Haiti, Day Two

*Arrival - Pastor Simon and his nephew Francis met me at the airport and we traveled back to Francis’ apartment in his old Plymouth Voyager which was absent the sliding side door. Pastor Simon prepared a meal for us of tuna and beans and rice. Then we traveled to the hospital and visited with a young lady, named Genese, from the Mais Gate’ church who had been injured severely in the earthquake and then flown to Santo Domingo where she was in a public hospital. She was getting virtually no care and her sister and friend felt that she needed to be brought to a hospital near Port-au-Prince that was run by Americans. We were finally able to talk with the hospital administrator who gave the order to the doctor to treat her and release her. That would not happen until the next morning so we went and rented a mini-van at the airport for our travels and to be able to transport Genese. Since I had slept only 3 hours the night before I laid down at Francis’ apartment for about an hour and a half before leaving to pick up Bro. Mike Weaver who arrived about midnight.

*Thursday - (Feb. 4, 2010)Francis, Pastor Simon, Bro. Weaver, and I arrived at the hospital the next morning around 10:00 to pick up Genese. It’s almost needless to say that it didn’t go like we had hoped! While trying to get into the hospital Francis had to haggle aggressively to get past guards. We made it past the first guard (Francis is a police chaplain which carried some weight) but the next guard was determined and so Francis and Geneses’ friend had to go alone and Pastor Simon and I returned to our rental van where we had left Bro. Weaver. We sat there for two to three hours waiting for the doctor to release our patient. Finally she came rolling out on a crude gurney. We drove back by Francis’ shop and dropped him off and picked up our driver, Viadi, who was to take us to the Haitian border.

It is about a five hour drive from Santo Domingo to the Haitian border. Darkness had settled in by the time we made it there. Our driver parted with us there and I took over the driving responsibilities with Pastor Simon as our navigator. We finally arrived at the hospital where Genese was carried into a large tent and soon four American doctors converged on this young patient giving her much needed attention. She was in renal failure which was of grave concern. They transferred her to the Comfort ship the next day. I hope we hear something soon. If her life is spared, I feel like it was worth the whole trip and all of your giving and praying. After we left the hospital we drove on to Pastor Simon’s house where we set up a tent, inflated our air mattresses, and prepared for rest.