Day 19

The rain was pounding on the window next to my bed. It sounded like all hell was let loose with this storm outside, and it made for the perfect day to sleep in which we all did. We woke up around 9:30, threw on our scrubs, grabbed a quick breakfast and head up to clinic. My scrub pants were soaked by the time we made it up there which was less then comfortable. My rain jacket kept at least the top of my scrubs dry. The power went out so we used the generator to run the clinic. It was only going to be open for half the day and a lot of people showed up despite the horrible weather. Daniella, Brigitte and I decided to open up another student room to get things going faster so everyone could be finished as early as possible due to the horrible weather. We were told it was a typhoon. How exciting....said nobody ever. I've gotten used to living without AC and power though. The heat doesn't even bother me anymore. It actually feels cold to me today which I know I'm going to get crap for even saying. I can tolerate heat...not cold, and going to school in FL didn't help that cause.

When we got to clinic the cases we saw were pretty straight forward. Our first patient had a chronic cough and ran out of his diabetes medications, so we filled his Metformin and referred him for a chest X-ray to be safe and rule out TB even though we hope it's just be from allergies. Our second patient was an older lady that has been having back pain for over a year and trouble breathing. She was in clear discomfort from the pain and limped while walking to favor the side that hurt her. We all did a thorough history and physical and sent her home with some medications that will hopefully improve her symptoms. She was incredibly appreciative, bursting into tears and hugging the three of us as we gave her the medications. It made my day completely. She was the sweetest person and wanted to take pictures with us. that started a trend or something as I proceeded to take a bunch more photos with some of the patients that asked. We got through everyone by 1pm before heading back to the dorms. We learned the the child with ascites that we sent to the hospital (picture I posted on an earlier blog) passed away last night as well as the critical patient we sent to the ICU for possible meningitis. That was hard to hear, given the hospital probably doesn't have the means to help these patients like the hospitals do in he US. Their ICU is only a 2 bed room with oxygen for instance. It is a whole different world of health care here, which is often hard to believe until you see it when you've come from the one we have in the US. It's not quite as horrible and broken as we all complain about.

The rain stopped for us to walk back to the dorms after clinic where I was tackled just outside with hugs from all the kids. I hear them screaming my name from everywhere: JACK-EE-LYN! JACK-EE-LYN!! I adore them. Anyway back at the dorms we had a prolonged lunch as we decide what to do with ourselves for the day. The typhoon is holding us hostage so most people are reading or sleeping. Good thing my computer with all my notes and books on it is broken. I kept myself occupied with an insanity workout that was painful to do in my room with no AC. Coming out to a plate of fresh plate of fried bananas though after my workout was just so cruel. And of course I had one. I can't resist them and god knows the next time I'll get to have another once I'm back in the states. Mission accomplished though. I hung out with Daniella, Alex, brant, Dave, Brigitte, Dan and Sean for a while at the dining table and played a card game. BS, War, Go fish...all classics that we managed to bring to life with some Filipino Red Horse, the beer of champions. It went on for quite a while until they called us for dinner. Today was relatively chill. The first day where we didn't have much to do. For those of you who know me well, I don't know how to relax very well. I'm constantly going somewhere or doing something. TV?! I don't know what that is even when I'm in the US. I think people do that to relax too. So this was a challenging day for me, and in the end I found things to do and people to do them with.

 The power came on shortly after dinner which was a relief. I was in need of a bucket shower and when the power is out there is not any running water. Ill even add a picture of our bucket shower for your viewing pleasure. Worse then that, the toilets don't flush and have to be done manually with pouring water into the bowel...water which we didn't have so thank goodness it came back on!

After dinner we got the videoke machine into the dining room and started that up which we continued for hours. Heather cut Dave and Alex's hair and did a fantastic job before they joined us. Now when it comes to kareoke Dave and Rob are still the most entertaining. Zach even finally made his appearance with the song Chicken Fried. We were all thoroughly impressed. 

Overall it was a lazy rainy Saturday. The weeks are always sunny and perfect when we have clinic and for some reason have been cloudy on weekends. Hopefully that'll change tomorrow and we'll be able to go somewhere on an excursion. I can say I lived through a typhoon now at least.

I added some pics of the bucket shower I speak of, our dorm (ignore the mess, we have 6 girls in a small space, also my bed is too bunk by the window) and the amazing fried bananas!!