Philippines 2016: Day 5

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Today the team headed to Lawri - which is a little fishing village on the coast. We had just this one location today, so it was much easier on the team, and we finished early - but still saw a large number of patients.

The clinic was a school and by now the team very quickly gets set up. Fluoride in a classroom with a kitchen attached – where rice was cooking most of the day on an open flame. We had a long table which made it easier for the Fluoride team – Mark, Trish and Lincoln.  They treated 10 kids at a time – and have got this down to an assembly line. Lincoln keeps the kids entertained with magic tricks and games of Red Rover between fluoride treatments. At 6 ½ feet tall - Lincoln is quite a novelty here. Big John is as well - the Filipino people are just smaller.

The pharmacy team is Joe, Donna, Sabrina, Anabelle and Linda – it was busy with the large crowds and when we have additional doctors the prescriptions pour in.

Eyeglasses is Cal and Gloria with some help from locals who translate- they have had busy days.

Dentistry is Tiffany and Yda May who assist 2 to 3 dentists. We all marvel at this. Little kids sit in a lawn chair, get freezing and teeth pulled while lots of others are waiting their turns. They are stoic and there is no fuss, no tears.  Many many issues with cavities here. Pop and candy are very cheap and even the schools sell this stuff.

Nursing teams are in the zone. There is Diane, Jennifer, Carolyn, Allison, Lee Anne, Joana, Lorna, Lillian and Margaret- all highly skilled solid nurses. They can set up and take down a station in no time and are the heart and soul of what we do both here and in Canada.
John does traffic control and is really big guy – so is quite a novelty and the kids gravitate to him like the pied piper.

Jean is roving all over – helping wherever needed, keeping registration on point. Pablo helps us get anything we are missing - he is well connected in Ilo Ilo – and can get us pretty much any med we are running out of.

Supporting all of us is Anabelle's family who feed us, make sure we have anything we need, act as interpreters, run to town, get water, meals for the support team.

The mayor’s team is there every day – and includes Dentists, MD’s, nurses, ETMS crew, security and drivers that take us from clinic to clinic. He supports us by coming every day and his team ensure each barangay is ready for us and the communities are aware.

Today we were excited to have an MD from the last trip join us – Ava and her husband Jem who will be with us tomorrow as well.
In Lawi we saw over 300 patients and did 168 fluoride.

The team made a stop at the monastery where they sell jams and cashews and then a long swim at the hotel and learned a new game from Jean- Polish poker which was lots of fun.

Dinner was fish that Linc bought on the beach and also adobo which is the national dish – a soy sauce-based marinade with garlic and onions- really good.

Tomorrow, we are back to two villages so we will be busy.