This is home for this family. When a person or family arrive they are only given a bag with a toothbrush and soap. No tent, no blanket. There is such a shortage of space and tents that there needs to be at least 4 people in order for refuge4 refugees to give a tent. The tents [...]
Today was one of those days of frustration at the system. Having to tell an 18 year old there is no dentist to pull out his infected, painful molars. He will have to just live with the pain, likely for years. A 53 year old woman who has an extremely high blood sugar level of 344, [...]
It takes a village to make our clinic happen. Our team is global from Slovakia, Romania, USA, Palestine, Ghana, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Tibet. We have great cooperation, and working together to serve our fellow humans here gives us strength . There is great kindness here. We are inquisitive about each other’s culture and respectful [...]
We have a Nurse Practitioner from Canada joining our team. She is very skilled and has done refugee work before so she was a seamless fit. Dr. Dan saw some really sick kids today, pneumonia’s, asthma. He said these are kids he would not send home and yet they are sent back to a tent [...]
Our stellar rock star Nurse Practitioner, Leslie Gibbs, leaves today. She has the kindest bedside manner and is highly skilled medically. We are going to miss her BIG TIME. THANK YOU LESLIE!
We have figured out more efficient, less chaotic management. Sadly, the stories and situations, frustrations and lack of resource have become our “normal”. I hate this because we have no choice but to work within this parameter. And we accept it. I don’t want this to be the “normal”. We should never accept this . [...]
Dr. Dan, the pediatrician, is here and we had lots of kids for him to see. He did really well the first day, working with refugees in our make shift clinic. Kids coming in with asthma. The cold season is just starting and the fires to keep warm have started exacerbating their respiratory issues. The bed [...]
Today was sick baby day. Our pediatrician, Dr. Dan, arrives this evening but they couldn’t wait. Lots of fevers and coughs and the cold rains have not yet begun. The kids all have rashes - chicken pox, scabies and bed bug bites are rampant. We set up another tent for discharge, a nice big ten person [...]
The Flying Seagull Circus is back after two days off. They are amazing, working with these refugee kids. The noise level is intense but it’s all laughter and giggles and how can that be bad? Karen’s HUG and RUB clinic is very popular and sometimes I think it is the best we can do for [...]
The team is working so well together. I would not say smooth going … but great creativity and resourcefulness and somehow we are still smiling for our patients. There is a chicken pox epidemic. So many kids with fevers and pox, they are miserable and can you believe there is NO CALAMINE lotion on the island! [...]
