Day 4

Today we woke up around 6am-6:30 which I have a feeling is going to be the usual. I tend to wake up around 5am and tell myself it is unacceptable, even though the Filipinos are blasting music from outside. Clearly party time is in the morning here. Eventually I’ll start running in the morning, but the insanity in the afternoon makes me not want to push it right away. I don’t want to be one of the patients. We spent most of the morning setting up the clinic. The patient rooms and pharmacy look great. The OR is fantastic and by the end of the day we’ll have it all set to start the clinic tomorrow. People are already starting to line up. The only thing I am worried about is the GIANT, and I mean at least 5 inches across GIANT spider that found its way into the hallway leading to the OR. In a blink of an eye he was gone. If I am with a patient and he finds his way onto my head, I will freak. He is the only one not welcome in our clinic as far as I am concerned. The bugs here are quite exotic, and I could do without. But then again I could do without a planet of bugs. One young pregnant woman came to the clinic today with cramping and vaginal bleeding. We had to take her in, and eventually wrote her up to get an ultrasound. Our clinic pays for all of the necessary tests, which otherwise the people would have to go without because they cannot afford them. Once the clinic was set up we traveled into the city of Sorsogon once again to go take our patient to and tour the hospital. The tuberculosis rate in the hospital is greater then 85% so our N95 masks were glued to our faces before entering the door. The hospital itself is incredible, and not in a good way. If people cannot pay at the door they don’t receive care. Even if they code at the door….not even CPR will be given which is amazing. This is not America. So think about it when you are cared for regardless of your socioeconomic status in America, because as bad as we think our health care is, it could be A LOT worse. The people share beds in the hospital, they have to provide their own food and linens for their families, and there is absolutely no privacy for the patients. They line the hallways in masses. No masks are even given, so most are probably exposed to TB. And as bad as it may seem, once again the people there were wonderful. They welcomed us to take pictures with them, and smiled at us as if we were their beacon of hope. I haven’t even done anything yet and these people are just thankful for our presence. I am in love with this country and their people.  Hopefully we will be going back to watch surgeries and deliveries in the next few weeks.

After leaving the hospital we just made our way into Sorgoson City where everyone went to the internet café to check and send emails, and then the grocery store to pick up necessary items....i.e lots of alcohol. I rode on the top of the Jeepney with Alex, Zack, Dan, and Sean on the way back, and that was really fun. The traffic laws are either really relaxed or completely nonexistent because you will see families of like 8 packed on and in a tricycle, and yet there are very few accidents. So clearly DC you are doing it wrong. After getting back, we ate dinner, I did an insanity workout and passed out and went to bed. This time it was about 9pm. Progress.