David has had a really long "to do" list, well...ever since we got here :) Realizing that "it" will never all get done, he does a really good job of saying he's done with work when the work day is over. There's inevitably emergencies that crop up that take him away from the supper table...hmmm, this sounds familiar :) It used to be the pager for an ambulance call... But anyway, it seems like he's busier than usual right now with some really big projects, and I wanted to share some of them. We joke that he's doing so much now that in a year from now, he won't have anything left to do and we'll go home! Hahaha!
One of the big projects is ED/Clinic area. This has been ongoing in several phases for over a year, and it's nearing completion! This summer several walls were demolished and new ones built, configuring the space to be more usable. Two isolation rooms were also added in the event of a patient coming in with a highly contagious disease. There was a work team here this week to help finish off the electrical, painting and plumbing parts of this. Then David's regular crew will come through and finish what's left of the painting, and put up doors, privacy curtains, etc.
The masons have been busy building a loading/unloading dock for when we have containers. Up til now, we have always just had to use a ton of man-power and some rickety boards to try to lift heavy equipment off the semi. It's always seriously nerve-wracking to watch, and so this (and hopefully a forklift coming sometime!!) will help tremendously!
This fall, Lordwilling, we hope to renovate our sterilization and pre-op/recovery room area. The Operating Room was one of the first things renovated when renovations started a few years back, but this area outside the OR is needing some TLC. We have a team planned to come down and help with this, but it requires a lot of planning on David's end. What the final outcome will look like, what they want changed, what supplies are needed, how to get those supplies (in country or have to order them to make it on a container in time)...... Also the masons are doing some work in this area to prepare before the team. They have to start a few months in advance to make sure any new walls have time to "cure" before they're painted. Demo work started last week!
We are also working on purchasing a solar power system to hopefully be installed in early 2016. So there will be parts coming down in the next few months to prepare for this. A building needs to be built to house the big batteries that come with the system. The "groundbreaking" for this happened about 2 weeks ago. The masons have been so busy with the other projects that they're just now having time to work on this....it looks like they'll be busy for a while yet :)
We had some autoclaves that were purchased at a super discount from a medical mission in the States. They refurbish medical equipment and sell it to medical missions around the world. The autoclaves were installed two weeks ago by two men who have been coming to Haiti for several years. The one is a biomed tech who used to work at the factory where these autoclaves were built. He helped find these autoclaves to send down and then came for a few days to help install them.
Looking into next year, David is planning the renovation of our final wing of the hospital, Medicine Ward. We have a team hoping to come in February of next year to help with this, but again, there's all that planning stuff to do first :)
All this, and then there's the day to day stuff. Making sure the yard and vehicles are maintained, updating and changing out door locks and light bulbs. Checking why the light in Surgery isn't working and ordering parts. Having someone make and paint iron gates and bars to go around the central supply depot porch and the generator building. Oh yes, and that "water conservation thing" at the Hydro. That needs to be hooked up too. Whenever he has time.... If his office is any indication of his busy-ness, he's got a lot of stuff going on :)
There are about 15 guys that work in the areas that David works in. Linonce is the Boss, and Joe and Toto work in the Shop. Kristof and Jonas work in the Woodshop. There are 5 guys who do yard work, and 5 who work the Hydro. And enough work to keep them all busy :)
