October 13

Hello all,
Life in Gimbie continues to be a great adventure. This last week was
very busy. I am now settled in to a weekly routine. Fletcher and I
started working triage last week. Triage here in Gimbie consists of
taking the vital signs of all the patients before they go in to see
the doctor. So Fletcher and I take turns taking blood pressure, heart
rate and temperature, while the other one records the results. If
someone comes through that is dangerously high/low in any one of these
areas we can either transfer them to the ER or make them a priority
for the doctor. So far I really enjoy it.
There are two great stories from this week. One is about our maid
Negusay. Negusay came to the office where Justin works one day and
requested if she could have a job. She explained that she has no money
and no food. To make matters worse she has a six week old baby and her
husband just recently died. She had become to weak to give good milk
to her baby and she herself was also weeks away from dying. We decided
to hire her to work at our house washing our clothes, cleaning and so
on. She has now been working for us for about two weeks. (She works
about 5 hours a day five days a week and we pay her 50 bir, about 5
dollars, per week. This is good pay for the amount of work she does).
She works very hard, the only trouble is that she doesn't speak a lick
of English.
One day she came to me after lunch with her baby and motioned
something to me. Our cook, who also speaks almost no English, said
"sick" so I realized the baby must be sick. So I went with Fletch down
to the hospital and Justin found a Danish nurse who checked the baby
out, asked some questions, and so on. It ended up that the baby was a
bit sick but should just be fed more. This doesn't seem too
significant but for her it was. Without us she would have had to wait
all day to see a doctor, and it would have cost her money that she
didn't have. It was really cool to see how grateful she was that we
had helped her, even though we really had done nothing.
The second story is actually very similar to the first. After work we
often juggle a soccer ball for an hour or so in our front yard. While
we do this there are two little kids who always like to play with us.
One is a little boy name Galeta, and the other is a little girl name
Leta. We bought a ball for them to play with and we bring it out
whenever we play soccer. They love it. Galeta is the son of a single
mother who works grounds here around the church.
Thursday afternoon Joel (one of the other volunteers here) found
Galeta's mom crying. He realized it was because Galeta was sick. Joel
brought them down to the ER and then got a hold of me. Again, because
we are white and they were with us, we jumped to the front of the
line. The doctor checked out Galeta and found that he had tonsillitis;
he then prescribed the necessary medicine. Joel paid for both the
doctor's bill and the medication which came to a whopping 28 bir
($2.80). When we were leaving the doctor Galeta's mom started crying.
We found out through a translator that she had no money to pay for
this and this was her only child. She said she was so grateful to God
for us. Joel and I then took them to our house where we gave Galeta
the first of his medicine. Then with Galeta on my shoulders we walked
them home. Which was half of a mud sided house.
It again struck me how easy it is to help here. Things are so cheap,
and the people are so grateful when you help them. I am already so
grateful for my time here. I have learned so much already.