There will always be sick people.

          I would like to thank Brad Walz for the music i am listening to while I blog...yup

I am sitting here at our normal internet/ice cream place, just coming of the week long medical campaign with Easter Virginia Medical School. The medical campaign was from March 16-22, starting at 8 am and ending usually around 6:30, by the time the last patient left. There was something like 4 doctors and a bunch of med students. The first day we saw over 300 patients, it was a mad house to say the least. The following days we were more at around 200+ patients a day or something like that, cause each doctor got a day off. There was general medicine offered, ophthalmology , and dental services offered.  It was very rewarding to be able to be part of such a big campaign that could reach so many people. The look of happiness and gratitude on those peoples faces made it so worth the long days and lack of sleep. With all those happy feelings there is also the flip side to that. 

To give you an idea of the lines and the amount of people that would come to the clinic. There would be people sleeping outside our fence at 10 pm, so that they could get in and be seen by the doctors. I told myself every day i would not get stuck talking to the patients outside, and being the one that had to inform them that we were done for the day. Unfortunately some how i was always out there with Mauro ,our "security" guy, talking to patients at the end of the day. It honestly was one of the worst things I had to do, it would make me sad telling people that we were done registering patients. The look of disappointment and sadness on their face when i would tell them. Most of them very sweaty from standing in the sun for a couple hours, only to be turned away cause there was no possible way to see all of them in the day. Mauro would poke fun at me because at the end of each day there was about 10 extra patients that i would secretly register because i would just feel so bad for them. There was one that stands out in my mind, it was a 13 year old boy. 

The 13 year old boy showed up around 4:30 on thursday hoping to be seen so he could get some glasses. He was wearing a very dusty shirt and and was wearing these sleeves that most motokart drivers wear. He came up to me (since i was the one at the desk talking to patients) and explained that he had just heard about our clinic while working and really wanted to get some glasses cause his eyes hurt when he would drive. He didn't know that we had stopped registering patients at 2. The look on his face when i told him we were done literally made me feel like a horrible human being.  His shoulders slumped he put his head down and thanked me, i'm not sure for what, but he turned and started to walk away. I felt extremely bad that i went and got him and slipped his name into the list for the day, because i knew that he probably wouldn't be seen at all if he had to fight the lines outside in the morning. 

I hope i never have to be the one to turn people away again, it sucks. It is just so sad that in the end there will be people that are always turned away at the end of the day. People that showed up and stood in line for hours and still couldn't be seen. What can we do about that? I hope that one day i am in a position where i can come back to a place like this and give as much medical help as possible. it is a problem that is very hard to solve, and probably won't be solved anytime soon. 

Quick awkward medical encounter, I assisted Dr. Matthews in a circumcision.... of a 12 year old boy. We only do local anesthesia  so it was kinda odd to be suturing and cleaning with him looking at me. Poor guy had an infection, and needed some surgical intervention. 

On a happy note, some of the kids that hang out at the clinic are bakers. I didn't really believe them when they told me, but it is true. David (14), Rolando (11), and Jr (11) are bakers down the street from the clinic. They let me and Taylor come along one night to help bake. Much like when i work with Ever me helping them probably just slows them down. It was fun though to be there in the baking garage with the kids helping them do the baking for the next day. I wasn't very good at rolling out the rolls that they were making. The kids just laughed with us when we would show them our finished product. They were going to make 2,000+ rolls of bread that night. I couldn't stay all night with them because i had to wake up for clinic the next day but seeing the type of work they have to do, gives me a new appreciate for the childhood i had. I am very thankful that i never had to work from 11 pm till 4 am baking bread. Robbie raised a question on saturday, how different do you think you would be if you were rased here in Peru? I dont really have an answer for that yet, i am still working on that in my head. But one thing is for sure is that i think i would be  much harder worker. Since the families that live around the clinic all are extremely hard working people that most the time just scratch by. Blows my mind how much we dont appreciate what we have. I have said this before but i will say it again, i think i'm going to have a hard time going out to eat as frequently when i get back, it is just so much money. 

That is all i have for now.