Dr. Bob’s April Report
Palm Bay, Florida, 8 May, 2010
Gentlefolk:
My apologies for the huge delay in getting this report out to all our supporters. Fact is: I became quite ill while in Haiti during April and remained so until now, at which time I’m finally beginning to improve. Actually, three of us became ill (Nancy Bukovnik, my wife Betty and myself – apparently a flu-type virus, and undoubtedly related to the fact that we were all exhausted and stressed out after a MOST productive trip to both Jolivert and Port-au-Prince).
The Haitian people never cease to amaze me. I know of no culture or people on Earth with more resilience, resourcefulness, or just downright raw courage in the face of disaster of such unspeakable proportions as the recent earthquake and its terrible aftermaths. Returning after six weeks following the medical teams we led in on February 1st, we found the rubble still piled high, bodies still being extricated, tent cities of thousands of homeless with the worst sanitation and toilet facilities imaginable. And yet there was a huge difference. The rubble, hand-shovelled and hand-carted in wheel barrows to discrete piles throughout the city are now being slowly but steadily removed by huge endloaders lent by other countries . In its place the streets are being neatly swept, and even in the tent cities there is an order and sense of cooperation and compassion for each other that brings me to tears.
The pulse of life beats on, as the streets are teeming with tens of thousands of vendors, hawkers, and roadside cookeries who just keep on “keeping on.” Yet the disaster is far from over, as diseases such as diphtheria, colera, and other waterborne illnesses continue to take a high toll of life. Open air living on the streets with its attendant lack of protection against mosquitos has led to massive outbreaks of malaria. Intense and ongoing medical interventions will be needed for many months to come, and sanitation becomes a daily worsening concern for us all. Kudos to University of Miami who operates a huge tent hospital at the airport and continues to shuttle medical volunteers in and out by air every few days. Food and water is finally being distributed at several centers by the larger relief organizations.
Our recent team consisting of ten of our directors plus two more volunteers arrived in Jolivert on April 13th to find our clinic has become a veritable refugee center for hundreds of people forced out into the provinces , having lost everything in PAP. Our overworked medical staff there has performed admirably. It was truly remarkable all that was accomplished in the few days we were at Jolivert, but God has enabled us in that way many times before, right? The timing could not have been better, as the boat arrived at Port-de-Paix just as we did, and Pat, Terry and I were able to visit the docks and see that everything arrived okay.
Meanwhile, Betty, Nancy, Dale, Ralph, Barbie, Greg, Scott Searcy and our “newbie” Warren Mattingly crossed over to Marotier for a great conference. Dale preached and there was an ordination service for ten deacons and one pastor (Julian’s son, Jerome). The Soldat Valiant (our group of young Christian Haitian men) went along and sang and evangelized. The church was packed both days they were there, as the congregation is growing. With 120 kids in the church school, they have devotions each morning and get a meal each day. They have received a meal each day since Oct.,’09 and you can see the children are healthy now .
Benches are being made for the school and for the church, and pastor Julian thinks that $3000 US would completely finish the church, which is becoming a community service area that, among other things will house our ongoing feeding program for the school kids of that remote area. (We sent up enough food to feed 120 kids a hot meal daily for six more months). Dale was invited to teach a pastor’s conference next year at Bouchon, and both our Health Outreach and Safe waters will be augmented by and through the Marotier church.
Betty met a dejected witch doctor along the road who complained that the new church was “putting him out of business.” Thank you , Jesus! Don’t forget that this is one of the most remote and primitive isolated and mountainous areas on our planet today.
We were able, thanks to a huge sorting and repacking effort led by Dale Breedlove, to distribute most of the tons of supplies that had come on the boat, plus most of 600 cartons (over 120,000 meals) delivered to us while we were there by one of our partner ministries, Northwest Haiti Christian Mission for “Feed My Starving Children.” (Kudos to all the church congregations and others in America who are taking on the project of purchasing and packaging these meals for FMSC out of Minnesota). Some of this food was sent on to PAP to feed hungry children in the Carrefour area. We delivered it while we were in PAP on our way out of the country. Other items were clothing, shoes, medicines, meals-ready- to- eat, tents and tarps. Seventy-two 55 gal. drums and ten pallets of relief items were ultimately distributed. (no wonder we were all exhausted)!
Our “energy crew” led by Ralph was able to get the new solar panels moved to the rooftop of the steel building and all the inverters and batteries moved to the area where the old bath room was in the steel building. Our only significant and frustrating setback was: the controller we thought we had waiting for us had totally disappeared and we were unable to get one up from PAP before we left. So our completed solar power grid must wait until Ralph can go back in perhaps later this year. The Kubota generator was found to have nearly burned up, since someone had overlooked adding water to the radiator, so steps were taken to see this never happens again. Now we hear from Blaud that the starter has apparently burned up also, and they are searching for a new one. (The Lord never promised us a rose garden).
I met with a number of leaders with whom we are sharing many medical supplies, food and other relief items, as thousands of homeless from PAP have drifted into the northwest. These include Dr Beaugeste, the director of Ministry of Health in the Northwest, Dr Jude of Gros Morne Hospital, and Deputy (congressman) Deny St Fort, who is over all the Bassin Bleu, Chansolm,La Platte, and Moustique districts. We decided to help these persons with their food distributions in May, when they hope to give food to 5000 people. (I was dismayed at the degree of hunger we found). MOL, Blaud and Christophe will help with the distribution.
I worked at converting our radiology (x-ray) room to a temporary OR in anticipation of a group of visiting surgeons who will do the first major surgeries ever at Jolivert this coming October. We are still trying to replace the portable GE x-ray unit which has stubbornly refused to make an xray since its installation over two years ago, in spite of several attempts by visiting biotechs to repair it.
We were also visited by Vanessa Carpenter of Angel Missions Haiti with whom we have partnership in several areas. She is bringing some philanthropic persons to visit Jolivert in June with an eye to helping us develop a new surgical building and in helping her to open a mission compound in Haute Moustique (a very remote area over and above Grivot on the other side of the river). She has several acres of land that has been donated to her there. She also hopes to help us find additional surgical teams as facilities are made available to us in the future.
Nancy was pleased to host the last of a series of conferences held in our conference center and funded by MOL by “Beyond Borders”, a group out of Cap Haitien who travels around the countryside teaching critical thinking and conflict resolution to teacher, pastors and community leaders. It was extremely popular and well attended by those around Jolivert (yet another program, along with our adult literacy and microfinance programs that are touching and improving the lives and quality of life of those we come to serve, beyond our extensive medical and public health services).
Incidentally, our MOL nursing staff are now manning 32 separate immunization stations throughout our zone in an attempt to immunize all the kids in the surrounding area with cooperation from the Ministry of Health. This could help to head off an epidemic of diphtheria which has already claimed lives in PAP.
After leaving the rest of our crew at the airport, Betty, Nancy, Warren and I were joined by Joe Judge, our tent ministry guy on his first trip to Haiti, who toured with us the epicenter of the quake and our distribution we had set up in the Charbonierre area of PAP. Joe and Warren were able to set up several tents in that area and we were all blessed to meet with Monfort DesAnges, a Haitian attorney residing in Miami, who graciously gave us the use of his lovely home in Fermath and his automobiles to tour the areas and for Betty and I to hold a clinic for several sick adults at his mission in Carrefour.
We met many of the kids he is serving a hot meal daily to and giving some rudimentary schooling, as many of the school have as yet to reopen. We hope to continue partnering with him as well, and sent him 36 cartons of food from FMSC while there. Ultimately, however we chose to end our involvement in the feeding of the 600 plus families at Charbonierre, although we will continue to provide tents in the badly-hit Carrefour area where many families continue to exist beneath sheets of tin or even crude tents made of bedsheets or tarp halves.
While in PAP at Delmas 33, Joe and Warren put up 2 large tents for an orphanage with 52 children, whose building was destroyed. Nancy helped them fit the children with dresses made in Evansville, Indiana, and carried in by our group. These children need sponsors badly. They are living in an open field, no bathrooms or toilets, no cooking facilities except under a tarp. They do have tents to sleep in, but this situation is unbearable. Please pray that God will send help for them and especially a safe place to live.
Finally, an Army surplus 2 ½ ton truck (refurbished like new), donated by Crossroads Christian Church in Evansville, Indiana, will be driven from Palm Bay, Florida to the Port of Palm Beach for shipment to Haiti next week. It will be packed to the brim with more tents and tarps for the temporary housing needs still so desperately needed by many in PAP.
Bottom line: MOL continues to serve and to serve well the needs of thousands of suffering Haitians in many different areas. We will continue to do so as long as the funds continue to come in. Thanks again for your dedication to MOL and for all each of you have contributed recently and over the years. But dire needs continue, so please look into your hearts for the possibility of continuing your greatly appreciated support.
Remember, you can continue to be one of our “ministry partners” for only $20 per month. May God continue to bless you and yours with good health, long life and prosperity; “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” In His love, Dr Bob and Betty