Mission to Morotai

Hi all! I returned from my 5 day mission to Morotai. What an incredible experience! Our group consisted of several(probably 40 or more) Doctors, dentists, nurses, dental hygienists, medics etc..We left via a "band-aid" boat and transferred to 2 identical Austrailian Navy ships, which was our "home " for the length of our stay. The ships stayed anchored over night just off the coast. Early in the morning we were awoken by a "wakey- wakey" call by the Austrailians. We would wake up to a wonderful breakfast prepared by the Austrailian chef"Cappy". Man, can he cook! Huge amounts of delicious gourmet foods! All made in a teeny,tiny galley! For example, our first night we had a choice of Malaysian chicken or prawns in a cream sauce, both to die for!! Also fresh veggies, salads, breads and desserts, all prepared by "Cappy". The men slept in tents outside on the deck while the girls slept in a portable modular unit(resembling a deep freezer). A bit claustrophobic for me, but it kept us dry and cool. Each day we were taken to shore and we set up our "clinics" in area schools. The landscape is lush with coconut trees and banana trees growing wild everywhere. I was told that many of the people in Morotai are farmers. They produce rice ,coconut oils and other coconut products. The people here were all very nice and seemed happy to have us about. You can tell by their appearances that they have rough lives. It is a very poor island and the people seem to have extremely limited health care. Many have what appears to be non-existent health care. I kind of got the impression that the limited healthcare is available for only the wealthiest. We have all seen this, even at home, but this is much worse! Many of these people have never seen a doctor. Most of them look older than their chronological ages. They were all very nice and appreciative for anything that we were able to do for them. The kids were adorable and all wanted to talk with us, even if all we can say is hello back and forth. They all wanted their pictures taken with us. I will be sending some as soon as I can. For all the FIU nursing students that are reading this blog, I want to mention the most common illness we have seen so far. These are the top 10 in order. Respiratory illness(common cold), acute resp. illness(pneumonia), muscle complaints, malaria,skin infections,hypertension, gastitis, diarrhea, allergies and upper resp. infections. We have a formulary that we used, with various drugs and treated hundreds of people. I saw over 150 patients myself! We worked from about 8am to 5pm (non-stop) each day, until every patient was seen. There were many people controlling the crowds, playing with the kids and also Army, Navy United States Public Health Department, Airforce etc.. all patrolling the area for our safety. While this was going on, there are also several other medcaps and surgcaps occurring in other areas at the same time. Back on the Mercy, surgeries are scheduled each day, so everyone has been busy! I am now back on the ship. Today is a day off. I am currently writing this blog(I finally got internet access today!), and doing my laudry. Vanessa and Randy both left awhile ago for a 7 day medcap, similar to what I did, only longer and on a different island. I will be rattling around the ship without them this week. I have sick call duty a few days this week and have already booked a tour for my "liberty day" on thursday. I am excited and can't wait. I will be going with a small group to tour interesting places on the island and may also get to snorkle! I am also hoping to get some shopping in. I will be going on a day medcap on saturday, not sure after that point as the schedules are not made yet. All is great and will be blogging again soon!