Saint Mark's Church

One thing we knew coming into this trip was that we’d have to be flexible. As of this morning, three of our eight boxes were still tied up in customs. We had already performed minor procedures without some of our equipment – we had to use steri-strips (fancy tape) in place of sutures, and topical anesthetic instead of injectable (which is not nearly as effective) – but now we were running short on medications. So we simply got creative.
Doris triagingWe substituted as much as we could yesterday - Christie even gave her own asthma medicines to an elderly lady because we had nothing else for her - but eventually we got to the point where we were flat running out of supplies. Part of that was because we have seen larger quantities of conditions we did not except: huge numbers of hypertensives, diabetics, and patients with gastritis have come our way. So this morning we made a run to the pharmacy (good thing we had extra money in our budget!) and stocked up with what we could. They didn’t have as much as we wanted, but we still came away with a lot of stuff. And a good thing too, because this morning we saw more of the same: gastritis, hypertension, aches and pains, and infections of all sorts. And of course parasitic worm infections and malnutrition are more common than not.
Kelli performing OMM - on a church pewBy mid morning we were again at a critical level with many of our staple medicines, and then…our three boxes arrived. Just like that we were again well-stocked with what we needed. Our level of success, if we are to have any, will directly related to our ability to stay flexible, make adjustments, and have faith that, if we do our best, we will make a positive difference down here.