Mission Creep

     This morning at breakfast we learned of a new Christianville policy. Effective today, in addition to a prayer, each breakfast will be preceded by a reading from the Book of Psalms.

When Can I Start??

     All the approvals were issued, the equipment and material were in place, the money to pay my Haitian team was (will be?) advanced, my staff was trained and ready to be hired, I was all set to start the project next week.

     Or so I thought.

     On Thursday afternoon I asked the three people whom I planned to hire to come to Christianville. We all met with Herold, the Christianville Director, who explained the positions and how C’ville would be handling the hiring and salary. The contracts will be drawn up for their signatures next week. So we have begun. My staff is hired.

     Right after we met with Herold, Makendy drove me and my staff to the Gressier clinic to meet with Dr. Celestin, the clinic administrator. The meeting at the clinic did not go as well as I had hoped. Dr. Celestin does not want us to start until November 3. I had planned to start next week. He wants us to use his lab and lab technician for blood draws. I had planned for my staff to do their own blood draws. He wants me to hire a “Facilitator”. I had told him previously that we do not need one.  The rooms we will be using are not furnished. One room has only a desk. The other room has no furniture at all. I was frustrated and disappointed, but calm. We left the clinic and returned to C’ville.

Time to move to plan B.

And You Think You Can Start When?

     I arrived back in Haiti on Monday with renewed enthusiasm and high expectations to start my sexually transmitted infections study in Gressier. I finally received Human Subjects Research approval from my Institutional Review Board and another approval from the oversight committee that has to sign off on overseas projects. So everything was good to go as of September 12, 2014. It was only about 10 months later than I had hoped to start the project but I was very naïve and overly optimistic about how long it actually takes to get a study of this type underway.

     My equipment and supplies were all in place in the UF-EPI Haiti lab in Gressier and I brought down more supplies when I came back on Monday. So one of my goals was to hire my staff that I had trained in July. When I flew down here, I still did not have a contract in place between the Henry Jackson Foundation (HJF), the organization that manages my grant for the study, and Christianville Foundation, who will handle hiring and paying my staff as well as other in-country expenses such as housing, lodging, transportation, use of the UF lab, etc. Negotiations had begun in June and when I left my office in Bethesda on October 10, I still did not have a contract. I had been through several weeks of frustration trying to find out what was holding up the final contract. I cannot tell you how many emails I received that said the “final” contract was ready to be signed. Then something else would come up and nothing was signed. It was infuriating. I had already scheduled my trip with the expectation that the contract would be in place and that I would be free to hire my staff and start the project. I could not wait. My travel office required a 30 day advance to process the paperwork for a foreign trip. Don’t ask why. I would not be able to tell you. The forms are all filled out the same way as for my previous half dozen trips in the past year. Why should it take so long and require so much advance notice? I don’t understand. It is just one more frustration.

     So I arrived in Christianville on Monday and met with John, the person who is the Christianville contact for the contact negotiations. He could not understand why it was taking so long either. I apologized for the delay. I told him I would contact my Program Manager and see where we were on the contract. Tuesday, I contacted my Program Manager to get an update. Things were still a mess and no contract was ready. Tuesday night, John forwarded me an email he had received that afternoon from the person at HJF who was handling the contact. It said that she was no longer handling the contract and that someone else had been assigned to work on it.  John said he assumed that I had received the same email and that I was aware of the change. I was not. My Program Manager was not informed either. I was furious. It was embarrassing. I had dinner with John earlier that evening and he knew about the change while I was completely unaware of what was going on. Now what? This turn of events was very depressing and unexpected.

     The good news is that the person now handling the contract is very good and efficient. The better news is that on Wednesday the advance money was approved which means that I could hire my staff. We called them on Wednesday afternoon and told them to come to Christianville on Thursday. We hired them this afternoon! I have my Gressier team. We are ready to go.

     Or so I thought.

This Time, We start

     After a long hiatus, I am back to writing my blog. Please excuse the long absence. It was due in part to summer vacation and in part to not having much to report since my last trip to Haiti in July. Now I am back at Reagan National Airport (DCA) waiting to board my US Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale and then on down to Port-au-Prince (PAP). It was a little over a year ago that I sat in this same airport waiting for my American Airlines flight to Miami and then to PAP. It was the start of my sabbatical leave and the beginning of the long journey to set up a sexually transmitted diseases surveillance project in Haiti. A year has passed since that pre-dawn October morning when Pierre drove me down the GW Parkway to DCA. For probably the sixth or seventh time he has done so since last year, Pierre drove me to DCA again this morning. Pierre is now in graduate school at American University. Cecile and Odile are one year further along in their college education.

Last year, the Federal Government was shut down. Congress could not agree on a budget. Today it is closed for the Columbus Day holiday and operating on a continuing resolution. Nothing has changed in the Congress. Nothing gets done.

Last year they were two separate companies. Now American Airlines has merged with US Airways.

Last year the Washington NFL team was bad. This year they are maybe worse but now more people are refusing to call them the Redskins.

Last year I had a plan but I had no idea how long it would take to implement. Today, I have all of the approvals to start my study. My equipment and supplies all are in place at the UF lab in Gressier. The people whom I plan to hire have been trained. This week I will hire my staff and visit the clinics to set up the space and work schedule to start the project. Now a year after boarding the plane for PAP, naively thinking that I would have the study up and going in three months, I am finally returning to Haiti to start enrolling participants in my study. This time for real.