Life...

Life continues on and on here in Kihan… School is in full swing, the clinic has a steady trickle of patients and we are adjusting to the brownouts and water outages. Actually there is nothing quite like having a brown out or water outage to make you appreciate both power and water! (Especially when you get both together!)

The REACH team was here on Wednesday through Friday of last week, seeing many patients with a range of problems… I got to assist at several surgeries, including suturing up a neck and a toe… The neck was a closure after Dr Sam removed a golfball size growth the guy had had for several years… the toe was a guy who was riding along on the motorcycle and a piece of wood sliced his little toe pretty much in half under the toenail… OW!

When we went out on Friday to take the team back to their vehicle… we also had a meeting with the mayor and governor… both of whom are very supportive of what we do here in Kihan. Kihan is the poorest barangay on this side of the bay in Sarangani Province. The mayor agreed to propose a government funded permanent midwife position to assist here at Grace Clinic… the governor even agreed to pay her out of his salary until the new year budget could be approved! We left the meeting feeling blessed that we have such a good governor/mayor in place here in our area…

On Sunday we ventured down to the other citio to a church where several health workers that Dr Sam trained go… we were told the news that the mayor had just died that morning.... she was relatively young… only in her upper 40’s maybe…. We were saddened and are praying that the vice mayor will continue to serve the people here with the same integrity that she did.

We are working on the contact situation… mainly internet… like anything… it’s a slow process… but we are hoping within a month to have internet up and running… It was decided this just wasn’t something that was optional as we needed to be able to have contact with Dr Sam and REACH for questions and updates of what’s going on out here! Plus we figure it will save on gas not having to go to Alabel for our email checking!

We are busy busy getting not only the house more comfortable, but also getting the clinic up and running for its ‘official’ opening in Januaryish… I already have a couple pregnant ladies coming for prenatals… one is due here this month, so no chance the birth room will be done in time for her, but she knows if she needs assistance I’ll come to her… Thanks to a few birth clinics in Florida I am stocked with some meds that I need and a few birth basics. Hopefully we’ll get more things as we get up and running.

Well that’s all for now… I’ll post pictures when I get a chance…