Mission Trip Report for 17-25 June 2015
Clinic Charges
1. Many times in the past we have talked about our clinic being for the poorest of the poor.
2. Every time we have talked about this everyone including father agreed that this was the case.
3. Through many of his actions it does seem like Father has great compassion for the very poorest people (that is part of the reason we love him).
4. However father was adamant just like everyone we have ever talked to about this subject in Haiti, that there must be a small charge for those who can pay to come to clinic.
5. Everyone talks about this as necessary or there will not be a respect for the things of the clinic.
6. We talked about the fact that everyone who can pay should, but because almost no one can pay, so almost no one should be paying.
7. Father said that he has the nurse report to him exactly how much of each medicine she dispenses in the clinic and how much of it the patients were able to pay for and how
much of it they were not able to pay for.
8. Sounds like she does this monthly.
9. We confirmed with father and the nurse that she has the full authority to give the medicine for free to anyone who needs it and can’t pay and everyone agreed this was the
case.
Extremely Poor Mothers/Families Fund
1. Many of the people that we entered into the extremely poor families fund showed up again this trip.
2. Everyone one thanked us for the funds they got from Father.
3. Everything was just as Father reported and the funds were provided to the patients.
4. It was clear that he worked to find all the patients in the poor families fund.
5. Several more patients were added.
6. It is clear there is a great need to keep this program going.
7. When I asked these families what they did with the money almost all said they used it to help fund their kids to go to grade school. This always surprises me because these
people are starving…they need food, yet because school is not free in Haiti, they have to choose between food and school and so often the choose school.
8. Many time I assess just how poor the people are by the physical condition of the children. For example the doctors typically can quickly tell me just how malnourished the
children are. Second I ask them question like what did you eat today and what did you eat yesterday or in the last three days. Typically the response I get is I ate nothing
today and yesterday someone gave me a few hard candies that I fed to the kids. Nothing cuts to the heart like a poor mother telling me this.
9. Some of situations of these people are worse than extremely bad. For example one mother of 5 came in with all malnourished kids. She herself weighted about 75 lbs. She
was diagnoised with TB and her lungs are about gone. She breaths with extreme effort. Her husband died years ago and the children are still small. She has zero money, she
is much to sick to care for these children, and no way to feed and provide for them. What else are we to do in a case like this?
10. Another mother told us that she had to send some of her children to be a servant of another family member. Most of the time in these situations they are treated as dirt and
they get the least of everything. I can’t imagine life much worse than this, being the least of a household in Haiti that already has nothing.
11. We really need to figure out how to double or triple the amount we have for this fund. Currently our poor families are getting about $35 every 6 months. Can you image
providing for 5 or 8 kids on $70 a year when things in Haiti cost about the same or more than they do in the USA. Please beg God for help with this program.
Clinic Building Construction
1. Father, the nurse, and the health workers asked about the status of us building a new building for the clinic.
2. We told them that we needed to work on this in the future.
Mid-wife Meeting
1. All the mid-wife showed up for a meeting.
2. We gave all of them a pair of boots, a flashlight, razer, and a bulb syringe.
3. One health care worker had very wide feet and could not fit in any of our boots. We gave him a pair of large shoes.
Little boy burned with boiling hot water
1. On a previous trip a little boy came into our clinic that was severely burned with boiling hot that fell from a table onto his face, arms, legs, hands, and stomach.
2. After the skin was burned it pulled so tight that the little boy can no longer extend some of his fingers and they are stuck in the bent position.
3. Furthermore the skin on his face is pulling so tight that his eye lid does not work properly and he does not have full motion of his mouth.
4. We have discussed the case with Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati and they are very close to accepting the case. They have asked us to fill out all their paperwork on this boy
and work on getting him a passport and medical visa.
5. Father reported that he had everything in place for this patient to get his passport.
6. Father expected to get it soon.
7. We will then need to work on the VISA for this boy.
8. We are so looking forward to getting this boy to the USA and getting him the care he needs.
Medical clinic/pharmacy
1. Clinic Results/Numbers
2. Totals were about 975 patients that went through our 4 days of clinic.
3. We sent several truck loads of patients to the city for care or tests that we could not provide.
4.We had the great help this time of our Haitian Doctor and friend Dr. Andre.
5. He is such a great help to the team. He can quickly communicate with the patients and quickly get the bottom of the issues.
6. Many members of the team said they think Dr. Andre is key to the trips and we should have him come for every trip.
Dental clinic and extractions
1. We were not able to find any USA dentists to go with us on this trip but we had 6 Haitian dentists.
2. We had all 5 members of the Haitian dental team that we had worked with last time.
3. We also had our Haitian dentist leader…Dr. Peterson as usual.
4. Fran Grebel from St. Louis also joined us on the trip as our much needed hygienist.
5. Our dental team was very strong and they were setup well for extractions and repairs.
6. The total numbers are as follows:
A. Patients: more than 400.
B. Cleanings: over 100.
C. Repairs: over 70.
7. We were very impressed with how hard the Haitian dental team worked and we were very pleased with all they did.
8. We look forward to continued work with this dental team in the future. Everything worked out well.
Nurse Needs
1. She asked for an adult balance scale.
2. She asked again for a mega-phone for training
3. She asked for more non-electric blood pressure cuffs.
4. She asked for a big basin for cleaning woods.
5. She asked for fancy steel clip boards like you see at hospitals.
6. She asked for better doors and locks because we now have more and better stuff in the clinic.
Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish
Port-au-Prince and Travel to Gandou
1. Our travels to Haiti went very smoothly and all team members meet in Miami for the final flight into Haiti.
2. For some odd reason we had one bag that did not make it to Haiti and it had critical antibotics in it. This forced us to wait on it the next day.
3. We used the time while we were waiting on this bad to fix the issues with our rental trucks and to pick up some bag salt we need for the water purification system.
4. Last trip and this trip when Father Voltaire comes to get us at the Matthew 25 guest house he brings a little Geo vehicle with him.
5. This trip this little Geo broke down and Father stopped short of Port-au-Prince and simply sent his driver in to get us.
6. When we drove the team out to where Father was we discovered that Father’s vehicle did not have any brakes.
7. We put Father in the lead and somehow even though he did not have any brakes we found it difficult to keep up with him.
8. He went up and down hills around sharp curves on the side of the mountain down to Jacmel with a vehicle that had no brakes. I have no idea how he did it. I am convinced
God Himself was slowing the vehicle because there is no way anyone else could have done it.
9. When we got to the turn off at Jacmel we did separate into two groups with one of the groups going into Jacmel to park Father’s Geo.
10. We did however get to Gandou just as it was getting dark, but again it seemed fine.
11. There was little rain…we praise God!
Rental Truck Problems
1. It is always a big challenge getting good rental trucks in Haiti.
2. Even our use of them in going to Gandou is so hard on them that I am not sure we would ever want to rent the same truck twice.
3. This trip was especially challenging because 2 of the 3 trucks we rented had troubles with the tires.
4. One basically had completely junk tires on it and the other had no spare tire.
5. We had to pay extra to put tires on these trucks.
6. Also later in the week we had to put new brakes on the front and back of one of the trucks.
7. We have the brakes that we removed to Laikaard along with all the receipts which totaled more than $500.
8. He submitted these parts and receipts to the rental company when he turned in the trucks and he said they credited him back the money.
9. The issues is however that during our drive down the mountain on this trip there was a fender bender that cost Laikaard $200.
10. Also Laikaard reported that on the last trip one of the truck had a dent in it that no one could explain and they charged him extra last time as well.
11. Basically we came out about even.
12. Father Voltaire reported that he thought he could start renting the truck for us.
13. He could check them out ahead of time to make sure they are good.
14. He said he could then spend the night at Matthew 25 with us so the truck could be packed the night before and we could be on our way to Gandou early in the morning.
15. This sounded wonderful, but when I asked father if he needed a credit card to do this he did not know.
16. He said he would check into this and let us know.
17. If father can do all this it would greatly change the dynamics of our whole trip in the future.
Accommodations in Gandou
1. Father gave us all the rooms downstairs in the rectory and all the rooms on top the roof to stay in. This was wonderful.
2. Father had a mattress for everyone to sleep on.
3. Everyone was fairly comfortable.
4. The weather was much cooler in Gandou than Port-au-Prince. Several people upstairs got cool at night.
5. Several days we had heavy rains, but praise be God we were still able to drive to Lavallee and transport the patients that we needed to transport.
6. Water from the cistern seemed to be mostly available when the team needed it. It did run dry once or twice.
7. We had plenty of Culligan water to drink as well.
Travel back to Port-au-Prince
1. For some reason, for the first time in 10 years on the last day of clinic we completed all the patients early and shut down the clinic. This allowed us to get everything put
away and pack our supplies back into their storage areas and prepare our check backs on top of the truck for the early departure the next day. This was a huge help, and it still
took until mid-night to get to bed.
2. Not sure how we typically get all this done.
3. By the morning we were leaving Gandou we had one patient and mother to take to Port-au-Prince and about 8 people to take to Lavallee. We were able to squeeze everyone
into the trucks and drop them off to where we needed to go.
4. This put more than 30 people in our trucks on the way down the mountain.
Exposure to Haiti
1. On Friday, most of the new group was able to visit the local market. This helped them better understand the daily life in Gandou.
2. On Sunday, most of the group got to go out into the countryside for some amount of time before it started raining hard. Several people were able to visit people in their
homes.
3. For the sub-team that was dealing with the surgery patients in Lavallee they got to spend significant time with these patients and our health worker Oscal as well as the other
people from the Lavallee team. This was great for them.
4. For some other members of the team, one night we got to help with a super poor family that had no where to sleep so we put them up in the school and gave them sheets, air
mattresses, food, and toys. This family was starving, the mother has TB and is about to die, and the father died years ago. I think everyone involved in this interaction
truly understands the suffering of the poor.
5. These kinds of experiences are so important to the trip and helping people to understand just how bad things can really get.
1. Many times in the past we have talked about our clinic being for the poorest of the poor.
2. Every time we have talked about this everyone including father agreed that this was the case.
3. Through many of his actions it does seem like Father has great compassion for the very poorest people (that is part of the reason we love him).
4. However father was adamant just like everyone we have ever talked to about this subject in Haiti, that there must be a small charge for those who can pay to come to clinic.
5. Everyone talks about this as necessary or there will not be a respect for the things of the clinic.
6. We talked about the fact that everyone who can pay should, but because almost no one can pay, so almost no one should be paying.
7. Father said that he has the nurse report to him exactly how much of each medicine she dispenses in the clinic and how much of it the patients were able to pay for and how
much of it they were not able to pay for.
8. Sounds like she does this monthly.
9. We confirmed with father and the nurse that she has the full authority to give the medicine for free to anyone who needs it and can’t pay and everyone agreed this was the
case.
Extremely Poor Mothers/Families Fund
1. Many of the people that we entered into the extremely poor families fund showed up again this trip.
2. Everyone one thanked us for the funds they got from Father.
3. Everything was just as Father reported and the funds were provided to the patients.
4. It was clear that he worked to find all the patients in the poor families fund.
5. Several more patients were added.
6. It is clear there is a great need to keep this program going.
7. When I asked these families what they did with the money almost all said they used it to help fund their kids to go to grade school. This always surprises me because these
people are starving…they need food, yet because school is not free in Haiti, they have to choose between food and school and so often the choose school.
8. Many time I assess just how poor the people are by the physical condition of the children. For example the doctors typically can quickly tell me just how malnourished the
children are. Second I ask them question like what did you eat today and what did you eat yesterday or in the last three days. Typically the response I get is I ate nothing
today and yesterday someone gave me a few hard candies that I fed to the kids. Nothing cuts to the heart like a poor mother telling me this.
9. Some of situations of these people are worse than extremely bad. For example one mother of 5 came in with all malnourished kids. She herself weighted about 75 lbs. She
was diagnoised with TB and her lungs are about gone. She breaths with extreme effort. Her husband died years ago and the children are still small. She has zero money, she
is much to sick to care for these children, and no way to feed and provide for them. What else are we to do in a case like this?
10. Another mother told us that she had to send some of her children to be a servant of another family member. Most of the time in these situations they are treated as dirt and
they get the least of everything. I can’t imagine life much worse than this, being the least of a household in Haiti that already has nothing.
11. We really need to figure out how to double or triple the amount we have for this fund. Currently our poor families are getting about $35 every 6 months. Can you image
providing for 5 or 8 kids on $70 a year when things in Haiti cost about the same or more than they do in the USA. Please beg God for help with this program.
Clinic Building Construction
1. Father, the nurse, and the health workers asked about the status of us building a new building for the clinic.
2. We told them that we needed to work on this in the future.
Mid-wife Meeting
1. All the mid-wife showed up for a meeting.
2. We gave all of them a pair of boots, a flashlight, razer, and a bulb syringe.
3. One health care worker had very wide feet and could not fit in any of our boots. We gave him a pair of large shoes.
Little boy burned with boiling hot water
1. On a previous trip a little boy came into our clinic that was severely burned with boiling hot that fell from a table onto his face, arms, legs, hands, and stomach.
2. After the skin was burned it pulled so tight that the little boy can no longer extend some of his fingers and they are stuck in the bent position.
3. Furthermore the skin on his face is pulling so tight that his eye lid does not work properly and he does not have full motion of his mouth.
4. We have discussed the case with Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati and they are very close to accepting the case. They have asked us to fill out all their paperwork on this boy
and work on getting him a passport and medical visa.
5. Father reported that he had everything in place for this patient to get his passport.
6. Father expected to get it soon.
7. We will then need to work on the VISA for this boy.
8. We are so looking forward to getting this boy to the USA and getting him the care he needs.
Medical clinic/pharmacy
1. Clinic Results/Numbers
2. Totals were about 975 patients that went through our 4 days of clinic.
3. We sent several truck loads of patients to the city for care or tests that we could not provide.
4.We had the great help this time of our Haitian Doctor and friend Dr. Andre.
5. He is such a great help to the team. He can quickly communicate with the patients and quickly get the bottom of the issues.
6. Many members of the team said they think Dr. Andre is key to the trips and we should have him come for every trip.
Dental clinic and extractions
1. We were not able to find any USA dentists to go with us on this trip but we had 6 Haitian dentists.
2. We had all 5 members of the Haitian dental team that we had worked with last time.
3. We also had our Haitian dentist leader…Dr. Peterson as usual.
4. Fran Grebel from St. Louis also joined us on the trip as our much needed hygienist.
5. Our dental team was very strong and they were setup well for extractions and repairs.
6. The total numbers are as follows:
A. Patients: more than 400.
B. Cleanings: over 100.
C. Repairs: over 70.
7. We were very impressed with how hard the Haitian dental team worked and we were very pleased with all they did.
8. We look forward to continued work with this dental team in the future. Everything worked out well.
Nurse Needs
1. She asked for an adult balance scale.
2. She asked again for a mega-phone for training
3. She asked for more non-electric blood pressure cuffs.
4. She asked for a big basin for cleaning woods.
5. She asked for fancy steel clip boards like you see at hospitals.
6. She asked for better doors and locks because we now have more and better stuff in the clinic.
Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish
Port-au-Prince and Travel to Gandou
1. Our travels to Haiti went very smoothly and all team members meet in Miami for the final flight into Haiti.
2. For some odd reason we had one bag that did not make it to Haiti and it had critical antibotics in it. This forced us to wait on it the next day.
3. We used the time while we were waiting on this bad to fix the issues with our rental trucks and to pick up some bag salt we need for the water purification system.
4. Last trip and this trip when Father Voltaire comes to get us at the Matthew 25 guest house he brings a little Geo vehicle with him.
5. This trip this little Geo broke down and Father stopped short of Port-au-Prince and simply sent his driver in to get us.
6. When we drove the team out to where Father was we discovered that Father’s vehicle did not have any brakes.
7. We put Father in the lead and somehow even though he did not have any brakes we found it difficult to keep up with him.
8. He went up and down hills around sharp curves on the side of the mountain down to Jacmel with a vehicle that had no brakes. I have no idea how he did it. I am convinced
God Himself was slowing the vehicle because there is no way anyone else could have done it.
9. When we got to the turn off at Jacmel we did separate into two groups with one of the groups going into Jacmel to park Father’s Geo.
10. We did however get to Gandou just as it was getting dark, but again it seemed fine.
11. There was little rain…we praise God!
Rental Truck Problems
1. It is always a big challenge getting good rental trucks in Haiti.
2. Even our use of them in going to Gandou is so hard on them that I am not sure we would ever want to rent the same truck twice.
3. This trip was especially challenging because 2 of the 3 trucks we rented had troubles with the tires.
4. One basically had completely junk tires on it and the other had no spare tire.
5. We had to pay extra to put tires on these trucks.
6. Also later in the week we had to put new brakes on the front and back of one of the trucks.
7. We have the brakes that we removed to Laikaard along with all the receipts which totaled more than $500.
8. He submitted these parts and receipts to the rental company when he turned in the trucks and he said they credited him back the money.
9. The issues is however that during our drive down the mountain on this trip there was a fender bender that cost Laikaard $200.
10. Also Laikaard reported that on the last trip one of the truck had a dent in it that no one could explain and they charged him extra last time as well.
11. Basically we came out about even.
12. Father Voltaire reported that he thought he could start renting the truck for us.
13. He could check them out ahead of time to make sure they are good.
14. He said he could then spend the night at Matthew 25 with us so the truck could be packed the night before and we could be on our way to Gandou early in the morning.
15. This sounded wonderful, but when I asked father if he needed a credit card to do this he did not know.
16. He said he would check into this and let us know.
17. If father can do all this it would greatly change the dynamics of our whole trip in the future.
Accommodations in Gandou
1. Father gave us all the rooms downstairs in the rectory and all the rooms on top the roof to stay in. This was wonderful.
2. Father had a mattress for everyone to sleep on.
3. Everyone was fairly comfortable.
4. The weather was much cooler in Gandou than Port-au-Prince. Several people upstairs got cool at night.
5. Several days we had heavy rains, but praise be God we were still able to drive to Lavallee and transport the patients that we needed to transport.
6. Water from the cistern seemed to be mostly available when the team needed it. It did run dry once or twice.
7. We had plenty of Culligan water to drink as well.
Travel back to Port-au-Prince
1. For some reason, for the first time in 10 years on the last day of clinic we completed all the patients early and shut down the clinic. This allowed us to get everything put
away and pack our supplies back into their storage areas and prepare our check backs on top of the truck for the early departure the next day. This was a huge help, and it still
took until mid-night to get to bed.
2. Not sure how we typically get all this done.
3. By the morning we were leaving Gandou we had one patient and mother to take to Port-au-Prince and about 8 people to take to Lavallee. We were able to squeeze everyone
into the trucks and drop them off to where we needed to go.
4. This put more than 30 people in our trucks on the way down the mountain.
Exposure to Haiti
1. On Friday, most of the new group was able to visit the local market. This helped them better understand the daily life in Gandou.
2. On Sunday, most of the group got to go out into the countryside for some amount of time before it started raining hard. Several people were able to visit people in their
homes.
3. For the sub-team that was dealing with the surgery patients in Lavallee they got to spend significant time with these patients and our health worker Oscal as well as the other
people from the Lavallee team. This was great for them.
4. For some other members of the team, one night we got to help with a super poor family that had no where to sleep so we put them up in the school and gave them sheets, air
mattresses, food, and toys. This family was starving, the mother has TB and is about to die, and the father died years ago. I think everyone involved in this interaction
truly understands the suffering of the poor.
5. These kinds of experiences are so important to the trip and helping people to understand just how bad things can really get.
