Philippines 2016: Day 10

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Today, the team headed into the city and held a clinic at the mayors' municipal offices. They have built a brand-new medical facility in Población, but it did not officially open until today – with a full ribbon cutting, mass and blessing. All the government leaders were there. Unfortunately, two of our dentists and doctors were also at this ceremony, which did cause some delays in the clinic. The mayor’s assistant Mizhele, went to the children’s center next door early and organized the single large room. That set up is always a problem – as hard to keep the patients flowing properly but the crowds were not big, so we were able to make it work.

We sent a little delegation back to the aboriginal village. That village has two nurses that have been working side by side with us. One is a midwife and the other an RN. They are the first aboriginal nurses in the village and one of them is received an award today at the mayor’s office. Most of the children in the village do not go to school- it is quite an accomplishment for these two nurses to make it through college and stay in the village to help their people. John packed all the little crocs we could find as probably 50% of the children in the village have no shoes. We also packed supplies for the palliative patient and fellow with the stroke. Jean, John and Lillian accompanied the local nurse to the village with these supplies, meds, canes, prenatal supplies and our 24 lunches for today. They provided home visits to these patients and bathed the fellow with the stroke. The aboriginal nurses plan to have regular clinics in the community center and we will be leaving supplies with them.

Lilibeth, the mayor’s wife, made us lunch. Where to begin? It was an amazing meal - soup, and pasta and potato salad and beef dishes and fish and spring rolls and an entire BBQ’s pig – with the head on – in Philippines style. It was delicious. In the Philippines, “have you eaten?” - is a common greeting….and food is a big part of the culture. We are constantly offered food- at the clinics by locals and the mayor’s office. After lunch- back to clinic - we saw large numbers again today – over 400 patients and 175 fluoride. We saw several extremely hypertensive patients - 220/114, 220/120 – it is a serious problem here.

Tonight, we hosted Anabelle’s family for dinner. The hotel prepared the meal – which was a selection of our favorite dishes over the past week. It was a small thank you for all they have done to support us.
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Tomorrow - last clinic day!