Hey everyone!

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of getting to go on a medical outreach. It was such a great experience. We set up our little clinic and started admitting people. You never know what you are going to encounter with these things. We saw everything from the common cold to some nasty wounds and boils. Kendra, who is a nurse and also from Iowa, and I got to work together. Between the two of us, I'd say we did a pretty good job of questioning, diagnosing, and prescribing the individuals. It was so neat to see my nursing skills come together and pay off. I really felt like a real nurse, even though I was acting more like a doctor. We only had limited supplies, a few otoscopes and flashlights. We had some saline and alcohol to clean wounds and disinfect. We were fortunate enough to have a small selection of medicines, enough to cover symptoms anyone who is not feeling well might have. All in all it was an excellent day!

They first checked in with Beth. She checked vitals and took their basic complaint.

Beth sat them behind the divider in our make-shift waiting room. I felt badly for them, because they had to sit on chairs for little Sunday school kids! It reminded me of the confirmation and helping with Sunday school days. I don't think the kids below were sick. There were so many kids running everywhere. Some belonged to patients but others were just neighbor kids who just came by to check out all the excitement and "pretty white girls" haha!

Once we were available, Kendra and I (as well as a few other girls) would take the next available patients. These three were all not feeling well. The baby was very out of it and it took a lot of stimulation to get her to cry. She had a very high fever and was severely dehydrated. The little girl we are guessing had Dengue. She had a terrible headache and kept hitting herself in the head it hurt so badly. She also had a UTI. The mom, we think, just had a cold.

The boil things on this little boy's head, had to be cut opened and drained. He was obviously NOT a happy camper throughout the procedure. It was also frustrating because he was a Badjao. They don't speak cebuano, but instead speak their own tribal languages. None of the adults knew what the heck we were going to do and were getting very, very upset. I couldn't imagine someone taking a knife to my child's head when you have no idea what they are saying or what they are going to do! Poor things.

When we were done examining, diagnosing, and prescribing,

we sent them to our little prayer area.



After receiving prayer, they stopped by "the pharmacy" and got whatever they needed if they were prescribed anything.

These pictures were taken on the way back to the van. None of these pictures show very good pictures of the huts, but they were all pretty much open with a roof overhead. It was located right on the ocean so the shelters were built up on stilts. Under the homes was water. I don't think it was from the ocean, but more from rain. I'm sure a lot of it was human waste as well. There was a TON of garbage under there since they have nowhere to throw trash. Kids were playing under there and there were all kinds of animals around...well i guess I only saw dogs, cats, and rats, but who knows what all lives there. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.