October 23.

I've now been in Gimbie for just over one month. It's amazing to think
that one-sixth of my time here has expired. It also makes me want to
make the most of the rest of the time that I will spend here.

Triage is now becoming more of a job and less of an adventure.
Although I still do enjoy it greatly. I've gotten used to stepping out
of the exam room and having a see of faces stare blankly back at me.
After I stumble back from the wave of hot and stinky air that is so
thick with B.O. you could cut it, I try and call the next patient's
name. I generally slaughter the pronunciation. Sometimes I really
can't get it right after repeated tries, and all the waiting patients
start laughing at me. No worries though, I don't get embarrassed and
laugh with them. My vocabulary of their language is also increasing
daily. Fletch and I can now mostly manage without a translator. Some
patients do not stop telling us there problems even after we've told
them that we aren't doctors and we don't speak their language. To this
we generally just say "no comprendo" then carry on. When we speak in
Spanish to them it helps for some reason, we still haven't figured out
why.

There have been many interesting cases that come in. The patients who
are in great need we prioritize and if they are especially bad we send
them to the ER. One such case happened a couple days ago. This ancient
looking lady was helped in by two other men. You could see she was in
much pain and also had blood all over her face. When we took her
vitals we found that she had an incredibly low blood pressure, her
heart rate was almost undetectable too. When we finally got it, it was
above 150 bpm. We figured she might have internal bleeding because we
were told that she had fallen very hard.  We immediately sent her to
the ER. I still have yet to find out what happened to her, but we did
hear a funeral going on later that day.

There are many other saddening cases that come in. Yesterday a 3 year
old boy came in who had a temp of 104 degrees, a heart rate of 160,
and respiration rate of 50 per minute. Small children can be a very
fun thing to deal with but also can be the nightmare of the day. If
they are old enough to tell that we look like doctors they
automatically think that we have needles and are going to give them a
shot. This ends in a screaming kicking baby being held down to get its
temperature taken. Not fun.

This weekend we are getting visitors. Fletcher's girlfriend is coming
with another friend to visit us for the weekend. It's about an 8 hour
bus ride…poor them. I miss you all and hope you count your blessing
each day, because you are more than fortunate to be living in a
country like America.