Yesterday was my first MEDCAP! We went out to a town called Tobelo and set up in a school. The school was many small buildings with a large open common area in the middle. So, all day it was possible to see the people waiting and kids running around playing. I arrived around 7am, but my preceptor had been there since before 6am and everything was pretty much organized and ready to go. Patients started coming in around 7:30 and we worked all day. I am told that we served over 600 patients and filled over 800 prescriptions. We had lots of help. Besides John and myself, we had an Indonesian pharmacist, an Indonesian medical student working as a translator, and later three Indonesian doctors from the town came just to help out. At one point in the day we had 5-6 translators all counseling at once. I could see them teaching how to use an inhaler and all of the motions looked like the ones I would have made. I wish I could have done the counseling myself, but all of the translators did a really great job.
There were a ton of kids running around and playing all day. I was told by our translator that many of them have never seen a Caucasian person before, so every time I turned around, someone was taking my picture. Sometimes they would also ask me to be in the picture with them. I kind of felt like a celebrity by the end of the day! There are a lot of pictures of me looking very hot and sweaty floating around in Tobelo.
I also got to try my very first MRE (meal ready-to-eat). I had the marinara with meatballs, as I was told to stay away from the cheese omelet at all costs. It tasted like Spaghetti O’s, which is much better than I expected. Overall, it was a successful day and I am excited to go on my next MEDCAP next Tuesday. Today, I am back on MID shift, which is 10am to 10pm. I am looking into getting some pictures up soon. Lastly, I want to send out a special "Happy Birthday" to my husband, Forrest, who turned 30 today. There will be celebrating when I return.
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