Mustard Seed Missions, Inc.

This was an exciting weekend for Yanie (and Amoce).   We spoke with Amoce late yesterday and found out a lot of the details of their whirlwind weekend!

Early Friday morning they took a bus to Port Au Prince to go to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic to seek their visas.  He had printed out email letters from the hospital administrator and from Mustard Seed, as documentation of their ‘invitation’ to enter the DR for Yanie’s full hip replacement surgery.  Amoce said the visas were granted very easily and that the letter from the hospital administrator was especially helpful.

That evening Yanie went to Amoce’s cousin’s house to stay in Port, while Amoce returned to Les Cayes.  He went back to pack his belongings, collect a phone that he could use for the DR and pick up airplane tickets.  He needed to pack sheets and towels for each of them because they are staying in a Nazarene Camp next to the Hospital Elias Santana, a Christian Medical Missionary hospital in Santo Domingo.  He returned to Port on the 2 p.m. bus arriving late in the evening.

Early the next morning they got up and flew Tortug Air on the 10:30 a.m. flight from Port Au Prince to Santo Domingo.  This was Yanie’s first ever flight and Amoce said she slept through it!!  I don’t quite understand that.  He also said it rained during the whole flight; perhaps she was just frightened.  (Judy Foster said it’s been raining non-stop.)

When Amoce phoned us he was delighted to tell us that he has enough Spanish to be able to negotiate cab fare with the taxi drivers and to give directions to where he wanted to go.  On the way to the camp they stopped to buy minutes for his telephone.  He also phoned Nicole, the hospital administrator. Amoce was surprised that the Haitians he’s met in the DR don’t know kreyol; they only speak Spanish.  That was our experience back in 2005 also.  Only the old and gray Haitians knew any kreyol; the younger ones just speak Spanish.

Yanie is scheduled to see the doctor today; Dr. Mehne is only there for one week, so if she is a candidate for the surgery she will get the surgery some time this week.

[As an aside, Amoce is also very thankful and excited because this trip is offering him a chance to see his step-sister, Rick Christopher's mother.  He spent a week looking for her after the earthquake, and found that she had moved to Santo Domingo.]

Last night, Amoce and I were finally able to connect.  He phoned me late and I was able to give him some of the information he needed.  Nicole, the hospital administrator, has reserved each of them a bed at the Nazarene Camp next to the hospital.  They need to bring their own sheets and towels.  Early this afternoon, John V helped Amoce make plane reservations to fly from PAP to Santo Domingo.

MAJOR DETAIL:  Tomorrow Yanie and Amoce will go to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in PAP to seek visas to enter the DR.  They have to get these visas.  Without them, there is no travel and therefore, no surgery.  This is so important for Yanie, it’s her one chance to receive this surgery and be relieved of the pain she’s been living with for over two years.

…that’s the by-word in the USA.  In Haiti, it’s “Communication, Communication, Communication”.  We’ve been trying to contact the hospital administrator at the hospital in the Dominican Republic for over a week.  It turns out that my ATT phone is not able to call the phone numbers in the DR.  I spent time with the ATT rep this morning and her comment was that they have no control over foreign providers.  Wow…   Who’d a thunk?  It’s very weird to know that we CAN call Haiti, but CAN”T call the Dominican Republic.

After trying all of the email addresses one more time, we received a very welcome email back from the administrator late this morning.  She’s putting things in place at her end.  Now, we just need the visa process to go smoothly on Friday.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to text Amoce with information — it’s not going through.  So, instead I’ve been phoning him…it just rings and rings.  arggggghhhh

Amoce has Yanie’s passport in his hand!  That is the good news.  The more challenging news is that they each have to go to Port Au Prince to get a visa to enter the Dominican Republic.   Judy Foster, an American missionary who lives in Cayes, has been trying to help Amoce but she’s having difficulty finding out the fee for a visa.  The Embassy of the DR in Haiti has no website, so that’s not proving an effective way of finding out.  As near as we can collectively figure out, it will cost $100 USD each.

The surgeon who agreed to do the surgery is arriving in Santo Domingo a week from today, so there is a whole lot to do before then.  The administrator from the hospital where the surgery will be performed has not answered my emails, and the phone numbers she gave me back in October no longer work.  We’re facing a few puzzles here, and we’ll just have to respond in faith.  Amoce and Yanie may just end up flying there and making it work as they go along.  It may be the best we can do.

Prayers are welcome!