Journal Entry – Thursday February 2, 2012
Today was – by far – the most intense day of the week.
It was also a bit of a landmark day for HFHC: For the first time ever, we conducted an “open” medical clinic, free to anyone in the Thomazeau community. It was set up as an outreach effort of the Thomazeau Church of Christ, and Jeantyrard had arranged with the mayor of Thomazeau for us to use an open air veranda on the second floor of the town hall to set up the clinic.
Over the course of the day we treated 216 men, women, and children from the village of Thomazeau for every conceivable health problem (and probably some inconceivable ones as well). Our lead M.D. on this trip is Quinn Robinson (yes, his name really is Dr. Quinn). Quinn is an ER doc, and has been practicing Emergency Medicine for 20+ years – definitely the kind of guy you’re very thankful to have running the show in an environment like this.
Going into this morning I was a little concerned about what my role would be for the day, since we weren’t doing interviews like we did with the HFHC sponsored children. Other than the predictable “pack mule” responsibilities (carrying tons of heavy equipment up several flights of stairs), I was really afraid that I would have nothing significant to do the rest of the day and be bored senseless – which, to me, would really be a “worst nightmare” kind of day.
Shortly before we opened the clinic, I had an idea. I asked Rhonda what she thought about me taking one of our translators and setting up one final station in the clinic, where we would ask everyone who came through if they would like for us to pray with them before they left.
So again I ended up with the BEST possible job I could imagine for the day! For everyone who came through the clinic, with the help of my translator I asked them if they would like us to pray for them, ask if they had any specific prayer requests, and then put an arm around their shoulder and pray with them. THAT was an incredibly meaningful way to spend the day. There was something particularly moving – almost sacred – about praying with the many pregnant women, and praying for their unborn babies.
We closed the line down for about 30 minutes at mid day for our staff to grab a bite of lunch. During that time, I serendipitously ended up with ANOTHER of my favorite jobs: One of the many mothers who was waiting in line, holding a little girl – maybe 2 years old – called me (and my translator) over to ask a question. When I came over, the little girl reached out her arms to me – so I happily obliged, and ended up carrying the little girl around for about 15 minutes or so. The mother was laughing and asking the little girl something that ended with the word “papa,” and my translator explained that the mother was asking the little girl if she wanted me to be her daddy (quite amusing).
The second half of the day things got a little interesting – I ended up having to rotate back and forth between praying for people and doing crowd control. When we opened the line back up after lunch there were literally hundreds of people still standing in line, waiting to be seen. Apparently word began to spread that we were only going to be able to take a certain number of people (200 was supposed to be our max, and we’d already seen 110), and there was a sudden surge of people – a virtual flood of bodies – forcing their way up into the clinic and literally pushing our staff back by several yards. I wouldn’t say that things ever got actually scary (at least not for me, but then again I grew up in Detroit), put it was pretty dicey the rest of the day, and we had to be forcefully protective of our female staff to keep them from being crushed by the mob of people.
In all honesty, the hardest part of the day was when several of us guys had to forcibly close the line down with hundreds of people STILL waiting in line. The moment I nearly broke down was when I looked out and saw the looks on all the faces – especially the mothers, carrying small children, who had been waiting all day to no avail.
I know I’ve beat this drum before, but today was another reminder of how much we take for granted in the U.S. – things like access to adequate medical care…and air conditioning…and public restrooms that actually have plumbing and running water…
