This last year for us has been a rewarding year. The clinic is essentially ready to open--other than still needing more approvals! Last week we received the "pompieri" (fire department) approval without any problems whatsoever! The pleasant young inspector made several worthwhile suggestions and approved the building with the existing hallway doors. Sanepid (the "sanitary police") has been more difficult. The request for approval has been submitted, but one office requires an approval from a 2nd office which requires prior approval from the first office (like Catch 22). Our foundation's attorney is working on that problem now. We hope that we receive all the approvals by the end of this month, and ask for your prayers on this--that the Lord will open the doors.
We hope to be hiring employees and to be starting to provide medical care at the clinic soon! Ruxi, our foundation director, is already teaching a course for general practitioners who want to be able to take the exam to become family practitioners. Twenty-three GPs come to the clinic every Friday and Saturday, up to 10 hours per week for 12 weeks total. Last week Milt helped the GPs learn how to actually use otoscopes and ophthalmoscopes--rather than just hearing about it in a lecture (the Romanian style of education).
Recently, we've been putting the final touches on the clinic--things like mounting the blood pressure cuffs and otoscopes on the walls, making sure that all the donated and purchased equipment works correctly, fixing the plumbing, finishing the sterilization rooms, sorting through and arranging all the boxes of medical equipment and supplies that we have had in storage, etc. The heating unit for the building works really well! The weather outside has been down to below 20 degrees F. and we still are only needing to use the first of the 2 heating units. The building is so well insulated compared to usual Romanian construction!
Another need for prayer is for registration of the ambulance that was donated from Sweden in October. First, we had to wait for a notarized letter from the donors that they intended to donate the ambulance when they entered Romania, because they didn't know they were supposed to do a "customs declaration" at the border. When we received that letter, Milt and Dragos went to the proper office and after waiting for 6 1/2 hours were told that the letter from the Swedish Mercedes office that states that the ambulance meets the Euro 2 pollution standard needed to be notarized (even though when they saw that letter 2 weeks earlier they didn't say anything about that). To have the tests done here, if we don't get the letter from Sweden, costs about 12,000,000 lei, almost $400. The Swedish office told the donor mission 2 weeks ago that they would send a new letter, but we're still waiting. Once we receive the pollution approval, there are still many, many more steps to registering the ambulance! Please pray for patience and endurance for Milt and Dragos!
We are continuing to see lots of "unofficial" patients for medical care, both foreign and Romanian. This is the most rewarding thing that we get to do here, and this is what the whole clinic project is about! To help people who cannot get help from the medical "system" here. The needs are so great, and the medical system is so fraught with corruption, incompetence and inefficiency that the people never know whether their doctor is giving them good care or not. The Romanians we see are so appreciative of our care, especially being able to ask questions and having things explained to them.
Francisco Gross, the missionary dentist from Guatemala who will be working with us, gave us a copy of the requirements to get temporary licenses to practice medicine, if we don't receive our citizenship for some time. The temporary approvals can be renewed for up to 2 years. He hopes to get his Guatemalan diploma recognized in Spain, which has reciprocity with Guatemala. He was told that the law will be changing in the near future to permit doctors and dentists recognized in the European Union to practice medicine here. That will help him tremendously--not us Americans, though! We haven't heard anything about our citizenship oath being rescheduled. We wonder if the government is having second thoughts about the fact that 214 of the 273 new citizens are from the Middle East, particularly considering that the interviews and decisions occurred long before September 11.
We had a fun time for Thanksgiving! We somehow fit 12 people around our dining room table (by moving an armchair and a plant out of the room)! We had turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and almost all the other traditional Thanksgiving foods, including pumpkin pie!
Last month we started to sense an urge to go home to the U.S. for Christmas. During our home assignment we were so scheduled with speaking engagements that we didn't have time to see Milt's daughter and son-in-law in New York City. And Linda's mom is 85 and feeling her age. So we are taking a short trip home--12/13-25. Linda had already promised to cover for the nurse practitioner at the U.S. Embassy starting 12/26. We will be just spending time with family this holiday. We'll also be able to do some shopping for things for the clinic like smoke detectors, otoscope batteries, microscope parts, etc.
We really thank you for partnering with us in our ministry here in Romania. Without your prayers and support, we wouldn't be able to be here. And we wish you and all your loved ones a very blessed Christmas!