In Indonesia
Teresa has returned safely from her volunteer medical mission to Sumatra to provide tsunami relief. She was gone from about mid-March to mid-April. She wrote the following in an email to me, which I asked her permission to post here. Of course I suggested she start her own blog, so she can make installments to it on her future trips. For now we'll have to get these neat stories any way we can. (I have posted a few of her photos too. Here is an update we received from her by email while she was abroad.)
Indonesia was great. Their medical needs were minimal. The sickest person was the logistics guy on our team. [He] owes me big for putting in an IV after he puked his guts out all night long. We were there for the second big earthquake. It was 11pm, we all ran outside. It wasn't violent but lasted what seemed like a long time. Of course we had no idea how big it was or the new damaged it caused until the next day when we started getting phone calls from all over. Initially I was going to be sent to Nias, were most of the new damage occurred. But then plans changed as they did all most hourly. So I spent my whole month in a town called Lamno.
Lamno initially had a population of 8,000. 5,000 people were killed in the tsunami. But, many refugees from surrounding villages have moved there, so now the population is estimated to be 16,000. We ran a medical clinic for basic walk-in medical needs. I worked along side an MD from Klamath Falls, Oregon. We saw pt's [patients], assessed them, diagnosed and treated with the meds we had. As I said, nothing too serious, upper resp. infections, a few pneumonia and congestive heart failure, high blood pressure. I did diagnose and treat my first case of malaria, a 13 y/o girl that looked very pale, anemic from the disease. It was great to see her up and about and playful before I left.
We had a clinic that was open every morning, then would load up the med boxes and go to a few different locations. Babadua was near [the] beach. We did clinic under the remaining palm trees. Lots of clean up action there. Changed markedly in the one month. I saw only one body removal the whole trip. That was there. Our driver Muhadi, and Mona our Achenese translator, were from there. Both lost their homes but had dashed to a small hill with their families when they saw the wave come. They stayed there until evening, praying and then came down to what was left.
We also started going to a cute "suburb" called Desa Lhuet 2 afternoons a week. Our whole team really liked Lhuet. The people seemed to have been the last on the list for help. Their village was still pretty trashed. But the people were so warm and friendly. We did clinic in a woman's home and had a big crowd from day one. Now that I think about it, I was the one who started the clinic there and when I turned around and saw all the people lined up I was overwhelmed. I called for help and we worked until dark. It was great!
There was a continuous flow of people in and out of Lamno. We had a group of 4 Muslim students, young ladies from 19-20, who acted as translators. They were always happy giggly, and very cute. Very devoted to their religion. We adopted each other and now I have 4 girls in college and they have a Mother Teresa. I also worked with MD's from Seattle and Houston, and RN's from Seattle and Portland. Other Indonesian translators form Jakarta.
There was one day we had no Indonesian translators, so it was me and the phrase book. It was pretty funny and it worked as long as you kept a sense of humor. The pt.s seemed to know you were doing your best.
We didn't get to explore the area too much because there is a lot of rebel camps in the mountains. I never felt unsafe. But we were told not to cross the river or go into the mountains. We took a drive north to find a waterfall we had heard of. About an hour's ride north there was a nice waterfall that seemed to come right out of the mountains, so I felt safe swimming, of course with pants and a tee shirt on. The clothing restrictions were tough for me, it was so hot. You got used to your skin being constantly wet. We did get to see a fair amount of the coast line by van and helicopter. It was amazingly vacant. It was like each bit of flat shore line had been wiped by a hand.
We went on evening strolls to the river, watched the monkeys, drank coffee at our local "starbucks" each day, where either a goat, rooster or duck would be under your table, and of course I shopped at the Sunday market each week. But mostly it was great to take the walk to work every day and have your neighbors yell hello and get you to reply in Indonesian. They try to get you to stop and talk, sometimes I would. They give you food and lots of toothless grins.
We had a cook and a woman doing our wash. The food was pretty spicy and a lot of it was fried. There was a few dishes I liked but in general, they had it better in Bande Ache were they hired a caterer to cook for the team.
This was my first trip with NW medical. It wasn't very organized, but I would go again if the opportunity arises. I decided to continue to make these trips part of my life until I can't do it any more. You get so much more than you give. Hope you like the photos.
posted by mds @ 7:43 PM
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