Clinic Update (sorry no pictures)

Hello everyone,

Mike really wants everyone to share their experiences, aka doesn't want to be the only one blogging and thus I am sharing this grueling job of writing to all of you :-)

The action has continued non stop from the last post. The itinerary posted had 2 days of clinic followed by 2 days of rest with a visit to the Taal Volcano. We learned upon our arrival, however, that this was not to be. Our new schedule is 6 days of clinic with a relaxing ending.

So Mike left off with our first clinic in Baseco and to pick up this story I am going to start with our next two clinics: Laguna and Payatas. However, I want to mention that after our second and last day in Baseco we fit in a stop in Intramuros. This was a Spanish fort that held the national hero Rizal (a writer among many other talents that expressed his dislike of spanish rule and promoted peaceful rebellion). He was locked up and executed in the fort turned modern museum in 1819 (I think this is the right date, I am sure someone can wikipedia this and prove me wrong so dont quote me... it just sounds better to include the tentative year) Unfortunately, the visit was slightly tarnished by our exhaustion and the heat, but it was a richly cultural experience that we are all glad we made especially since we may never do it again. Again sorry for the lack of pictures (on the bright side you have even more to look forward to from the more skilled blogging members or our arrival home :-)

The usual pick up is around 7:30 am in the lobby of our hotel/hostel, and the mood among the group is surprisingly pretty energetic despite the hour. More surprising is that the wonderfully placed starbucks directly ourside our hotel doesn't open until 10am... I am a coffee person so enough said :-( The ride to Baseco was pretty short, but these last 4 days have been 2 hour drives in affore mentioned jeepney down highways in traffic and through the winding streets of the villages/towns (usually more than one 3 point turn is required in these areas) . When we arrive in Laguna on the first day we stop in at the Center of Hope for abused children. It is a very well taken care of and managed facility for physically or sexually abused kids. We are given a tour and give exams and medications / skin care to the 9 kids and handful of mentors at the center. One of the kids has polydactyly on all four appendages!! The kids themselves are adorable and very enthusiastic about our arrival. I think one of them may even grow up to be a future doctor as he went around with my stethoscope listening to our heart beats. From there we are taken to a small clinic by jeepney at which there are already huge lines of people waiting to be seen. We unload and quickly set up a make shift clinic of exam stations and a pharmacy. They placed Adam and I in charge of the pharmacy, so I don't have as much to offer from the front lines. However, seeing as every patient was sent to the pharmacy, I can tell you that after the 300 some patients we saw it was a different situation from the first clinic. Here there are lots more cough and cold cases, for which multivitamins were worth their weight in gold. We did still have some skin care and wound cases, but much less before and we quickly exhausted the medical supplies that we had. Lunch was local made food of stewed meat over rice accompanied by the ripest, juciest mango's we have ever eaten. During the break we toured the little town a bit. Dusty, Randy (both from the other group) and Mike played basketball with some of the locals and were quick celebrities for their size and capacity to dunk!

The second day in Laguna was even more of a treat. After the 2 hour ride, we arrived a a wide open space in a different part of the village with a single tent erected to house all 14 of us plus the 22 nurses also volunteering. It was going to be a long day... After setting up the pharmacy and having the locals set up more tarps to sit under we got started and it was fast paced. Nurses checking people in and doing vitals and then sending them to us and a translator for more in depth exams. Again it was much the same with lots of coughs and some skin cases with a few developmental disorders and some patients in need of more advanced medical attention or eye exams. Lunch was again locally produced and similar to the day before and we were very tired after the morning. It begain to rain as we headed back to the "clinic" and before we were able to see another patient it started to pour! The kids thought this was the greatest thing with the tarps set up collecting water and we spent a lot of time trying to keep our shelter upright and spilling water all over the kids for their enjoyment. It was a much slower afternoon and we left a little earlier and got home around 5... short day clocking in at around 9 hours :-) better than the 12 hour days previous!

Well it is getting late, but to wrap up the days have been long and exhausting yet very rewarding. In total over the last 4 days we have seen over 1100 patients! While our efforts are not a long term fix the smiles and thanks from the people we have seen have made this trip something special for all of us! Hopefully the next post will talk about the future clinic in Payatas as well as the Taal volcano. I also hope it includes some pictures as my words do not do justice to the things we have seen.

We miss you all back home and love reading your comments and emails. Thank you so much for all your support and love. Stay well and know we keep you in our thoughts everyday!

Yours truly,
-Joe