1st Methodist Church Teams Trip Feb 5-12

Reported by Rev Bubba Smith

At the outset let me say that our recent trip was a huge success in that we accomplished much in terms of hospital maintenance. We built and installed critical window screens in the nursery room. It was hard for us to believe that mosquitoes and other flying insects had direct access to the babies. We hope that our efforts minimized the damage they could have caused.

The nursery room has always been a priority for our teams. One of our members had new mattresses made, while a member of a neighboring church made the sheet slip covers. Every nursery bed was scrubbed and disinfected. 

Three new ceramic water filter systems were installed throughout the hospital, brining the number of water filters that we have installed to eleven. We replaced the eight existing filters with new cartridges. This is a maintenance items that EVERY team should consider adopting. These filters should be cleaned every 6 months and replaced annually. Here are two websites where we have bought filters: http://www.jamesfilter.com/ and http://ultracarb.com/ Doulton HIP Under Counter Water Filter with 1 UltracarbRegular price: $219.00Sale price: $189.00

Members of our church collected enough money to purchase 1000 cloth diapers and pins to be distributed to new mothers and expecting mothers. Plumbing repairs always await us, and this trip was no exception. We repaired clogged drains, installed new faucets and shower heads, and completely built a new bathroom vanity that would support a sink that had fallen off the wall and was lying on the floor. One has to always be thinking outside of the box when it comes to making repairs at the hospital. In the downstairs nursing station ~ We installed a new cabinet top, complete with sink and faucet and unclogged the drain. An electrical outlet was then installed and a under the counter light fixture was added. Did I mention that one of our team members repaired the florescent light fixture. The entire room received a fresh coat of paint. The Medical Records folks ask if we could built them a new filing cabinet. We of course said “yes”. They are very proud of their 7 foot by 7 foot durable cabinet. Several bathrooms were painted and a new tile floor was laid. All in all we estimate that we spent over 500 combined hours of volunteer service last week.

The real adventure Of the trip ( this story ran last week in this blog, but for those of you who may have missed it I am running it again )

NOW regarding the trip itself. I have 3 Bubbaisms that each team member must agree to before I will allow them to go on my trips.

1. Be flexible

2. Be able to practice patience

3. Be willing to roll with the punches without throwing any punches

All three of these were stretched to the limit on our trip. It all began with our landing in Cap Haitian, where the weather prevented us from flying into the Pignon International Airport. We were stuck in Cap! Dick Snook, president of MFI was equally frustrated. As the weather conditions in Cap and Pignon were assessed, it was determined that we would have to locate the nearest Holiday Inn and spent the night. We soon discovered that this was to be Biblical experience. Yep, you guessed it. There was to be no rooms in any Inn.

We were first taken to the Hotel Christopher (by an MFI volunteer) where our interpreter, an MFI volunteer, asked about the availability of rooms. The owner indicated that she did indeed have rooms. Relief at last. We found a nice place with rooms. I asked to see the rooms as to see how I could divide up our team for sleeping purposes. The owner graciously showed me the rooms. It was set. We would have a nice safe room for the night. Upon returning to the desk I asked for the keys, to which the owner ask why. Why? Because our team members had been up all day and were ready for rest. The owner then shocked me by saying that she didn’t have vacancies. At this time I was drawing upon all of my Bubbaisms to keep me sane. You told me that you had rooms, I said. The owner said, yes, we have many rooms and all of them are assigned to my guest. This preacher was then ready for a drink, if you know what I mean?

So what about my team members, I asked, where can they sleep? Oh, said the owner, I have a nice home not far away with seven rooms that I think you will find accommodating. Can you take me there to see the rooms and house? Wow, what a house and what a view of the ocean. (I wish the story could end here.) She opened the door to one bedroom, which was very spacious. “You like,” she said. Very nice I said, now can I see the other rooms? She then proceeded to show me the other 6 rooms. (Are you ready for this?) There was the bathroom, the kitchen room, the living room, and two porch like rooms. OK, let’s see, P A T I E N C E. In my southern draw, I said, Mam, I need seven separate rooms with beds that are not currently occupied by anyone else. (It is now 9:30 p.m. and still no room in any Inn.) She thought for a moment and said, “I know of one other place that might have rooms”. As we pulled up to a nice, guarded building, she said, “you wait here and I will see if they have rooms.” No, you wait and I will see if they have rooms, vacant rooms, immediately available rooms. The Hotel Beau Rivage was to be our shelter from the storm. For $90 a night (which included breakfast), we felt safe and very comfortable. I can highly recommend this hotel. They can be reached at beaurivage@yahoo.com Phone 509 3 262 3113. If I’m not mistaken, I believe you have to now dial the 3 after the a/c. The fact they took my master card as payment was an additional blessing. The MFI staff were superb in assisting us with accommodations and transportation.

The trip back would have its share of issues. On Wednesday I heard from one of the hospital employees that MFI might not be coming to pick us up. Now wait a minute, I’m sensing some daja vu.

Using my now dependable and affordable purchased Haitian phone, I called MFI to confirm the rumors. It is very nice to be able to stand outside the Minnesota house and make a clear phone call back to the states. (The phone cost me $30 and was used extensively by members of my team. I highly recommend that every team purchase a phone when you arrive in Haiti.)

MFI confirmed that they would not be flying into Pignon to pick us up. They had lost an engine on a previous trip and were working out the details with LYNX AIR to come pick us up in Cap Haitian. The only catch was that we would have to drive the 36 miles from Pignon to Cap, a drive that normally takes 4 hours. We were told to be at the airport no later than 1 p.m. and we would leave at 3:00. Arrangements were made for two vehicles to take us and our luggage to Cap.

Upon arriving in Cap the folks from LYNX Air and the folks from MFI gave us some startling news. WE MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO FLY OUT TODAY. What? It appears that the Cap airport shuts down at 5:45 p.m. and no planes are allowed to leave. It has something to do with the absence of runway lights. To top this off, the airport had run out of fuel. Yep, no fuel!

We were beginning to wonder who had sinned on our trip. “ Do you think that God was punishing us for not purchasing something from the street vendors just outside Dr. Guy’s compound?”, we would ask over and over again. After hours of waiting for confirmation that a plane was indeed on its way to pick us up, we were confronted with YET ANOTHER BIT OF DISTURBING NEWS. We had too much luggage. Too much luggage? We had left most of our “stuff” back at the hospital. How could this be? In my opinion, a very rude Lynx Air representative told us that the place had 3600 pound limit and that the weight of the 17 passengers left room for only 140 pounds of luggage. We had to begin immediately reducing our weight. (To be honest with you, I think their scales were not weighting accurately.) But who are we to argue with Haitian scales?

We began tossing. The next question that arose was, when might we receive our luggage? While not apparently a concern for LYNX Air, they were not willing to make any promises. We would have to talk with MFI. We began to label and mark our luggage in hopes that someone, somewhere, someday might have pity on us and return to us our luggage. As we walked to the now awaiting plane, we could see our luggage on the outside of the terminal building with no one guarding it. We resolved ourselves to the fact that if we never saw our luggage again, it would be OK. (I’m writing this on Wednesday morning 2-18-2009 ) and still have not seen our luggage.)

OK, the story is almost over with. LYNX Air finally came. The pilot informed that that we had to make a mad dash for the plane so they could take off before 5:45. At 5:40 we lifted off the ground heading to Port a Prince. Now wait a minutes, we were suppose to be heading to Florida. Our pilot told us that he would have to fly to Port to fuel up, as the Cap airport was fuel less. After a rather long day, we arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport around 11 p.m.