Couple's latest humanitarian trip to Haiti thwarted

For 13 years, humanitarian trips to Haiti have been routine for Dr. Dave Schubert and his wife Laura.

Most years, the Downers Grove couple makes three or four trips to provide care for poor residents in a small village 45 miles southwest of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

But since the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation, the Schuberts' attempts to assist the people they have been helping for more than a decade have been thwarted by other relief efforts.

Commercial flights aren't being allowed into Haiti yet. And since the Schubert's care efforts have been coordinated by a church group throughout the years, they aren't tied into emergency response organizations such as Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross that can get them on the ground any faster.

"It's very frustrating because we are just a small charity, we don't have any big connection with any officials," Laura Schubert said. "We're trying to be patient, and we know if the Lord wants us to go, he'll find a way."

Initially, the couple had planned to go with a contingent that normally travels to the village clinic in Baudin. Dave Schubert said the plan was to work in the capital, where a soccer field next to a hospice was transformed into a makeshift triage unit.

But that trip has been postponed at least twice - it's now scheduled for Feb. 19 - and because of all the changes, only the Schuberts are still able to go.

Laura Schubert said she tried to get her and her husband set up through some of those international medical charities, but the bureaucracy involved in getting registered and certified with that group would keep them in the U.S. longer than if they just kept trying to fly down on their own.

Sandra Murillo, a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders, said the organization has an intensive screening process that gives it the flexibility to staff immediate emergencies just about anywhere in the world.

"(Our) ability to respond swiftly to emergencies like this one is rooted in our existing pool of aid workers who have agreed to be available to work with us on short notice," Murillo wrote. "These staff are selected to join our pool through an extensive application and screening process."

Murillo said experience in a particular country in immediate need wouldn't expedite a doctor's application either.

"It's more about experience with emergencies rather than experience in Haiti," she said.

More than dentistryA dentist by trade, Dave Schubert said the trips to Haiti are never just related to dental care. He said the village clinic sees about 250 patients a day, some of whom need treatment for issues elsewhere on their body."I've always done suturing of wounds and emergency medical care when I'm there," he said. "We'll see everything from a little kid who stuck a bean up his nose to someone with a machete wound."Laura Schubert's role at the clinic isn't as defined. One minute she'll be stitching someone up, the next she'll be assisting her husband on a procedure. Laura, who majored in French, also might serve as translator between the medical team and villagers who speak Creole - a language mash made up mostly of French with dashes of Spanish, Arabic and English."I'm not fluent, but I can get by," she said. "I'm always learning something new, whether it's an idiom or a new phrasing." Dave Schubert said he understands his medical role will be limited, but he believes he and his wife have a cultural and historical knowledge of the land that will be an asset to medical workers in Haiti."If there is a physician that's available to go who's better equipped to serve, they can have my spot," Dave Schubert said.'So much faith'The Schuberts became involved with the clinic when their daughter took a college course on Haitian culture and her professor offered volunteer work through a church in West Lafayette, Ind. Laura Schubert said the couple quickly "fell in love with the people and the country." Dave Schubert painted a mural in their home inspired by the Haitian landscape."They have so much spirituality and so much faith," she said. "They have nothing, and the only thing that sustains them is strong faith, and they have so much passion for their country and families."Laura Schubert said the fate of the people and the country has consumed the couple's lives since the earthquake. They watched television news updates constantly in the days that followed the initial temblor, she said. Dave Schubert has subscribed to a Web site that provides constant updates and detailed information about relief efforts there. The couple is awaiting word from friends they have made in Haiti who they have yet to hear from. Other friends there have told them how dire the situation has become."There's a family there that I'm godmother to their young boy and they were able to contact us and tell us they were alive," Laura Schubert said. "But they're living on the street in Port-au-Prince."False640480Dave and Laura Schubert hope to return to the clinic that was damaged in the devastating earthquake in Haiti.Courtesy of the Baudin Dental MissionFalse