Talked with Keith. Both of the replacement teams are there. There are 5 members from the South Carolina Team and 5 members from the Apostolic Team. These 10 include 2 orthopedic surgeons. They are doing rounds which is taking approximately 2 hours to introduce the new team to the patients in the hospital. Our Team plans to load the van and begin to journey back to Port au Prince at 2:30 am tomorrow morning. They are looking forward to boarding the MFI plane at 9:00 am in Port au Prince which will fly them back to Fort Pierce. Keith plans to call when they arrive in Port au Prince and we will share that with you.
Specific message to Rich & Tom: The Team assumes that you have arranged the transportation for them from Fort Pierce to West Palm Beach but they currently do not know the details of those arrangements. If there is anything they specifically need to know, could you let us know so we can share it with Keith in the morning. We can also email Molly tonight with any specific instructions they might need. They are also assuming that transporation issues related to returning to Bloomington rather than Peoria have been worked out by all involved.
Gary had a good conversation this afternoon with Hank Haskins of LMM from SC that has been arranging the SC Teams. Hank and Bob Honniger had a conference call with Dr. Morquette this afternoon. Hank will be taking on the responsibility of scheduling all subsequent trips to Kings Garden Hospital in Port au Prince. Dr. Morquette hopes that there can be a continuous presence of Teams at the facility for the next several weeks. He would like to continue to work closely with Hanks LMM organization, Christ Community Church in the Chicago area, and the Apostolic World Relief Teams as the source of the Teams. These 3 organizations have been his primary sponsors over the last several years and he longs to see that relationship continue. He sees continued need for orthopedic surgeons, plastic surgeons as wounds and orthopedic injuries go through the healing process. He sees a significant need for nurses as well as physicians. He also feels there is a large need for psychiatrists/
Please keep the Team in your prayers as they begin their long journey (on rough terrain) back to Port au Prince. Continue to pray for Cheryl and Team 2, who are divided between Bonne Fin and Kings Garden Hospital.
We received this from Alice Widmer who is the communication link for Team 2. We are not sure who the author is.
Hello back home from all of us here to all of you there, This is a mass email to all of you. Left Missionary Flights International airport by 10 today on a plane owned and sponsored by Hendricks Motor Sports (never heard of them, but the rest of the group all seemed to. Something to do with racecar driving.) This company also paid for the crew and fuel to get here. Posh leather seats. . . the last of the luxury! Touched down in Port au Prince with a many Haitian men anxiously awaiting outside the door to take our bags and help us in any way possible. . . all looking for a job, Florida was freezing, Bahamas, where we refueled was pretty cool, too. Felt like an ice cube until the blast of Haiti air hit us our faces. . . it hasn't quit since. (P.S. It's not cold anymore!) Jan Gutwein (brother who has lived her for 10 years) met us with a 15 passenger van. The easiest "customs" that we ever passed! In 5 minutes we were all hot and sweaty in a pretty hot van, on a very bumpy road with more potholes than not, no paved roads, no lanes, each guy for himself, the most agressive driver with the loudest horn and most gall to inch forward wins. Makes the worst road in Romania look like Main street usa. Lots of piles of rocks and rubble and toppled buildings in a heap.
Arrived at King's hospital without even getting motion sick. The 80-second airborn military men were outside the gates (just keeping an eye on things, we were told). The place is owned or run, I'm not sure which, by a husband-wife doctor team. We were all in for a big surprise that things seemed quite under control. Nothing like what we heard and saw from home. Another missionary medical team had been there for a week and they said the chaos has died down. A military truck was taking away an unresponsive girl with encephalitis as we walked in. Based on quick glance, her long term prognosis looked very poor. The biggest shock of it all was the haitian culture as presented to American medical people. Our culture is that in time of crisis and need, we are trained to hit the ground running. We expected it to be like walking into an out of control Emergency Department at the worst of the worst. Not at all. They took us aside and chatted a while and gave us a tour of the place. The present medical team leaves tomorrow and will hand off report to us. But more than people and supplies, they are in dire need of organization, national organization. They are not organized and equipped to handle overwhelming amounts of supplies. Surely, it is direly needed throughout this impoverished country, but the where-with-all to mobilize everything to the places of appropriate need seems to be overseen by no one. Every room was someone else with a cast or fracture, but we were told that there was no Xray abilities there. go figure that. . . how do you have a hospital full of orthopedic patients and no X-ray abilities. Film, yes. . . Machine. . no! The person that they needed to X-ray, it took 3 days to get the leg x-rayed done elsewhere! They have two OR's with the anesthesia machine dropped down via helicopter onto their roof. Unfortunately, one OR was shut down today because sewage was leaking through an unstable wall into the OR suite (so much for the sterility there!) Supplies are everywhere. One of the ortho guys was so frustrated looking through a heap of stuff for something he needed in the mess. One thing they do have though is a good pharmacist who has his end under control. The outside of the north side of the building was shored up with cement blocks and rocks with a big crack that they were watching. As the group of us was standing at the entrance talking, our tour guide suddenly yelled for everyone to get outside! Some of us felt it; some of us didn't. It was another tremor. . . With that, many people left the building. No one seemed too alarmed. . . so we weren't either. They said they've had lots of tremors. . . no big deal, they thought. Dr. Marquette, the owner is still sleeping outside at night, like most of the Haitians are doing these days.
On the way home, the roads were equally as chaotic. The entire city is pitch dark because there is no electricity back anywhere. People everywhere on the streets in the darkness. We are staying at the doctor's house with a generator that has gone off several times since I started this email, my internet access is by one of the missionary's laptop that so kindly let me use his. There are many dogs barking through every open window. Each dog barking back at another one. We feel very safe here. Don't worry about us. These are good people. The other missionaries staying in this house are good people, too. Hope this wasn't too verbose. Oh, by the way, we have no running water. Toilet being used by the whole works staying here but no flush or sink water, and of course no shower. There are buckets of water outside the bathroom. Right now the hosts are preparing to serve us a wonderful breakfast. Last night's supper was wonderful and we were all quite hungry.
Today the plan has taken a mid-course adjustment. Our team is splitting up into two groups, one will stay here, the other will go out to another hospital in the mountains, Bonne Fin. Greg, the surgeon, Katie, Heidi, Cheryl and Karen will go and the other 7 of us will stay here at King's. Hope this finds all of you well as it leaves us. We are all doing fine. None of you, our dear family and friends back home should worry about us. We're fine!
Hello back home from all of us here to all of you there, This is a mass email to all of you. Left Missionary Flights International airport by 10 today on a plane owned and sponsored by Hendricks Motor Sports (never heard of them, but the rest of the group all seemed to. Something to do with racecar driving.) This company also paid for the crew and fuel to get here. Posh leather seats. . . the last of the luxury! Touched down in Port au Prince with a many Haitian men anxiously awaiting outside the door to take our bags and help us in any way possible. . . all looking for a job, Florida was freezing, Bahamas, where we refueled was pretty cool, too. Felt like an ice cube until the blast of Haiti air hit us our faces. . . it hasn't quit since. (P.S. It's not cold anymore!) Jan Gutwein (brother who has lived her for 10 years) met us with a 15 passenger van. The easiest "customs" that we ever passed! In 5 minutes we were all hot and sweaty in a pretty hot van, on a very bumpy road with more potholes than not, no paved roads, no lanes, each guy for himself, the most agressive driver with the loudest horn and most gall to inch forward wins. Makes the worst road in Romania look like Main street usa. Lots of piles of rocks and rubble and toppled buildings in a heap.
Arrived at King's hospital without even getting motion sick. The 80-second airborn military men were outside the gates (just keeping an eye on things, we were told). The place is owned or run, I'm not sure which, by a husband-wife doctor team. We were all in for a big surprise that things seemed quite under control. Nothing like what we heard and saw from home. Another missionary medical team had been there for a week and they said the chaos has died down. A military truck was taking away an unresponsive girl with encephalitis as we walked in. Based on quick glance, her long term prognosis looked very poor. The biggest shock of it all was the haitian culture as presented to American medical people. Our culture is that in time of crisis and need, we are trained to hit the ground running. We expected it to be like walking into an out of control Emergency Department at the worst of the worst. Not at all. They took us aside and chatted a while and gave us a tour of the place. The present medical team leaves tomorrow and will hand off report to us. But more than people and supplies, they are in dire need of organization, national organization. They are not organized and equipped to handle overwhelming amounts of supplies. Surely, it is direly needed throughout this impoverished country, but the where-with-all to mobilize everything to the places of appropriate need seems to be overseen by no one. Every room was someone else with a cast or fracture, but we were told that there was no Xray abilities there. go figure that. . . how do you have a hospital full of orthopedic patients and no X-ray abilities. Film, yes. . . Machine. . no! The person that they needed to X-ray, it took 3 days to get the leg x-rayed done elsewhere! They have two OR's with the anesthesia machine dropped down via helicopter onto their roof. Unfortunately, one OR was shut down today because sewage was leaking through an unstable wall into the OR suite (so much for the sterility there!) Supplies are everywhere. One of the ortho guys was so frustrated looking through a heap of stuff for something he needed in the mess. One thing they do have though is a good pharmacist who has his end under control. The outside of the north side of the building was shored up with cement blocks and rocks with a big crack that they were watching. As the group of us was standing at the entrance talking, our tour guide suddenly yelled for everyone to get outside! Some of us felt it; some of us didn't. It was another tremor. . . With that, many people left the building. No one seemed too alarmed. . . so we weren't either. They said they've had lots of tremors. . . no big deal, they thought. Dr. Marquette, the owner is still sleeping outside at night, like most of the Haitians are doing these days.
On the way home, the roads were equally as chaotic. The entire city is pitch dark because there is no electricity back anywhere. People everywhere on the streets in the darkness. We are staying at the doctor's house with a generator that has gone off several times since I started this email, my internet access is by one of the missionary's laptop that so kindly let me use his. There are many dogs barking through every open window. Each dog barking back at another one. We feel very safe here. Don't worry about us. These are good people. The other missionaries staying in this house are good people, too. Hope this wasn't too verbose. Oh, by the way, we have no running water. Toilet being used by the whole works staying here but no flush or sink water, and of course no shower. There are buckets of water outside the bathroom. Right now the hosts are preparing to serve us a wonderful breakfast. Last night's supper was wonderful and we were all quite hungry.
Today the plan has taken a mid-course adjustment. Our team is splitting up into two groups, one will stay here, the other will go out to another hospital in the mountains, Bonne Fin. Greg, the surgeon, Katie, Heidi, Cheryl and Karen will go and the other 7 of us will stay here at King's. Hope this finds all of you well as it leaves us. We are all doing fine. None of you, our dear family and friends back home should worry about us. We're fine!
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