Lavalle Surgery Team and Surgeries for This Trip
   1. We can’t praise God enough for connecting us with such a wonderful mission team that goes to the city of Lavalle Haiti which is about 2 hours from our sister parish in
        ​Gandou this connection has yielded so many wonderful things.
   2. This has become the top place for us to accomplish referral patient work. It is the closest and the easiest place for us to get some types of tests and surgeries done.
   3. The Lavalle team makes three trips a year but often one of them is not a surgery trip, but rather just a testing and eye care trip.
   4. We had great success using their help in November. Many patients were seen and cared for.
   5. For this winter mission trip their trip started just a couple days after our trip ended.
   6. Before our mission trip even started we had gone through our referral binder and found all the patients we thought needed care that could be accomplished in Lavalle and we
       ​emailed our nurse and the priest in our sister parish and asked to see if they could contact these patients and have them come into our clinic so we confirm the plan with
       ​them for the following week.
   7. For many of these patients this happened as planned and Dr. Andre and I checked out these patients and their needs.
   8. If we felt we could help these patients we created a plan for them to get to Lavalle. In some cases the patient said they could get themselves there. In other cases we arranged
       ​for them to come to the rectory in order for them to ride in Father’s truck on the morning they were needed in Lavallle.
   9. Three members of our team also remained in Haiti after our trip in order to help in Lavalle.
 10. This is such a great situation because it helps to build the relationship with the Lavalle team, our members get to help with organization of our patients, they can better
        ​understand the process of the Lavalle clinic, and they can help us see how things are working for our patients.
 11. The three members of our team that stayed reported that things were working well again this time for our patients and we expect many of them were able to get surgery and
        ​the testing they needed.
 12. The Lavalle team always emails us a bill for the services they prove after they get home from their trip.
 13. They are extremely organized and extremely fair.
 14. They charge something for most every patients, but typically it is only a couple dollars per patient.
 15. For example simple surgeries often cost less than $50US.
 16. Clearly this is a very good situation.
 17. We continue to learn from them and follow their example. We are still planning on using their example to have our first surgeries in Gandou during the winter 2017 mission
        ​trip.

Extremely Poor Mothers/Families Fund
   1. This is a program we have that helps the families that come into clinic where the doctors take a look at them and find the family especially the children to be malnourished
        ​and with nothing to give the kids to eat.
   2. Typically we find out how bad their situation is by asking them a set of questions.
   3. Typically we find they are extremely poor when they have not eaten anything substantial for several days and have no plan for what they will eat this same day or in the
       ​future.
   4. Many times either the father of the children died, is sick, or simply can find no work (because there are no jobs available).
   5. Many of the people that we entered into the extremely poor families fund showed up again this trip.
   6. Everyone one thanked us for the funds they got from Father.
   7. Several of the families thanked us by bringing us eggs. It kills me to take eggs because these families have had nothing to eat and they are giving our team some eggs to eat.
       ​They must save these up for weeks before our trip. I wish they would just eat them.
   8. During this trip we added more families to the poor family fund than I think I have ever seen added before.
   9. Clearly we cannot keep funding this program the way we have in the past. We must increase the funds.
 10. Right now the patients are getting like $40 US per six months. This is only good to feed their family for a couple meals or is less than 20% of their grade school tuition for
       ​one child which is typically what they do with the money.
 11. 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.
 12. Several more patients were added.
 13. This program feels very important but we need to come up with more funding.
 14. Our plan is to take people off this program by giving their kids school sponsorships through our sponsorship program and our microloan program.
 15. Please beg God for help with these programs. Can you image trying to live the life that these people have to live with a family of hungry children and little to nothing to give
       ​them?

Clinic Building Construction and Land We Purchased for the Clinic
   1.  Several years ago we purchased a small piece of land for a potential site to build a permanent clinic in Gandou.
   2. This piece of land was purchased based on the recommendation of the priest at the time.
   3. After the land was purchased we were shown the land and it had several challenges caused by the hills in the Gandou area.
   4. Father Voltaire told us he found another piece of land next to the current land he thought would help.
   5. We inspected this land and we think it would not be that much help to us.
   6. It is possible that these two pieces of land would make a place for more school buildings to be built.
   7. At this time we are simply holding on this project.

Mid-wife Meeting
   1. Nearly all the mid-wife showed up for a meeting and training lead by Dr. McCullough.
   2. It was a great meeting with much discussion and interaction. The mid-wives seemed very pleased by the whole event.
   3. We gave all of them some supplies to help them with their work.
   4. They asked that we continue these trainings every winter mission trip and they had some simple specific requests to help them. For example rain ponchos to allow them to
        ​travel to the homes for deliveries when it is raining.
   5. The picture below is a picture of the meeting. It was held in the kindergarden room which is full of paper items made by the kids and hanging down.

Little boy burned with boiling hot water – Jean Aymond
   1. On a previous trip a little boy came into our clinic that was severely burned with boiling water 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. Since the last trip Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati agreed to take the case for free and Everyone’s Child International in Batesville were arranging for a host family, travel and
       ​other expenses. We had worked through all the paperwork but the Visa.
   4. On the morning of the 2nd day of the trip we got word back from the Visa office that they granted us an appointment for him at 7:30am on Monday of the trip.
   5. We all went to Gandou and made plans to take this patient, his father, and some other patients for testing down to Port-au-Prince on Monday.
   6. During the visa appointment they told us they would grant the Visa and we could pick it up later that day.
   7. Bonnie stayed in Port-au-Prince and worked with the patients and then picked up the Visa.
   8. The challenge then was the next step where an exit letter must be obtained from the Haitian social services office called the IBESR.
   9. We started that process and were promised the letter, but it took more time than expected.
 10. Bonnie ended up remaining in Port-au-Prince working through this situation and finally got the letter on Friday just before the office was going to close and be closed for the
       ​following week.
 11. God truly pulled us through on this one and delivered so well. We praise His Most Holy name.
 12. Bonnie, Stephanie, and Charlene were able to transport that patient back to the USA during their flight back.
 13. The boy is now living with the Geers family and everything is going so wonderful.
 14. He is a great child and the Geers family has welcomed him like their most special child.

Medical clinic/pharmacy
   1. Clinic Results/Numbers
   2. Totals were about 1300 patients (including school kids) that went through our 4 days of clinic.
   3. We also sent several truck loads of patients to the city for care or tests that we could not provide.
   4. We had the great help again 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.

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 for this trip:
       A. Patients: more than 450.
       B. Extractions 334.
       C. Cleanings: 93.
       D. Repairs: 71.
   7. Last trip
      A. Patients: more than 400.
      B. Cleanings: over 100.
      C. Repairs: over 70.
   8. We were very impressed with how hard the Haitian dental team worked and we were very pleased with all they did.
   9. We look forward to continued work with this dental team in the future. Everything worked out well.

Nurse Needs
   1. She asked for a laptop computer she said she would get a hotspot so she had the internet. She wants to work on the computer in her house rather than try to use Father’s.
   2. She said she would get and pay for her own hot spot. She said they are like $200 US per year.
   3. She said she would send us two updates per year if we bring her a laptop.
   4. We told her we wanted all future communication in email not What’s Ap and she said fine. If she had the laptop this would be no problem at all. She is to copy all the
       ​medical team.
   5. Last time she asked for the following and we have not provided these yet.
   6. She asked for an adult balance scale.
   7. She asked again for a mega-phone for training
   8. She asked for more non-electric blood pressure cuffs.
   9. She asked for a big basin for cleaning woods.
 10. She asked for fancy steel clip boards like you see at hospitals.
 11. She asked for better doors and locks because we now have more and better stuff in the clinic.

New University Nurses
   1. For several years it has not worked out for our nursing student to come back to Gandou to work with us on our medical missions, however during this trip we were able to
       ​get the new nursing student as well as our nursing student that has been in school for a couple a years to come back to Gandou and work with us for a day before they had to
       ​go back to school in the city.
   2. Below are some picture of them working in our clinic.
   3. We were impressed by their joyful help and helpfulness.
   4. We did not have much time to do a great assessment of their skills but they seemed to be doing well.
   5. We are very happy with this program and how it is going.

Generator Needs
   1. During our mission trips we completely depend on the functionality of a small gas 3500 watt generator we sent down several years ago to power all the dental and medical
       ​equipment that we use including the lighting in the clinics.
   2. Over the years this generator has become badly worn and in need of replacement.
   3. The starter on the generator was broken several years ago and we use a twine string to start it.
   4. Often it don’t start after several pulls and we say a prayer and it finally starts.
   5. The on and off switch don’t work anymore so to get it to shut off we choke it to death.
   6. Part of the breather are broken and the efficiency of the air filter is questionable.
   7. During this trip a new issue arose. The springs on the generator were rusted and broke causing the engine speed to be instable which causes the output voltage and frequency
       ​to be impacted. This caused high and low voltage and current spikes out of the generator.
   8. Several piece of our medical equipment were damage including a hearing testing that was borrowed for this mission trip.
   9. We can’t afford this to happen again and we need to send a different generator before the next trip.
 10. We need to explore the longer term options around this and electrical supply because in January of 2017 we plan to be doing surgery in Gandou and we must have stable and
       ​clean electric power.

Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish
Port-au-Prince and Travel to Gandou and Rental Trucks
   1. Our travels to Haiti went very smoothly and all team members met in Miami for the final flight into Haiti. All flights were on time. All bags got transferred to the plane on
       ​time and made it to Port-au-Prince with us.
   2. Father Voltaire had all 3 rental trucks waiting on us at the airport. We understand he just got there just before we did, but he was there with all the trucks as we requested.
   3. The translators were all also there.
   4. We were able to get to Matthew25 guest house early which was good because Father Voltaire was staying with us and we needed some time to talk with him and the
        ​translators to work out some challenges.
   5. We were able to load one of the trucks the first night. This was a huge help.
   6. The next morning everyone showed up by 7:30am or so (except Laikaard who reported he had to take one of his children to the hospital).
   7. By the time we had everything packed and ready to leave Laikaard showed up.
   8. The drive out to Gandou was going well until a motorcycle driver and a passenger pulled out in front of one of the trucks.
   9. The driver swerved and barely kept from running over them. No one was going very fast.
 10. We praise God because there was a bank on the side of the road so the truck stopped in some rocks just scratching it some. At the end of the trip when father turned the truck
        ​in they charged and extra $350US for this. However Father got the rental trucks for less money than he thought he would get them for so everything worked out fine.
 11. The whole event was a complete miracle and how things ended up was a total gift from God because the motorcycle cycle people were not hurt, but only had scratched arms.
 12. Everyone acknowledged this fault was on the motorcycle drivers.
 13. The motorcycle was damaged and we paid them $100US to help them fix it.
 14. The doctors checked over the motorcycle riders and found them to be fine.
 15. By the end everyone was smiling and happy and we continued on.
 16. One truck started to overheat as we got close to Jamel.
 17. We did not think it would make it to Gandou.
 18. Father called ahead and found another truck at the parish center in Jacmel.
 19. We switched all our supplies and people to this new truck and within a few minutes were going again. (Another miracle).
 20. We got to Gandou before dark with no rain…we praise God!
 21.We were so happy with the rental truck situation. Everything worked out so well having Father take care of this.

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. We had one day with a short heavy rain but it dried quickly and was not much trouble.
   6. We had plenty of Culligan water to drink as well.

Travel back to Port-au-Prince
   1. We worked late most of the nights we did clinic.
   2. The last day there were many patients that had to be turned away because we could not see them.
   3. We ended up working late the last night which was not the plan, but we wanted to see as many people as possible.
   4. This was a super hard working team and the team never complained, but our goal is to find a way to be able to stop earlier at night especially the last night.
   5. On the way down the mountain father invited his cooks to ride back to Port-au-Prince. Plus we were taking our college kids back and we had two patients (mother and
       ​child).
   6. This put more than 30 people in our trucks on the way down the mountain. As always they were completely full and some people rode on the back. Thanks to all for
       ​sacrificing to these people did not have to walk.

Exposure to Haiti
   1. Our team was so busy they did not get to see the market. However I think people got a feel for it as we drove through Blaukas, Jacmel, and Lavalle.
   2. On Sunday, most of the group got to go out into the countryside to visit one or two different families. One was a poor family who needed a house. One was the family that
       ​Bonnie supports. Truly these are great for people to see how these people really live.
   3. For some other members of the team, one night we got to help with several of our patients that finished in clinic so late that it was completely dark and they had no way to
       ​guide themselves back down the small, rough, and dangerous path back home. We laid some sheets down on the cement in and the family slept there. They had nothing to
       ​eat all day so we gave them peanuts, prunes, and water.
   4. They were so grateful but we really had done little for them.
   5. If they are grateful to us to sleep on hard cement then think what they must have at home sleep on.
   6. I think everyone involved in this interaction and this trip understands the suffering of the poor and just how bad things can be in Haiti.