Today there seemed to be an urgency on the people coming to the clinic. It was almost like the word was out that it may be a while before the next medical team arrives. After the pastor led singing and prayer (video), people started running for the line and more jostling for position was seen. All in all, it was quite peaceful for people in such need. Imagine that you have no access to such simple things as aspirin/ibuprofen for headaches, anti-acids or vitamins. Add to that the difficulty getting prescription meds for hypertension, diabetes, thyroid medicines, etc, or even minor surgery. After we leave and their medicines run out, they're on their own until the next team arrives.
Today I once again floated between gyn consults, surgeries and surgery follow-ups. My surgeries today were all lipoma excisions. I've never seen so many lipomas in a population. The surgery process is getting easier as we have the system down to prepare what we need to get started. Of course, we finally get it figured out right before we leave.
After surgery/clinic, and returning after dinner, we spent several hours reorganizing the pharmacy meds and surgical suite in preparation for the next group.
Just before dinner, a group of kids were playing in a tire, singing and drumming. This is on one of the videos I posted.
Tomorrow we leave about 9-9:30 in the clinic bus to Port au Prince airport. From there we will catch a bus to take us to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for our flight home Saturday.
Random thoughts again- Personal Space: in the US we have a circle around us that is our personal space. Not so in Haiti. The people stand in line pressing up against the person in front of them so there is VERY close personal contact. They stand squashed up against each other like that for hours. Just an observation of something that wouldn't fly at home.
Time to go to bed for another long day tomorrow.
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