A day in the life.......

Okay, I have an unexpected free hour so hope to update everyone on what is really happening here. We are working like dogs but the needs are so great nobody is upset or minds the long hours. We lost a nurse and two translators today due to illness, I must say I am surprised that we have not lost more. I have put food in my mouth that never in a million years would I have expected I would eat, nothing out of the ordinary but it is where and how it has been cooked that is the problem. We have no choice and caution has gone to the wayside in favor of survival. We are drinking bottled water however I do not want to know where the ice in the cooler is from that the water bottles are resting in as the ice melts, has come from. We must drink so we do, we must eat, so when meat and food orders arrive from who knows where in the back of a car we eat! May G-D be with us! The bathroom issue is another story.....suffice it to say that I am just

SO FAR OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE! Those of you who know me well may never tease me again about my neurotic OCD issues as I have let them all go in every aspect of my daily life here. I have mentioned that we are sleeping wrapped in silk sleeping bag liners that have been soaked in DEET and other chemicals to save yourself at night? Need I say more.

Now for the REAL stuff. Our mornings begin with 6:15am on the bus to breakfast. We are at the work site with people lined up waiting at 7:00. We quickly prepare our work area and the day begins. The medical team is seeing close to 300 people daily. Here are pictures and descriptions of our work stations.

The crowd arrives before we do and push, shove and fight their way in to be seen.

Patients are registered and a "file" is
started on them. This is in hopes of follow up for larger issues.

Next station is height,

& weight, then on to eye exam. The sad
thing is that even using the symbol eye chart
we have patients that don't know what the
symbols are, they don't have a word for boat,
+ sign, circle.









Next stop is Dr. Judy the dentist. She checks for basic issues that we note a follow up is needed and everybody gets a fluoride treatment.






We have three nurses who triage patients and due to our Hugh turn out numbers they are writing orders for medications as well.




This is the doctors "exam" room as well. We are working out of the school that catalyst built for the "garbage dump" kids.

This is our pharmacy. We have a pharmacist as well as other volunteers who are packaging meds and a translator who writes the directions on the plastic bags in Vietnamese. Lets just say if OSHA ever passed through they would all keel over and die, we have grocery bags full of pills just spread out on table, in suitcases, on the floor, and anywhere else there is a space.