We dropped anchor at 6:30 this morning in the waters surrounding Nicaragua. When I headed out to the deck for my first sight of Nicaragua, I was surprised to see just how close we were to the shore. We were still a little out to sea, several miles, but I could clearly see buildings and other structures on the coastline. It was a different side of Nicaragua than I had seen before.
I had a late call away around 8 this morning to take me to shore since we did not drop anchor until this morning. This would be our first day in Nicaragua and the site needed to be set up. Now, the military sends out an ACE team who will do all of the prep work before we actually get on site. They will scope out where we will be and create a plan for where to set up and how the flow will work. This usually is done a few days in advance of the boat’s arrival.
To get to shore in Nicaragua, we took at hospitality boat for about 30 minutes to the Corinto seaport. This was the first tim,e I had been at such a massive port. There were huge ships in the harbor. Some of them were as big as the Comfort. When I asked why we couldn’t bring our ship into the port, I was told that it would be very expensive for us to pay to dock the ship for 10 days and with our ship anchored where it was it can be seen for miles up and down the coast.
Once we arrived at the port we were told to show our IDs to be allowed in the country. This was a bit of a problem for me because the ship’s admin department had collected all of the civilian’s passports the night before in order to get them stamped. Since we had entered the country by sea, we were told that there would be a problem at the airport if we tried to leave without proof that we had entered the country. After consulting several of the officers, it was determined that no one but the lead officer would show their ID at the gate.
It is a 30 minute bus ride from the port to the first site at the Ministry of Health Clinic in Chinandega. I really enjoyed the ride because it gave be a chance to see the beautiful rocky coastline and gave me a majestic view of the white hull hospital ship that I call home. The ship miles out from shore was a awesome sight to see against the deep blue sea, bright blue sky and the dark brown boulders of the shoreline. I am sure that I will remember it for the rest of my life. I can only imagine what it is like to be a citizen of Nicaragua seeing the ship for the first time. I know I was never prouder to be part of an organization that has such a beautiful symbol of promise and hope.
As we drove down the streets and through towns, I couldn’t help but compare Nicaragua to El Salvador. There were things that were very similar and things that were very different. The bright colored buildings are the same in both countries but in Nicaragua fewer houses are what I like to call “finished. When I say finished, I mean that they have be stuccoed and painted. Another difference that I could see right away is there is a feeling of poverty that was not noticeable it El Salvador. The buildings weren’t finished, the people’s clothes were not as clean and there was liter in the streets. In addition, the roads are not marked an paved as nicely as El Salvador. One thing I will say in favor of Nicaragua is that there is some beautiful scenery. Volcanic mountains are magnificent and the coastline is unbelievable. I am impressed at where there is poverty beauty still abounds.
After our short ride to Chinandega, I was ready to get to work. I was glad to have a chance to get a good workout moving boxes around the pharmacy and unloading the pallets, but when we arrived around 10 there were no pallets to be found. The pharmacy had a total of 19 pallets to go to both sites and I know there were plenty of other departments that had pallets as well. It is a long process and takes quite a bit of time to move that much product by helo from the boat to the shore and then get it sorted out by site.
While we waited Lt. Baidoo bought us a coke from a local vendor and we explored the clinic. After we had gotten the layout of the place and developed a plan for our pharmacy room we ventured right across the street to a little store. One of the guys bought some bread. This bread was folded into triangle and filled with something very sweet. The bread tasted a bit like a Danish here. I also tried what looked to be a sugar coated emanpanada, but it was empty on the inside. It tasted like a sugar cookie and was very good.
Once we were told that they hadn’t even loaded the pallets, we sat down across the street and began to play with some kids. A small little girl appeared with a coin cordoba in her hand, and she went to purchase some candy at the store. She seemed very curious as to what we were doing. I went over and took her picture. After that, we were instant friends. I asked what her name was in Spanish. From that point on, Anita thought that I understood Spanish, and we had a very long conversation (I have no idea what she said). I took her photo again, but she told me that she wanted to fix her hair. Then she introduced me to her brothers and their friends. We played with them for a while and then Carl Caluya bought everyone some ice cream from a street vendor.
About that time word came that some high ranking officials were going to view the site, so we had to move 10 feet to be inside the clinic gate. While they waited, Anita’s brothers kept us entertained with a very fast paced game of marbles. These kids were good. I think one of the soldiers told them that he would buy the winner some candy and gave both of them their choice of candy when the afternoon was done. Once the officials arrived around 2pm, we were told that we had to leave to catch a helo back to the ship. None of our pallets had arrived so we couldn’t do what we were supposed to do. A bit frustrated, we headed to the air strip.
Nicaragua is a very interesting country in that the waves get really rough around the middle of the afternoon. For that reason, all of those making the daily commute will arrive on shore by boat and will depart by helo. Luckily, the air strip was only 6 minutes away by bus.
When we got to HLZ (Helo Landing Zone), I was surprised to see a bus full of Operation Smile patients. On July 2, the Comfort joined forces with Operation Smile for this country. For those of you who are not familiar with this organization, it is a group of medical providers and surgeons who specialize in cleft pallet surgeries. Eighty-seven patients were already identified prior to our arrival today and were waiting with their escorts to head to the ship.
The ship was using both its Navy helicopters as well as several Army Black Hawks that were loaned to us from a military base in Honduras to transport patients. Since there were so many patients and only 11 seats per helo, we waited for several hours to get back to the ship. We also had to wait until the Black Hawks were clear to fly on and off the ship. (I was told they had to qualify, not sure what that means, but they didn’t actually take people flying for several hours until their paperwork was complete).
After waiting for such a long time, we were rewarded with the first Black Hawk ride of the day. This was a great experience because it was the first time I had ridden with the helo doors wide open. The trip took about 10 minutes and the feel of the air against my skin was refreshing after a long hot day. I had so much fun and like a tourist that I sort of am I took tons of pictures from the air.
We didn’t get much accomplished today, but it still was a great experience. I was able to try some local food, had a chance to get to know some of the other soldiers on board the boat, and made new friends with the local kids. In fact, we still refer to the day as our COMREL day. COMREL stands for community relations and usually consist of a group of military and civilians who go out into the community and perform community service deeds. All in all it was a great day.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
July 6 - USNS Richard Byrd Update
This is an excerpt from a Project HOPE e-mail concerning student John Hammill:
Regarding the subject of the email, I wanted to pass along an update on John Hammill. I received a satellite phone call from his preceptor, Dr. John Nett, and all is going very, very well. The most important thing he wanted to emphasize was how impressed he is with John and how thrilled he is to have him for a student. It sounds like they are working out very well together and, if things continue on course, should be a great experience for all. You have provided us with excellent students (as I'm sure they all are!).
As you may know, the "Johns" and one Navy pharm tech are the only pharmacy specialists on the mission, so they are really the subject matter experts on board and are being leaned on heavily, which is a very good thing. The team has been working ashore everyday since 1 July and it sounds like they actually spent several nights ashore away from the ship in a remote area. When Dr. Nett called me today, he was talking under a palm tree on a pristine Pacific beach, so I don't think there are any complaints! The Medical Officer on board said they are installing a wifi system, so hopefully they'll be able to access the Internet soon. Once we start receiving our Situational Reports, I'll forward to you. Dr. Nett didn't have his notes with him when he called, but said they've written over 700 prescriptions and have seen over 300 patients in just the few days they've been working.
Regarding the subject of the email, I wanted to pass along an update on John Hammill. I received a satellite phone call from his preceptor, Dr. John Nett, and all is going very, very well. The most important thing he wanted to emphasize was how impressed he is with John and how thrilled he is to have him for a student. It sounds like they are working out very well together and, if things continue on course, should be a great experience for all. You have provided us with excellent students (as I'm sure they all are!).
As you may know, the "Johns" and one Navy pharm tech are the only pharmacy specialists on the mission, so they are really the subject matter experts on board and are being leaned on heavily, which is a very good thing. The team has been working ashore everyday since 1 July and it sounds like they actually spent several nights ashore away from the ship in a remote area. When Dr. Nett called me today, he was talking under a palm tree on a pristine Pacific beach, so I don't think there are any complaints! The Medical Officer on board said they are installing a wifi system, so hopefully they'll be able to access the Internet soon. Once we start receiving our Situational Reports, I'll forward to you. Dr. Nett didn't have his notes with him when he called, but said they've written over 700 prescriptions and have seen over 300 patients in just the few days they've been working.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
July 2 Sailing on the High Seas
We are moving today. At 11:00 am this morning, we heard the call to hoist the anchor so that we could set sail for Nicaragua. We were so excited that Lt. let us go to the bow of the ship and watch them bring up the anchor. The anchor is massive and has to be hauled up by a large machine. As the links of the anchor’s chain are brought up there are certain markers on how deep the anchor has gone. With each marker they will ring the ships bell to announce how many feet deep the anchor is coming up from.
In addition to watching for the markers, the sailors also have to wash the muck from the ocean off the chains and the anchor. That is a lot of hard work. The fireman’s hose they use has a great deal of force behind it so you have to be pretty strong to hand on to the hose and still be able to wash the chain off. Lt. Victor, one of our pharmacist, gave it a try. It took about 30 minutes to raise the anchor and for them to declare “Anchor’s Away.”
Because this was our only day to pack for Nicaragua, the pharmacy was frantically trying to count medicines and label them. Even though we had roughly twenty volunteers at any given point during the day, we ran into a few snags along the way. The first problem was that we ran out of plastic bags to put the meds in. Nicaragua is our last stop and unfortunately some of our supplies have run low with no chance of restocking. Once we found some paper bags we began to run out of staples to close the bags. Then we realized we only had to small packages of labels left. However, with a little ingenuity from the Chief and HM2 McSherry we were able to use the IV label printer to make more labels and some packing tape to close the bags. When all was said and done, we ended up packing 19 pallets and 10,000 pounds of medications for the people of Nicaragua.
NIcaragua is slightly different then all of the other countries we have visited so far because it has mandated that whatever medications that we take into the country have to be left there. To many, this seems like an unusual request, but my past experience with this country tells me that the Ministry of Health does not have the money to provide healthcare to all of its people. We weren’t opposed to this plan because we are not heading to any other humanitarian assistance ports for this trip but this might have limited exactly what came ashore if we did have to go to another country after this.
In the middle of the transit day, we had two scheduled events to look forward to: a bridge tour and the abandon ship drill. Tracy, the Project HOPE coordinator, set up a bridge tour for us. Third mate Joe was the person who gave us a tour and explained how things worked. He is part of the MSC (Military Sealift Command). Joe took time to explain our route back to see and then over to the Coast of Nicaragua. On the maps it looked like we made a backwards J to get to the coast. We have to go back out to sea to “exchange” some water on the ship.
Meg asked if she could drive the boat for a little while and the helmsman agreed. After Meg finished, I asked if I could drive. It was really easy since the seas were not rough at all. In fact, I barely had to move the rudder 2 degrees in the 10 minutes that I was driving the boat. According to Joe, we were going about 18 miles an hour and to be honest, I couldn’t even tell that we were moving at all from the bridge. I am grateful for the bridge tour because it gave me a chance to learn a bit more about sailing and to see all the equipment that is involved in making a giant ship move.
Another scheduled item for the day was a fire drill and an abandon ship drill. At 3:15, the call went out that this was a fire drill. Two of the pharmacy personnel, McSherry and Chief Bone, are tasked with fire duty and are firefighters for the ship. For this drill, everyone will go to the place that they normally muster, take roll, and wait there until the drill is over.
Right after this drill, we roll right into the abandon ship drill. For this drill, we go to the pharmacy put on our long sleeve shirt, life jacket, and hats. We need to have the long-sleeve shirt and hat to protect us from sun exposure in the event that we needed to stay in the lifeboat for an extended period of time. Once fully garbed, we hurry to the flight deck were several sailors are holding signs with numbers. Since I muster with ancillary services, my number is 3 and will be placed into lifeboat 3 in the case of an actual abandon ship. It is really neat to observe the blue and orange sea of people everyone from the whole ship piled onto the flight deck around the helo waiting for those in charge to account for everyone on the ship. Once it is confirmed that all were present and accounted for, the drill is over, and we head back to the pharmacy for the rest of the day.
One of the other things that Project HOPE set up for our day of traveling was to serve in the galley. I was really excited about this because I wanted to see how the kitchen worked to prepare enough food for hundreds of people. However, when I got there I found out that I was serving on the mess deck. This is a thankless job for anyone who has ever done it.
For the 2 hours that food is being served, these men and women stand alert waiting for someone to spill something or make a mess on the salad bar. To be honest, until I did this job myself I didn’t know that these people existed. They simply appear out of nowhere to supply extra bowls, sweep and mop the floor, do anything to keep the area clean. If that is not enough, after dinner, they must wash down all of the tables, put away the napkin holders and salt and pepper shakers. Then, they will sweep and mop the floor. It really is a hard job.
Working in this humbling capacity taught me a great deal. The first thing is that I should always appreciate the people who work behind the scenes. They work very hard and seldom get credit for their long hours. Second is to take a few minutes out of my day to tell them how much that I appreciate all of their efforts. The last thing it taught me was to become more observant of my surroundings. There many, many people who have seeming insignificant jobs around the ship but without them the Comfort would not run smoothly.
Today has been long and full to the brim with new and exciting experiences. There is always something interesting to do or see on board the ship. Each day brings an adventure and when I close my eyes to rest, my mind always begins to wonder what the next day will hold.
In addition to watching for the markers, the sailors also have to wash the muck from the ocean off the chains and the anchor. That is a lot of hard work. The fireman’s hose they use has a great deal of force behind it so you have to be pretty strong to hand on to the hose and still be able to wash the chain off. Lt. Victor, one of our pharmacist, gave it a try. It took about 30 minutes to raise the anchor and for them to declare “Anchor’s Away.”
Because this was our only day to pack for Nicaragua, the pharmacy was frantically trying to count medicines and label them. Even though we had roughly twenty volunteers at any given point during the day, we ran into a few snags along the way. The first problem was that we ran out of plastic bags to put the meds in. Nicaragua is our last stop and unfortunately some of our supplies have run low with no chance of restocking. Once we found some paper bags we began to run out of staples to close the bags. Then we realized we only had to small packages of labels left. However, with a little ingenuity from the Chief and HM2 McSherry we were able to use the IV label printer to make more labels and some packing tape to close the bags. When all was said and done, we ended up packing 19 pallets and 10,000 pounds of medications for the people of Nicaragua.
NIcaragua is slightly different then all of the other countries we have visited so far because it has mandated that whatever medications that we take into the country have to be left there. To many, this seems like an unusual request, but my past experience with this country tells me that the Ministry of Health does not have the money to provide healthcare to all of its people. We weren’t opposed to this plan because we are not heading to any other humanitarian assistance ports for this trip but this might have limited exactly what came ashore if we did have to go to another country after this.
In the middle of the transit day, we had two scheduled events to look forward to: a bridge tour and the abandon ship drill. Tracy, the Project HOPE coordinator, set up a bridge tour for us. Third mate Joe was the person who gave us a tour and explained how things worked. He is part of the MSC (Military Sealift Command). Joe took time to explain our route back to see and then over to the Coast of Nicaragua. On the maps it looked like we made a backwards J to get to the coast. We have to go back out to sea to “exchange” some water on the ship.
Meg asked if she could drive the boat for a little while and the helmsman agreed. After Meg finished, I asked if I could drive. It was really easy since the seas were not rough at all. In fact, I barely had to move the rudder 2 degrees in the 10 minutes that I was driving the boat. According to Joe, we were going about 18 miles an hour and to be honest, I couldn’t even tell that we were moving at all from the bridge. I am grateful for the bridge tour because it gave me a chance to learn a bit more about sailing and to see all the equipment that is involved in making a giant ship move.
Another scheduled item for the day was a fire drill and an abandon ship drill. At 3:15, the call went out that this was a fire drill. Two of the pharmacy personnel, McSherry and Chief Bone, are tasked with fire duty and are firefighters for the ship. For this drill, everyone will go to the place that they normally muster, take roll, and wait there until the drill is over.
Right after this drill, we roll right into the abandon ship drill. For this drill, we go to the pharmacy put on our long sleeve shirt, life jacket, and hats. We need to have the long-sleeve shirt and hat to protect us from sun exposure in the event that we needed to stay in the lifeboat for an extended period of time. Once fully garbed, we hurry to the flight deck were several sailors are holding signs with numbers. Since I muster with ancillary services, my number is 3 and will be placed into lifeboat 3 in the case of an actual abandon ship. It is really neat to observe the blue and orange sea of people everyone from the whole ship piled onto the flight deck around the helo waiting for those in charge to account for everyone on the ship. Once it is confirmed that all were present and accounted for, the drill is over, and we head back to the pharmacy for the rest of the day.
One of the other things that Project HOPE set up for our day of traveling was to serve in the galley. I was really excited about this because I wanted to see how the kitchen worked to prepare enough food for hundreds of people. However, when I got there I found out that I was serving on the mess deck. This is a thankless job for anyone who has ever done it.
For the 2 hours that food is being served, these men and women stand alert waiting for someone to spill something or make a mess on the salad bar. To be honest, until I did this job myself I didn’t know that these people existed. They simply appear out of nowhere to supply extra bowls, sweep and mop the floor, do anything to keep the area clean. If that is not enough, after dinner, they must wash down all of the tables, put away the napkin holders and salt and pepper shakers. Then, they will sweep and mop the floor. It really is a hard job.
Working in this humbling capacity taught me a great deal. The first thing is that I should always appreciate the people who work behind the scenes. They work very hard and seldom get credit for their long hours. Second is to take a few minutes out of my day to tell them how much that I appreciate all of their efforts. The last thing it taught me was to become more observant of my surroundings. There many, many people who have seeming insignificant jobs around the ship but without them the Comfort would not run smoothly.
Today has been long and full to the brim with new and exciting experiences. There is always something interesting to do or see on board the ship. Each day brings an adventure and when I close my eyes to rest, my mind always begins to wonder what the next day will hold.
June 30th It feels good to be needed.
The journey from Washington Dulles to Apia, Samoa was long and arduous. Between the time zone shifts and crossing the date line twice in one day (is that possible?) my total travel time was lost to me. Nevertheless we arrived at the pier in Apia around 2330 Tuesday, June 30th. The ship was anchored about a mile off shore. While waiting for the RHIB boat (rigid-hulled inflatable boat) to collect us, we were exchanging introductions with the Navy personnel and others that had just arrived to Apia. When I mentioned my name, Petty Officer Akins' eyes widened. "You're John Hammill? We've been looking for you!" he said. He then presented me with a piece of paper that contained orders to pack a small bag with clothes and supplies for a 3 day RON (Remain Over Night) mission and report to the helo hanger at 0630.
We will be traveling to the village of Sataua, Samoa on the island of Savaii. My preceptor, John Nett, and I will be the pharmacy contingent for this mission. In fact, with the exception of a single Navy Pharmacy Technician, we represent the entire pharmacy team for the whole Pacific Partnership. It feels good to be needed.
Monday, July 6, 2009
July 1 Fun on the Comfort
This past week has been a very busy week for the pharmacy. Most of the time we will have a 3 or 4 day prep time when moving from one country to another; however, since the Nicaraguan port is only a few miles away, we only had one day transit time. I am told that what normally happens between countries is all of the medications that were used in the last country are brought back to the pharmacy where they will be sorted and counted. Then the pharmacy will create new pallets for each of the sites that we will visit. This process usually will take all of the 3 days en route to another county. Since we didn’t have that time, we have worked really long days and recruited many other volunteers from different departments throughout the ship.
After prepacking and labeling 19 pallets of medication and several long days, we are ready for some fun. The galley pulled out all of the stops on one of our last days in port and they served us steak and lobster one night for dinner, topped off with a delicious slice of blueberry cheesecake. Keep in mind that cafeteria food is never that great but that dinner was not bad. It was a welcome surprise after a long hard day.
One of the other ways we have to relax after a long day is to participate in any of the many exercise classes that we have going on throughout the day. There is a yoga class held on the flight deck around sunset. It is so beautiful. The sky is brilliant and the stretches really do a lot to help you unwind those tensed muscles. For those looking for more intense workouts there is the PX90 class. Now I haven’t been that tempted to go to that class after Julie told me how hardcore that turned out to me.
The class that I love to attend is Zumba. This exercise class is based on Latin dance steps which fits well in ouand is quite fun. Instead of being in a gym, everyone gathers in CASRAC (the triage, staging area). Our instructor turns on the Latin music and class starts. With this class you are constantly moving but it is so much fun since each person adds their own little dance step into the mix. We usually have a few onlookers stop as they pass by to see and to enjoy the class for a brief moment. The class is a really great aerobic workout and surprisingly enough, I wasn’t sore in the least the next day.
In addition to the exercise classes, the Fun Boss also sets up evening events for our entertainment. One night we played bingo. Some of the prizes were really nice but others were funny. The one person who won the ipod also won the portable DVD player as well but Lt. Victor did win a tee-shirt. All in all it was a fun night. Some of the other events that the Fun Boss set up are movies on the flight deck, Comfort Idol, and karaoke. It is a great way to meet other people in other departments as well as keep up the moral.
One other interesting thing of note is that we do have a celebrity on board (which I didn’t know about until I had already met him). I sat down to dinner with a few ladies from Project HOPE who were having dinner with one of the Navy physicians on board. We had a lovely dinner, and it was nice meeting his acquaintance. It was only after dinner that one of my other friends came up to me extremely jealous. I couldn’t understand why until she told me that the Navy doctor that I had just ate dinner with was Andy Baldwin from The Bachelor.
Dr. Baldwin is very popular on the ship. People are always stopping him to ask him to pose for a photo. Off the ship, he is highly sought after as well. One of the other Project Hope ladies, Diane has the pleasure of working with the patients and sending them to see the next available doctor. There were 3 young teenage girls who were waiting in line and were called next to see one of the women physicians. Diane went to escort them over to her, but they shook their heads and pointed at the Dr. Baldwin. They wanted to be by the “handsome doctor.” He really has made quite an impression.
Although we have worked very hard each day, we have had some fun and a chance to relax. The days are long and the work may be a bit tedious at points, I remind myself that I am still in the middle of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by blue waves and emerald green islands with dazzling sunsets and the gentle rocking to and fro each night as I close my eyes to sleep.
After prepacking and labeling 19 pallets of medication and several long days, we are ready for some fun. The galley pulled out all of the stops on one of our last days in port and they served us steak and lobster one night for dinner, topped off with a delicious slice of blueberry cheesecake. Keep in mind that cafeteria food is never that great but that dinner was not bad. It was a welcome surprise after a long hard day.
One of the other ways we have to relax after a long day is to participate in any of the many exercise classes that we have going on throughout the day. There is a yoga class held on the flight deck around sunset. It is so beautiful. The sky is brilliant and the stretches really do a lot to help you unwind those tensed muscles. For those looking for more intense workouts there is the PX90 class. Now I haven’t been that tempted to go to that class after Julie told me how hardcore that turned out to me.
The class that I love to attend is Zumba. This exercise class is based on Latin dance steps which fits well in ouand is quite fun. Instead of being in a gym, everyone gathers in CASRAC (the triage, staging area). Our instructor turns on the Latin music and class starts. With this class you are constantly moving but it is so much fun since each person adds their own little dance step into the mix. We usually have a few onlookers stop as they pass by to see and to enjoy the class for a brief moment. The class is a really great aerobic workout and surprisingly enough, I wasn’t sore in the least the next day.
In addition to the exercise classes, the Fun Boss also sets up evening events for our entertainment. One night we played bingo. Some of the prizes were really nice but others were funny. The one person who won the ipod also won the portable DVD player as well but Lt. Victor did win a tee-shirt. All in all it was a fun night. Some of the other events that the Fun Boss set up are movies on the flight deck, Comfort Idol, and karaoke. It is a great way to meet other people in other departments as well as keep up the moral.
One other interesting thing of note is that we do have a celebrity on board (which I didn’t know about until I had already met him). I sat down to dinner with a few ladies from Project HOPE who were having dinner with one of the Navy physicians on board. We had a lovely dinner, and it was nice meeting his acquaintance. It was only after dinner that one of my other friends came up to me extremely jealous. I couldn’t understand why until she told me that the Navy doctor that I had just ate dinner with was Andy Baldwin from The Bachelor.
Dr. Baldwin is very popular on the ship. People are always stopping him to ask him to pose for a photo. Off the ship, he is highly sought after as well. One of the other Project Hope ladies, Diane has the pleasure of working with the patients and sending them to see the next available doctor. There were 3 young teenage girls who were waiting in line and were called next to see one of the women physicians. Diane went to escort them over to her, but they shook their heads and pointed at the Dr. Baldwin. They wanted to be by the “handsome doctor.” He really has made quite an impression.
Although we have worked very hard each day, we have had some fun and a chance to relax. The days are long and the work may be a bit tedious at points, I remind myself that I am still in the middle of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by blue waves and emerald green islands with dazzling sunsets and the gentle rocking to and fro each night as I close my eyes to sleep.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
June 25-28 Loma Larga
My RON mission was at Loma Larga at a school. To get to there, you either have to take an hour and a half boat ride or 10 minute helicopter ride to the landing zone. Then you load up on a bus and travel for about 45 minutes through beautiful mountain scenery. As you can see from my last posting, I was able to get a helo ride.
On the way to the school , there were several interesting things of note. One of my favorite things was the cow crossing signs. These signs are created just like our dear crossing signs except they have a picture of a cow on them, and truly, cows are everywhere. You will see them just walking down the road finding their own spot to graze for the day. I think that in this country the cows have free range. In fact, most of the time when there are traffic issues causing the bus to slow its steady pace, it is due to the cows in the road.
Another interesting thing that I saw was a woman waiting at the bus stop at the corner of Loma Larga. She had her arms crossed at her waist seemingly carrying a small bag in her arms while waiting for the bus. As the bus drew nearer, I was amazed that the bag was alive. The woman had a live chicken neatly folded against her stomach, patiently waiting on the bus to arrive. I thought it was so interesting that the chicken seemed very content tucked into her arms. It obviously didn’t know that it was going to be dinner that night. That was definitely something that I was not expecting to see.
Once we arrived a Loma Largo, I was amazed at just how big an operation this mission was. There were already several lines of hundreds of people formed outside of the school. Each line was labeled as to what type of medical care those in line would receive. We have general medicine, OB/GYN, optometry, pediatric medicine, dentistry and many more. I had expected to see one school building with a few doctors and nurses set up, but our operation took up several buildings. There were even tents set up where kids could color and play while parents were seen. This was a massive undertaking.
The pharmacy was already set up when I arrived. Several of the pharmacy staff who had been on a RON mission in San Alejo had transferred the meds from their site and set up the pharmacy for us to take over. In the pharmacy, we have several Cardinal totes that are labeled with the contents on the outside. All the medications inside are already counted, bagged and labeled, so the process of filling the prescriptions can go smoothly. All we have to do is grab the bag, place a name on it, and fill in the blanks. For example, the amoxicillin label states, “Tome___mls cada___horas por ___dias.” Using this method 3-4 people can fill anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 scripts in one day.
To help make our process run more smoothly, El Salvador has provided us with translators from a university. They were a lot of fun as well as a good source of information about local customs and cultures. Jennifer was a student who was studying to be an English Teacher. Castillo, who always made me smile, suffers from scoliosis which could have been fixed had he grown up in the States. Claudia was full of energy and laughter all day long. All the translators were so helpful, and they helped make the slow moments entertaining.
One of the El Salvadorian translators from the Latter Day Saints group made a special trip over to the pharmacy at the end of the week to tell me that I had beautiful eyes. I thought he was talking about my blue eyes since that is unusual for this country so I told him that everyone in my family has the same color eyes. Then he corrected me and told me that the form, shape, eyelashes, todo… was very pretty. I was quite flattered and really didn’t know what to say at that point, so I told him thank you and then went back to work. That was another highlight to my week.
For those of you who don’t know me too well, I am a people watcher. I love sitting and watching people go by. One thing that I have learned is that every country has its own unique customs and clothing. El Salvador is no different. They have the “apron.” All of the older women have big fancy aprons that they tie around their waist. They remind me of the aprons that you would see hot dog venders using at a baseball game only way “girlier.” Each apron is unique in that it is covered with embroidery, ribbons, and lace. Some of them are really beautiful while others are so busy with colors and ribbons that you wonder what the creator was thinking. After asking one of the translators about the aprons, she told me that all of the women have them and that they are really handy to use. She said that you will see all of the vendors at a market with them because they are a great place to keep change when people make purchases.
The people of El Salvador are a proud people. When they came to clinic, the first thing I noticed was how well everyone was dressed. All the little girls were dressed in their finest “Easter” dresses and all they boys had on clean clothes. The adults too would have on nice clothes as well. For them, the Comfort visiting their country was a big event and they wanted to look their best.
You could also tell that the people were proud of their country because they wanted everything to be nice for our visit. One day, during clinic, the site director noticed that there was some trash in an alley near the school. By the time he had gotten up a work detail to clean up the trash, it had already been cleaned by the people of the village. In addition, the country had transported in Port-a-Johns to the site for the clinic staff as well as the people waiting to be seen. They kept several potties just for the workers and every day they had someone come and clean them out. It was a really nice jesture for the host country to make sure that we were taken care of for us.
The thing that I loved the most about my visit to the school was the people. One of the very first people to make an impression on me was a little old lady. After giving a try at a Spanish counseling session, the woman I counseled said that she understood what I had said. I went to leave and she grabbed my arm, then gave me a big fat hug and kiss on the neck. Then she gave me several blessing in Spanish and told me how grateful that I was there. I was a very humbling and rewarding experience.
Another experience that moved me was a little girl who was given a pair of glasses by the optometry site. She came over to the pharmacy with a worried face and asked one of the translators if she needed to pay for the glasses. When they told her that she didn’t need to pay for the glasses and that they were hers to keep her face broke out into the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. The people here can really touch your heart. That is why we are here. They are the whole reason we are here.
On the way to the school , there were several interesting things of note. One of my favorite things was the cow crossing signs. These signs are created just like our dear crossing signs except they have a picture of a cow on them, and truly, cows are everywhere. You will see them just walking down the road finding their own spot to graze for the day. I think that in this country the cows have free range. In fact, most of the time when there are traffic issues causing the bus to slow its steady pace, it is due to the cows in the road.
Another interesting thing that I saw was a woman waiting at the bus stop at the corner of Loma Larga. She had her arms crossed at her waist seemingly carrying a small bag in her arms while waiting for the bus. As the bus drew nearer, I was amazed that the bag was alive. The woman had a live chicken neatly folded against her stomach, patiently waiting on the bus to arrive. I thought it was so interesting that the chicken seemed very content tucked into her arms. It obviously didn’t know that it was going to be dinner that night. That was definitely something that I was not expecting to see.
Once we arrived a Loma Largo, I was amazed at just how big an operation this mission was. There were already several lines of hundreds of people formed outside of the school. Each line was labeled as to what type of medical care those in line would receive. We have general medicine, OB/GYN, optometry, pediatric medicine, dentistry and many more. I had expected to see one school building with a few doctors and nurses set up, but our operation took up several buildings. There were even tents set up where kids could color and play while parents were seen. This was a massive undertaking.
The pharmacy was already set up when I arrived. Several of the pharmacy staff who had been on a RON mission in San Alejo had transferred the meds from their site and set up the pharmacy for us to take over. In the pharmacy, we have several Cardinal totes that are labeled with the contents on the outside. All the medications inside are already counted, bagged and labeled, so the process of filling the prescriptions can go smoothly. All we have to do is grab the bag, place a name on it, and fill in the blanks. For example, the amoxicillin label states, “Tome___mls cada___horas por ___dias.” Using this method 3-4 people can fill anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 scripts in one day.
To help make our process run more smoothly, El Salvador has provided us with translators from a university. They were a lot of fun as well as a good source of information about local customs and cultures. Jennifer was a student who was studying to be an English Teacher. Castillo, who always made me smile, suffers from scoliosis which could have been fixed had he grown up in the States. Claudia was full of energy and laughter all day long. All the translators were so helpful, and they helped make the slow moments entertaining.
One of the El Salvadorian translators from the Latter Day Saints group made a special trip over to the pharmacy at the end of the week to tell me that I had beautiful eyes. I thought he was talking about my blue eyes since that is unusual for this country so I told him that everyone in my family has the same color eyes. Then he corrected me and told me that the form, shape, eyelashes, todo… was very pretty. I was quite flattered and really didn’t know what to say at that point, so I told him thank you and then went back to work. That was another highlight to my week.
For those of you who don’t know me too well, I am a people watcher. I love sitting and watching people go by. One thing that I have learned is that every country has its own unique customs and clothing. El Salvador is no different. They have the “apron.” All of the older women have big fancy aprons that they tie around their waist. They remind me of the aprons that you would see hot dog venders using at a baseball game only way “girlier.” Each apron is unique in that it is covered with embroidery, ribbons, and lace. Some of them are really beautiful while others are so busy with colors and ribbons that you wonder what the creator was thinking. After asking one of the translators about the aprons, she told me that all of the women have them and that they are really handy to use. She said that you will see all of the vendors at a market with them because they are a great place to keep change when people make purchases.
The people of El Salvador are a proud people. When they came to clinic, the first thing I noticed was how well everyone was dressed. All the little girls were dressed in their finest “Easter” dresses and all they boys had on clean clothes. The adults too would have on nice clothes as well. For them, the Comfort visiting their country was a big event and they wanted to look their best.
You could also tell that the people were proud of their country because they wanted everything to be nice for our visit. One day, during clinic, the site director noticed that there was some trash in an alley near the school. By the time he had gotten up a work detail to clean up the trash, it had already been cleaned by the people of the village. In addition, the country had transported in Port-a-Johns to the site for the clinic staff as well as the people waiting to be seen. They kept several potties just for the workers and every day they had someone come and clean them out. It was a really nice jesture for the host country to make sure that we were taken care of for us.
The thing that I loved the most about my visit to the school was the people. One of the very first people to make an impression on me was a little old lady. After giving a try at a Spanish counseling session, the woman I counseled said that she understood what I had said. I went to leave and she grabbed my arm, then gave me a big fat hug and kiss on the neck. Then she gave me several blessing in Spanish and told me how grateful that I was there. I was a very humbling and rewarding experience.
Another experience that moved me was a little girl who was given a pair of glasses by the optometry site. She came over to the pharmacy with a worried face and asked one of the translators if she needed to pay for the glasses. When they told her that she didn’t need to pay for the glasses and that they were hers to keep her face broke out into the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. The people here can really touch your heart. That is why we are here. They are the whole reason we are here.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
June 25 Helo Ride
Helo Ride!!!
Today was the big day!!! After checking the travel manifest last night, I discovered that I was going to be one of the lucky few who travelled to their site by helicopter. I was consumed with excitement as I lay down to bed last night. I woke up several times during the night because I was so excited and also afraid that I would be one of those people who overslept and held up the flight (even though I was still getting up at my regular time). It has been stressed repeatedly that you must be at the flight deck on time or you will be left behind.
My call away time was at 7:10 this means that an announcement over the ship’s com reminds everyone on that call away must be at the flight deck within 10 minutes. Once you get to the flight deck, you pass a table usually stocked with MREs and water. Because of the food shortage we had a boxed lunch containing ham salad kits, chips, and soft batch cookies. Once you have grabbed you meal for the day, you will head to the waiting room.
Normally, you will sit in the waiting room for about 20 minutes. One of the officers told me that you have to have long sleeves in order to fly in the plane. I have learned that it is always good to keep a light weight long sleeve jacket or shirt near you at all times since you will need it for abandon ship drills and helo rides. After donning my jacket, we were called to the prep area.
In the prep area, a soldier briefed us on how to enter the aircraft, how to get in and out of your seatbelt as well as what to do in both an overland and oversea crash. The soldier giving the brief had done it so many times before that it took less than 3 minutes to cover all the basics. Once properly briefed, we are given a weighted floatation device to place over our heads and around our waist as well as a helmet with goggles and ear protection. The helmets are stretchy, so they will fit almost any head and have enough pressure to drown out most sounds.
As soon as we were fully garbed, we headed to the helicopter. Once we were all settled in and the doors closed, we went straight up into the air. After riding in so many planes, it was a strange sensation to just lift straight up into the air. The ride was smooth and surprisingly quiet. The scenery was magnificent. El Salvador is a very mountainous area with lots of islands dotting the coastline. Since this is the rainy season, the whole country is covered in a blanket of lush vivacious green. It is a beautiful country.
Riding in a helicopter is an amazing experience. You can see for miles!! The country is so beautiful words can not describe it all and pictures can only say so much. There are huge green islands that populate the vast seas. You really cannot get a perspective at how many there are or how big they are from the deck of the boat. It is awesome to see this country from the air.
Our flight was about 10 minutes long which was slightly disappointing because the experience was so neat. I was grateful for my ride in more ways than one. To have the experience was awesome, but it was also great not to have to ride a boat for an hour and thirty minutes on rough seas to reach the same destination was also a blessing. We have had a great deal of problems with the transportation at this port.
Since we are not at our original port, we must find alternate ways to get our supplies, meet officials, and move personnel. With the recent tropical storm, the sea has been a bit rough. In addition, the helicopters have been up and down in the hanger with fuel issues due to cost and supply issues. On several occasions there have been trouble with the hospitality boats in the rough seas. Several people have gotten sick and a few people have been thrown into the floor of the boats on more than one occasion. These transportation issues are at the heart of the reason why so many people are doing RON missions at this port.
Once we arrived at the helo landing zone (HLZ) we were boarded on an air-conditioned bus for our 45 minute journey to Loma Larga School. The ride was really nice because it gave me a chance to see the beautiful countryside. Like I mentioned earlier, the country is awash in a brilliant green. Every now and again there a these beautiful trees that are covered with bright orange flowers which makes beautiful contrast with all of the green surrounding it. These trees are called “Arbor del fuego,” which means “Tree of Fire.” After such a neat bus tour of the country, I was ready to get to work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)