Good Morning World! I’m back!
As has become the custom in room 30… the telephone buzzes and the electronic noises begin. It must be 6:00. I reach over and (Owww.. that still hurts) tell Dede it’s 6 A.M. She says;”Ummmmm Grrrrrrr Arghhhh. At least that’s what is sounded like to me. I know what that sound means. That means; “Listen, I know you think you’re helping me right now… but if you touch me or speak to me again you will awaken Darth Dede (Enter Heavy Vader-like breathing) and she will not e very pleased with you. Not very pleased at all. So I decide the only way to wake her up is to get up myself. So I do. I make my way to the bathroom and leave The light on. (Great trick) I do the ole water thing and make my way to the front of the hotel to hop on the wireless. (How did you think I was posting these… come on people.) I type a few things that had happen and I make my way back to the room. When I got back she was up, on the Light-Side of the Force and already in the shower. Sweet, no force choke!
As we walk around the room and run through the normal application of creams and things we noticed the clock getting closer and closer to breakfast time. We grab our things and head over. I walk in the door and everyone is up and there. We are looking forward to today. Today is medical clinic day. A few guys are going back to the construction site but the rest of us are crowd control for the nurses and pharmacy. Sounds like a boring job but I’ll see what happens. Brittany does devotions and we all pray. It was a great morning to get back and get some sleep. Everyone’s belly is full of watermelon and Gallo Pinto… sounds like a plan… but off to the site we go. We have never been to this location before. The city has chosen this site for us to work on because the people are so poor. They are just as poor as the people where we worked yesterday.
We load up the truck with all the medicines and head over. As we have established, the roads are a disaster. You are on a roller coaster ride just going to the corner store. Well Mike gets in front, the white rental van get in the middle and the GMC is taking up the rear. We arrive at the church and there at least 100 people there waiting in line for us to start. The intersection right in front of the church has a really bad road and I ask Mike… “Will the Suburban be able to get through that mud?” BAM! We all turn around and the Suburban is leaning about 20 degrees to the left as it sinks into a really really big hole. With the mud everywhere you can’t see where it is… but we’ve found it.
One day I will load the video for it but for now here are the pics…
It was wild. I have personally never seen a truck stuck in that much mud. The more they tried to get it out the deeper it suck. It went from a half way up the back right tire to covering the entire wheel. The more it leaned I just knew it was going to flip over. I saw it in my head. The truck on its side and us pushing it down the mud. Some guys come over and helped us push, pull and tug the truck but it didn’t budge. The most comical part was seeing the skin and bones horse walk by us as we desperately try to get this massive horse powered truck out of the mud. Mike tied to try the Suburban to this pickup and pulled but the van didn’t budge. We were quickly running out of ideas. Well, Debra wanted us to get the meds out of the truck and see if that would help. So we unload everything from the vans and setup the pharmacy inside and nurses under tents in front of the church. With there being so many people already there it was a little difficult to get started but we managed to get it going. We had to make sure that each person who would been seen by the nurses had a ticket. It seems cruel to tell a mother with two kids to choose which one gets seen but if we try to see the whole village not only will we run of our meds before noon but we will have nothing left for the medical clinic tomorrow at another village. The rules are there to provide order to the system but compassion also has its place.
After we got the clinic setup we open the doors and started seeing patients. The nurses would see them for about 4 minutes and send them inside to pick up the meds and the next person would come in. With 4 nurses we could move through a lot of people at once. Every now and then a couple of guys try to get the truck unstuck but BAS have gotten fully involved in the clinic. I asked Johnson how BAS were so clam about the whole thing. I guess when there is nothing you can do about it there’s no reason to worry. The only reason we were out there today was because the government choose this location.
We had seen about 50 or so people when large concrete truck drove by. Man, if they can’t get the truck out… nothing can. Everyone started clapping and shouting but… they keep driving by. That sucked. Well pointed for them to help us but they said something and kept going. Oh well… back to the clinic. We have to be buffers for the nurses so they don’t get slammed with 7 people at once but also so that the people get coming. A while later the concrete truck came back and they were here to help this time. The pulled in front of us and started to tie a chain to the Suburban. At the same time a Front End Loader pulled up. We turned around and the Mayor’s personal assistant, who has been with us since we got here, got out of a car and stated asking; “Where’s Mike? Where’s Mike?” Debra come to the front and said that he wasn’t there. She said; “Well, I brought these men and they’re gonna get your truck out.” It was awesome. The concrete truck pulled and pulled and the next thing you know the truck is being pulled right out of the hole.
After the Suburban was free and clear the tractor begin to give the standing water a place to go and smooth out the road. Depending on who you ask they might have made it worst but at least there was a smooth place in the road. You know what, if our truck would not have gotten stuck that road would have never gotten fixed. Some people try to look for God in every little thing that ever happens to them but some people know that God “IS” involved in everything that happens to them. My God loves me enough to want to be involved in everything I do.
A few hours later we are getting ready for lunch and the nurses are ready. We shut the clinic down and head for the back. We are all eating and sharing our stories when this guy comes up to the barbwire and starts demanding a sandwich. We don’t make a habit of giving our food to the locals so we said no. Well, he starts threatening to cut his arm on the barbwire if we don’t give him food. The nurses are screaming “NOO!!” has runs his arms down the wire. Susan stands up and quickly hands him some food. My God man. If all you want is a sandwich, take it. That pretty much ended lunch and we head back to work.
The clinic is back up and going and we have about 120 more people to see. A few really bad patients come through and we’ve done what we can for them. Some are even told to go to the hospital. One little girl, after seeing two nurses, is believed to have measles. Joyce is really concerned. Measles can wipe out whole families, even villages. We get her to the front of the line, pray for her and beg the father to send her to the hospital. Several people have holes and sores that were gangrenous. The nurses would dress them and give them ample antibiotics. It seems like we were dropping spoonfuls of relief into an ocean of pain. But you know what, I thank God for it. One spoonful t a time.
The end of the clinic is approaching and we have seen over 300 patients. The meds are all gone and the patients list has come to an end. Mike has showed up and we are in clean up mode. We make sure the grounds are in better condition than we found them. The Pastor is so happy he can hardly contain himself. It’s been a good day.
We load up the truck and head over to the construction site to pick up the other guys. They are only about 1 mile down the road. We pull up and the guys are all sitting under the shade of a building that wasn’t there yesterday. They have laid the roof on the kitchen and are enjoying the spoils of their labor. It was awesome. They have pretty much built an entire structure in under 16 hours.
We took a couple of group pictures and headed home. The ride home was normal and the skies were clear. For the first time it might not rain on our way home. We unload the truck and head to our rooms. I hit the shower and Dede hits the pool. I hopped online and to send a few posts and them BAM! The wireless drops. I knew instantly what had happen… the power has gone out… and then it begin to rain. I saved what I was doing and went to check on Dede. Just as soon as she got to the room we lost power. We get ready for dinner by laptop light. As were heading over we’re sure that power will be out till at least 10:00 P.M. The kitchen is nice and hot but the food is good. We had some “Bobs” and some Gallo Pinto… of course and get ready for debriefing.
The debriefing was good. Everyone talked about their stories for the day and how well we all work together. It really has been a nice group to work with. We just gel. A few bumps along the way but overall we really do gel well. Ha Ha. Gel well.
The power is still off so we all kind of hang out and talk but eventually Dede and I head off for bed. I stay up for a second to finish writing and then hit the bed. I asked Dede if all the lights would turn on when the power came on but she didn’t know. After I was in the bed for about 30 minutes… every light and the A/C turns on. It scared me half to death. Thank God for the other half. I got up and turned everything off and went back to bed. It’s been a good day. Good night for now.
Nes
After we got the clinic setup we open the doors and started seeing patients. The nurses would see them for about 4 minutes and send them inside to pick up the meds and the next person would come in. With 4 nurses we could move through a lot of people at once. Every now and then a couple of guys try to get the truck unstuck but BAS have gotten fully involved in the clinic. I asked Johnson how BAS were so clam about the whole thing. I guess when there is nothing you can do about it there’s no reason to worry. The only reason we were out there today was because the government choose this location.
We had seen about 50 or so people when large concrete truck drove by. Man, if they can’t get the truck out… nothing can. Everyone started clapping and shouting but… they keep driving by. That sucked. Well pointed for them to help us but they said something and kept going. Oh well… back to the clinic. We have to be buffers for the nurses so they don’t get slammed with 7 people at once but also so that the people get coming. A while later the concrete truck came back and they were here to help this time. The pulled in front of us and started to tie a chain to the Suburban. At the same time a Front End Loader pulled up. We turned around and the Mayor’s personal assistant, who has been with us since we got here, got out of a car and stated asking; “Where’s Mike? Where’s Mike?” Debra come to the front and said that he wasn’t there. She said; “Well, I brought these men and they’re gonna get your truck out.” It was awesome. The concrete truck pulled and pulled and the next thing you know the truck is being pulled right out of the hole.
After the Suburban was free and clear the tractor begin to give the standing water a place to go and smooth out the road. Depending on who you ask they might have made it worst but at least there was a smooth place in the road. You know what, if our truck would not have gotten stuck that road would have never gotten fixed. Some people try to look for God in every little thing that ever happens to them but some people know that God “IS” involved in everything that happens to them. My God loves me enough to want to be involved in everything I do.
A few hours later we are getting ready for lunch and the nurses are ready. We shut the clinic down and head for the back. We are all eating and sharing our stories when this guy comes up to the barbwire and starts demanding a sandwich. We don’t make a habit of giving our food to the locals so we said no. Well, he starts threatening to cut his arm on the barbwire if we don’t give him food. The nurses are screaming “NOO!!” has runs his arms down the wire. Susan stands up and quickly hands him some food. My God man. If all you want is a sandwich, take it. That pretty much ended lunch and we head back to work.
The clinic is back up and going and we have about 120 more people to see. A few really bad patients come through and we’ve done what we can for them. Some are even told to go to the hospital. One little girl, after seeing two nurses, is believed to have measles. Joyce is really concerned. Measles can wipe out whole families, even villages. We get her to the front of the line, pray for her and beg the father to send her to the hospital. Several people have holes and sores that were gangrenous. The nurses would dress them and give them ample antibiotics. It seems like we were dropping spoonfuls of relief into an ocean of pain. But you know what, I thank God for it. One spoonful t a time.
The end of the clinic is approaching and we have seen over 300 patients. The meds are all gone and the patients list has come to an end. Mike has showed up and we are in clean up mode. We make sure the grounds are in better condition than we found them. The Pastor is so happy he can hardly contain himself. It’s been a good day.
We load up the truck and head over to the construction site to pick up the other guys. They are only about 1 mile down the road. We pull up and the guys are all sitting under the shade of a building that wasn’t there yesterday. They have laid the roof on the kitchen and are enjoying the spoils of their labor. It was awesome. They have pretty much built an entire structure in under 16 hours.
We took a couple of group pictures and headed home. The ride home was normal and the skies were clear. For the first time it might not rain on our way home. We unload the truck and head to our rooms. I hit the shower and Dede hits the pool. I hopped online and to send a few posts and them BAM! The wireless drops. I knew instantly what had happen… the power has gone out… and then it begin to rain. I saved what I was doing and went to check on Dede. Just as soon as she got to the room we lost power. We get ready for dinner by laptop light. As were heading over we’re sure that power will be out till at least 10:00 P.M. The kitchen is nice and hot but the food is good. We had some “Bobs” and some Gallo Pinto… of course and get ready for debriefing.
The debriefing was good. Everyone talked about their stories for the day and how well we all work together. It really has been a nice group to work with. We just gel. A few bumps along the way but overall we really do gel well. Ha Ha. Gel well.
The power is still off so we all kind of hang out and talk but eventually Dede and I head off for bed. I stay up for a second to finish writing and then hit the bed. I asked Dede if all the lights would turn on when the power came on but she didn’t know. After I was in the bed for about 30 minutes… every light and the A/C turns on. It scared me half to death. Thank God for the other half. I got up and turned everything off and went back to bed. It’s been a good day. Good night for now.
Nes
1 comment:
aye caramba! gimme a sammich.
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