurse asked for our help to write a letter of invitation to see if she could get her visa.
• Checks for stay in Gandou
o Father reported there is no issue with paying him by check for our stay in Gandou. It simply takes 22 days to cash, but there is no trouble cashing them.
• Father Nexcene’s Priorities
o Father reported the following:
Build an office for the school. It would be close to the current school. About 12 feet by 12 feet. He has no estimate on cost yet. He said it would be used to store documents and a meeting space.
Psychologist to come to check the school kids that are not learning well and have training for them to help them do better. Father reported that 15-20 kids need this.
Father wants us to increase the amount of money we pay for the sponsorships and food program. He reported that the costs of things has gone up but the amount we are sponsoring has not.
o When Father was staying at Matthew 25 house with us this trip the Haitian leader of the Gift of Water project was there and he spent time talking to Father about the project. I am sure Father had heard about it before as well, but Father asked us to do this project for the people. Last time we met with him I understood Father wanted a community water purification system for the rectory area, and I asked about that and Father reported that he wanted the gift of water project not the community purifier near the rectory.
o Father is happy with our idea to build rooms on top of the new part of the rectory like they have at Matthew 25 and he wants to move ahead with that project. He had no idea of the costs.
o Father wants to move ahead with the motorcycle project for the health care workers to transport patients.
Mission Focus Area #2 – Health Care for our Sister Parish
• Sea Container
o In April it will be one year since we sent our first sea container with all the medicine in it for one trip.
o For some reason this container has still not cleared customs in Haiti. We keep talking to the director at Rays of Hope and they keep going down to Haiti to work on getting it released along with their people in Haiti but it still has not cleared. However the container we sent in August has cleared and Father had these 6 totes at the rectory waiting on us.
o The totes we used for this shipment were high quality totes but by the time they got to Gandou they were pretty beat up. Some of the corners were crunched and some of the toothpaste inside was punctured. Need to make sure we stick with high quality totes.
o We were able to use the medicine from these totes along with the medicine we brought with us on this trip. Everything worked fine.
• Medical clinic/pharmacy
o Clinic Results/Numbers - Totals were 1263 patients that went through our 4 days of clinic.
o Every day we worked until past dark and since everyone was so willing to work hard there was no days that we had to send away patients.
o The ID card process continues to work very well. Most every patient that came into the clinic had an ID card either from a previous trip or from our ID card station that was
producing ID cards this trip. The ID card station was easily able to keep up and keep us supplied with patients. The college kids are great at this and required nearly no support from us.
o The little girl named Roselore with the PDA heart condition and had come to the USA for surgery and returned to Haiti late last year showed up and looked great. She was very happy and friendly. The doctors listened to her heart and she is doing fine. She spent extra time hanging around the rectory. It seems Father likes her and she gets to stay around and eat there sometimes.
o While we were there we had several patient emergencies. One patient was in congestive heart failure (CHF). The patient was in dire need of oxygen. We had our translator Laikaard and the nurse take her to Jacmel for care and oxygen. There is no heart surgery in Haiti like the patient really needs.
o A huge part of our mission this trip was to work with a patient named Jesula. She is a young mother in her twenties, and has an amelioblastoma which has yielded a huge mass on her jaw that is closing off her airway. We have everything setup on the USA side to bring her to the USA for care and surgery since this cannot be done in Haiti. Several days before this trip Father Nexcene sent us an email that he had worked through her issues with the patient’s birth certificate and he has obtained her passport. During this trip we had to work through the Visa process. Father was not able to do the initial step in the process until Monday before we left. However as soon as he was done with this we sent in the Visa appointment request and the request to expedite it. Both requests were granted. One team member from the trip was planning to stay extra time in Haiti and within a couple days after our trip he had a visa appointment and the Visa was granted. It was done the next day and he picked it up. They flew to the USA the following day. We praise God….she is here now for the surgery and she is so happy. The surgery will take place in March in North Carolina. We can’t thank God enough.
• Dental clinic and extractions.
o We were blessed on this trip with a wonderful dentist from Cincinnati. He had gone with us once before and was returning on this trip to work beside the 3 Haitian dentists we had hired.
o 2 of the Haitian dentists were from the Haitian dental team that we had worked with last time.
o We also had our Haitian dentist leader…Dr. Peterson as usual.
o Fran Grebel from St. Louis also joined us on the trip as our much needed hygienist.
o Our dental team was very strong and they were setup well for extractions and repairs.
o The total numbers are as follows:
Patients: 350
Fillings: 92
Extractions: 400
Cleanings: 53
o This was our second time working with the Haiti dental team. We wanted to try a new approach with them this trip and pay them by the procedure they completed. We offered them $5 per extraction and $7 per filling.
o This process seemed to work very well and they worked hard all week.
o They seemed to keep track of the number of patients they saw and their numbers matched our numbers well at the end of the week.
o As a part of the deal with these dentists we asked them to transport themselves to Gandou and they said they would but later came back and said they could not so we worked out an agreement with them to reduce the amount they got.
o We look forward to working with this dental team in the future. Everything worked out well.
Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish.
• Port-au-Prince
o 4 team members from Chicago found out the night before our trip that their flight had been cancelled. They found another flight that was to get into Fort Lauderdale early enough that they could take a cab to Miami and join us for our flight. The problem was it was about -10degF in Indy and Chicago when we left on January 28th. It was so cold that in Chicago the fueling truck for the airplanes would not start and they could not fuel planes fast enough. Their flight was delayed and they did not have enough time to travel from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and missed the flight in Miami. Two other team members from Chicago were delayed and just barely caught the flight in Miami.
o We had planned to spend the night in Port-au-Prince anyway and ½ the next day at the Missionaries of Charity orphanage so everything worked out. By the next day when everyone finally made it to Port-au-Prince we were done at the Missionaries of Charity and we were ready to go to Gandou.
o One of the doctors on this trip has family in a city in Haiti called Jeremie. Her grandfather there was sick so she wanted to take the small prop plane from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie and visit him. She did this for two days and flew back. She was able to pick up the one bag in Port-au-Prince that did not come in from our flights and had a driver drive her to Jacmel and Father Nexcene picked her up there. Everything worked out very surprisingly well.
o Our visit to the Missionaries of Charity was very good. There are so many needs there. The kids just scream when you put them down. They are so love starved. It was a little less overwhelming this time due to the fact that we went on Wednesday which is the day that some of the family members of the kids come back to hold them….therefore there were not as many screaming kids as usual.
o While we were there we asked about part of our team staying at the orphanage during a future trip to simply help there the whole week while we are in Gandou or even starting a second mission that comes down at a different time of the year. The nuns there said they are now offering a guest room to do this again after the earthquake. I have the contact names to start making arrangements for this.
• Travel to Gandou
o We didn’t have too much trouble with traffic in Port-au-Prince.
o We made good time and pass through the Baudin road.
o We did have trouble with one of the trucks making it up the mountain. We later found out that the 4 wheel drive was not working on this truck. It is only a miracle that the truck was able to make it up the hills at all without 4 wheel drive. I am sure angels were pushing the truck. This had to be the case because on the way home, when the hills are not as bad and we have the truck bed full of guys we could not make it up the smaller hills and had to do special things to make it up the hills. Clearly God was helping us. If it had rained we would have never made it out without 4-wheel drive.
o We made the trip in like 7.5 hours. Not too bad.
• Accommodations in Gandou
o Father was staying in his new room on top of the old rectory so we had 3 rooms open to us.
o Everyone stayed in these rooms but the men from Chicago who brought their own tent.
o Everyone was fairly comfortable.
o The weather was very nice. Nearly no rain and high 70s to low 80s all week. Praised be God.
o Water from the cistern seemed to be available as the team needed it.
o Food was a little light this trip, more than usual. Likely because Father is feeding all the construction workers. Several meals we ran out of food.
• Exposure to Haiti
o On Friday, most of the new group were able to visit the local market. This helped them better understand the daily life in Gandou.
o Most every day part of the team took a hike to the top of the mountain before breakfast. This was nice for them to see Haiti and life there.
o On Sunday, most of the group got to go out into the countryside. A few people were able to visit people in their homes.
o One area that we feel we are lacking on the trips is building a real connection to the people in Gandou and the translators.
o It seemed like on this trip especially that our team simply was not able to spend enough time with the Haitian people to make a connection. I wish we were able to spend more time sitting with them near the rectory or on the Church steps….maybe after the Church construction is done.
and it sounds like they will. We asked if we would be able to stop the Lavalle school project at
this time and Father was not sure that we could. He said it depended on what grades the Lavalle
kids were in and what grades were being included in the Gandou school.
o Everything still sounds very good with this project.
o Father provided some grades for the University kids. Seems that they have all failed at least one
class but are re-taking it. For the most part they are doing well however…..we are getting a little
worried that they may need to spend an extra semester in school.
o These students asked us to send them their sponsors email addresses. They did not seem to know
who their sponsors were.
o We told them that we are leaving enough money with Father to help them with books and other
things they need. If they need something they need to ask Father for it.
• Clinic/Health Care Workers/Nurse
o In the past we have been asking the health care workers and the nurse to come to our meeting
better prepared to discuss the status of the referral patients that they have been working on.
o We have also asked the nurse to take the lead on this and help the health care workers to get more
organized on this.
o Also, due to the fact that they have not gotten as many referral patients done as we had hoped, we started an incentive program where each health care worker gets a bonus for every patient in the referral program they complete. We decided we would provide a $20 US bonus if they got the patient done. We had told them to be ready to tell us how many they got done to get their bonus, but we had not yet told them how much the bonus was going to be.
o For the first time on this trip they truly were ready and organized. The nurse led us through the process and she would report how many patients each health worker had accomplished and then the health worker would tell me which patients and they would provide details including receipts. The process worked very well. We were able to go through the work of each of the health workers quickly and come to agreement on how many patients they had accomplished.
o I decided to pay them the full $20 for any patient completely done that could be moved from the program, but for patients that they worked on but could not be removed or died I did not pay them the full amount. For example there were two young boys with hernia problems that they tried to get care for but the doctors they were working with on these boys said they were too young and they would need to come back in a few years. For cases like this I only paid them $10.
o Each of the health workers had completed several referral patients and were well on their way with other patients. The final numbers summary was the following:
o Francois-3 surgeries done, 1 child that was taken for surgery but was not old enough, 1 patient that was cared for until she died, 1 exam done that yielded completion. 4 others active. Based on these numbers I told him we would provide an extra $100 for this work.
o Oscal-2 surgeries done. 2 exams completed and medicine provided that yielded a completion of the patients. I told him we would provide an extra $80 for this work.
o Ricgo-2 exams done that yielded patients that were complete, 1 exam that was ½ done. I told him that I would provide an extra $50 for this.
o Xavier-4 surgeries done. I told him I would pay an extra $80 for this.
o All the details of which patients were cared for and all the details of what was done, total costs, and receipts were written down in the referral binder. Most surgeries were accomplished for about $150US. This is likely much cheaper than we could do them for.
o We are very happy with the way that this program is now working. The health care workers and father are as well. Now that they know and see that they are going to get paid by how hard they work I suspect they will accomplish much more the next time. We likely will have trouble affording it, but we need to get the 250 patients that are in our referral program done so we will re-assess the program next time.
o We discussed the motorcycle project with the health workers, Father, and the nurse. They all seemed interested and happy with the project. Father said that he would get costs for us on Monday when he was going to Jacmel, but when he came back he did not prove this to me. He was going to get a quote on a 250cc or less motorcycle and get the quote with and without motorcycle gear. He asked how quickly we could move forward on this project and we said once we have the quote and go to our meeting we could approve and send the money very quickly.
o Sounds like the plan is for Ricgo and Oscal to definitely use the motorcycle and Xavier and Francois will likely use it but since they are older they were not sure.
o We thanked the nurse for her monthly reports but we reminded her again that we have asked her several times for her to tell us stories of her patients and the cases she is seeing. For example if a patient comes in malnourished we would like to know the details and why the patient is malnourished. We told her we would like to have stories to include in our bulletin. She agreed that she could do this.
o We talked for some time about better communication. We only get a monthly report from the nurse and it doesn’t provide any details on the status of the referral patients. We would like to know more of what is happening on a day to day basis and we would like to get updates on the status of the very high priority patients several times between trips so we can ask questions, help with what to do, and make sure people are not going to die. One method that seemed to open the door to more communication was getting the nurse a smart phone. She has been sending Stephanie message from a smart phone and it seems she would send more messages with this rather than by email where she has to be given permission to use the computer by Father. She reported that she had a smart phone but now it is not working. Father and the translator reported that getting her a smart phone would not be any big deal. We would just need to stop somewhere in Haiti and do it. Likely $100 US for the phone and something like $10US per month for internet. I asked if we did this could she send us something every day and she said yes. I asked if we did this could Father send us something every day and he said no. I asked for something once a week and he said he could. I asked if we could cancel the satellite internet on the main computer and they both quickly said no.
o This trip we started to push Father more to take money from the referral program for the patients that we deal with during the week rather than us providing money out of our pockets for them. This did not work so well because Father said he was not prepared for this and he did not have money from the bank to do this. He said he would like us to warn him next time if we plan to do this. I told him from now on he should plan for this before every trip. He should always have money on-hand for care of the referral patients. He said he could do this for the next trip.
• Arts & Crafts to sell
o We did not pick up any more crafts to sell and we did not have any of the people that provided the crafts on the last trip come back to collect the money directly from us, however we did provide it to Father with the names of the people that gave us the crafts for sale.
o We have sold about ½ of the craft and we have obtained enough money that we believe the people making the crafts will be happy. We will continue to sell as we find places to sell and we will continue to take back the money to these people.
• Next Trip
o June 17-25 and these dates work well for Father.
• Extremely Poor Mothers/Families Fund
o Many of the people that we entered into the extremely poor families fund showed up again this trip. The program seems to be working well.
o Most of the families on the program came back and had at least one receipt of having received money from Father. Most were in December. Not sure why it took so long for them to get their money but at least they got it.
o Father reported that there was only one family in the program that he does not know and that did not get their money.
o We had so many extremely poor families that came through clinic this time. We added several more to the poor families fund and we kept most of the families from last trip which spreads the funds a little thinner yet. We really need to figure out how to double the amount we have for this. We will start asking God for this.
• Beds in Gandou
o We had previously sent money to Gandou for beds for the rectory for us to sleep on. We sent this because last trip we really struggled to find enough beds to sleep on. People from last trip did not get much sleep during the trip due to this situation.
o Father reported that he purchased 5 mattresses so far with the money. He said he got those in Jacmel but he did not want to purchase too many there because the price of them there is higher than it is in Port-au-Prince.
o We asked were these mattresses were so we could take a picture and we could try to see if the bed covers we brought with us would work. The cook led us to them and they were in the tents of the construction workers that are working on the church. Our team did not get to use them.
o They are nice, about exactly what we were asking for.
o The covers are great, but about 1 foot too wide.
o Need to confirm with Father in a couple months that he has purchased the rest of them so we have them before the next trip.
• Nurse’s Visa
o Our nurse asked for our help to write a letter of invitation to see if she could get her visa.
• Checks for stay in Gandou
o Father reported there is no issue with paying him by check for our stay in Gandou. It simply takes 22 days to cash, but there is no trouble cashing them.
• Father Nexcene’s Priorities
o Father reported the following:
Build an office for the school. It would be close to the current school. About 12 feet by 12 feet. He has no estimate on cost yet. He said it would be used to store documents and a meeting space.
Psychologist to come to check the school kids that are not learning well and have training for them to help them do better. Father reported that 15-20 kids need this.
Father wants us to increase the amount of money we pay for the sponsorships and food program. He reported that the costs of things has gone up but the amount we are sponsoring has not.
o When Father was staying at Matthew 25 house with us this trip the Haitian leader of the Gift of Water project was there and he spent time talking to Father about the project. I am sure Father had heard about it before as well, but Father asked us to do this project for the people. Last time we met with him I understood Father wanted a community water purification system for the rectory area, and I asked about that and Father reported that he wanted the gift of water project not the community purifier near the rectory.
o Father is happy with our idea to build rooms on top of the new part of the rectory like they have at Matthew 25 and he wants to move ahead with that project. He had no idea of the costs.
o Father wants to move ahead with the motorcycle project for the health care workers to transport patients.
Mission Focus Area #2 – Health Care for our Sister Parish
• Sea Container
o In April it will be one year since we sent our first sea container with all the medicine in it for one trip.
o For some reason this container has still not cleared customs in Haiti. We keep talking to the director at Rays of Hope and they keep going down to Haiti to work on getting it released along with their people in Haiti but it still has not cleared. However the container we sent in August has cleared and Father had these 6 totes at the rectory waiting on us.
o The totes we used for this shipment were high quality totes but by the time they got to Gandou they were pretty beat up. Some of the corners were crunched and some of the toothpaste inside was punctured. Need to make sure we stick with high quality totes.
o We were able to use the medicine from these totes along with the medicine we brought with us on this trip. Everything worked fine.
• Medical clinic/pharmacy
o Clinic Results/Numbers - Totals were 1263 patients that went through our 4 days of clinic.
o Every day we worked until past dark and since everyone was so willing to work hard there was no days that we had to send away patients.
o The ID card process continues to work very well. Most every patient that came into the clinic had an ID card either from a previous trip or from our ID card station that was
producing ID cards this trip. The ID card station was easily able to keep up and keep us supplied with patients. The college kids are great at this and required nearly no support from us.
o The little girl named Roselore with the PDA heart condition and had come to the USA for surgery and returned to Haiti late last year showed up and looked great. She was very happy and friendly. The doctors listened to her heart and she is doing fine. She spent extra time hanging around the rectory. It seems Father likes her and she gets to stay around and eat there sometimes.
o While we were there we had several patient emergencies. One patient was in congestive heart failure (CHF). The patient was in dire need of oxygen. We had our translator Laikaard and the nurse take her to Jacmel for care and oxygen. There is no heart surgery in Haiti like the patient really needs.
o A huge part of our mission this trip was to work with a patient named Jesula. She is a young mother in her twenties, and has an amelioblastoma which has yielded a huge mass on her jaw that is closing off her airway. We have everything setup on the USA side to bring her to the USA for care and surgery since this cannot be done in Haiti. Several days before this trip Father Nexcene sent us an email that he had worked through her issues with the patient’s birth certificate and he has obtained her passport. During this trip we had to work through the Visa process. Father was not able to do the initial step in the process until Monday before we left. However as soon as he was done with this we sent in the Visa appointment request and the request to expedite it. Both requests were granted. One team member from the trip was planning to stay extra time in Haiti and within a couple days after our trip he had a visa appointment and the Visa was granted. It was done the next day and he picked it up. They flew to the USA the following day. We praise God….she is here now for the surgery and she is so happy. The surgery will take place in March in North Carolina. We can’t thank God enough.
• Dental clinic and extractions.
o We were blessed on this trip with a wonderful dentist from Cincinnati. He had gone with us once before and was returning on this trip to work beside the 3 Haitian dentists we had hired.
o 2 of the Haitian dentists were from the Haitian dental team that we had worked with last time.
o We also had our Haitian dentist leader…Dr. Peterson as usual.
o Fran Grebel from St. Louis also joined us on the trip as our much needed hygienist.
o Our dental team was very strong and they were setup well for extractions and repairs.
o The total numbers are as follows:
Patients: 350
Fillings: 92
Extractions: 400
Cleanings: 53
o This was our second time working with the Haiti dental team. We wanted to try a new approach with them this trip and pay them by the procedure they completed. We offered them $5 per extraction and $7 per filling.
o This process seemed to work very well and they worked hard all week.
o They seemed to keep track of the number of patients they saw and their numbers matched our numbers well at the end of the week.
o As a part of the deal with these dentists we asked them to transport themselves to Gandou and they said they would but later came back and said they could not so we worked out an agreement with them to reduce the amount they got.
o We look forward to working with this dental team in the future. Everything worked out well.
Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish.
• Port-au-Prince
o 4 team members from Chicago found out the night before our trip that their flight had been cancelled. They found another flight that was to get into Fort Lauderdale early enough that they could take a cab to Miami and join us for our flight. The problem was it was about -10degF in Indy and Chicago when we left on January 28th. It was so cold that in Chicago the fueling truck for the airplanes would not start and they could not fuel planes fast enough. Their flight was delayed and they did not have enough time to travel from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and missed the flight in Miami. Two other team members from Chicago were delayed and just barely caught the flight in Miami.
o We had planned to spend the night in Port-au-Prince anyway and ½ the next day at the Missionaries of Charity orphanage so everything worked out. By the next day when everyone finally made it to Port-au-Prince we were done at the Missionaries of Charity and we were ready to go to Gandou.
o One of the doctors on this trip has family in a city in Haiti called Jeremie. Her grandfather there was sick so she wanted to take the small prop plane from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie and visit him. She did this for two days and flew back. She was able to pick up the one bag in Port-au-Prince that did not come in from our flights and had a driver drive her to Jacmel and Father Nexcene picked her up there. Everything worked out very surprisingly well.
o Our visit to the Missionaries of Charity was very good. There are so many needs there. The kids just scream when you put them down. They are so love starved. It was a little less overwhelming this time due to the fact that we went on Wednesday which is the day that some of the family members of the kids come back to hold them….therefore there were not as many screaming kids as usual.
o While we were there we asked about part of our team staying at the orphanage during a future trip to simply help there the whole week while we are in Gandou or even starting a second mission that comes down at a different time of the year. The nuns there said they are now offering a guest room to do this again after the earthquake. I have the contact names to start making arrangements for this.
• Travel to Gandou
o We didn’t have too much trouble with traffic in Port-au-Prince.
o We made good time and pass through the Baudin road.
o We did have trouble with one of the trucks making it up the mountain. We later found out that the 4 wheel drive was not working on this truck. It is only a miracle that the truck was able to make it up the hills at all without 4 wheel drive. I am sure angels were pushing the truck. This had to be the case because on the way home, when the hills are not as bad and we have the truck bed full of guys we could not make it up the smaller hills and had to do special things to make it up the hills. Clearly God was helping us. If it had rained we would have never made it out without 4-wheel drive.
o We made the trip in like 7.5 hours. Not too bad.
• Accommodations in Gandou
o Father was staying in his new room on top of the old rectory so we had 3 rooms open to us.
o Everyone stayed in these rooms but the men from Chicago who brought their own tent.
o Everyone was fairly comfortable.
o The weather was very nice. Nearly no rain and high 70s to low 80s all week. Praised be God.
o Water from the cistern seemed to be available as the team needed it.
o Food was a little light this trip, more than usual. Likely because Father is feeding all the construction workers. Several meals we ran out of food.
• Exposure to Haiti
o On Friday, most of the new group were able to visit the local market. This helped them better understand the daily life in Gandou.
o Most every day part of the team took a hike to the top of the mountain before breakfast. This was nice for them to see Haiti and life there.
o On Sunday, most of the group got to go out into the countryside. A few people were able to visit people in their homes.
o One area that we feel we are lacking on the trips is building a real connection to the people in Gandou and the translators.
o It seemed like on this trip especially that our team simply was not able to spend enough time with the Haitian people to make a connection. I wish we were able to spend more time sitting with them near the rectory or on the Church steps….maybe after the Church construction is done.
