It is total chaos trying to get in to the vans in the morning. There are 35 of us and supplies. It is so funny to me how something so simple can be so difficult. Who should ride with who, who will we pick up. So far I have just gone with the flow. What else can you do?
My medical team went across the tracks from the village and set up a little work area. I saw a few patients. an old man who smoked had crackly lung sounds and wheezes, I gave him a few puffs of an albuterol inhaler. A young man with bad cracked dry skin open sores with flies, I washed and applied ointment and bandage. We walked around looking for other possible medical sites. Arafat Muslim school north of the village is where we will go in a few days. Everything is so dirty.
On the long ride back to the farm this pm the van over heated in a heavy populated area, banks, stores, traffic. We pulled over all 12 of us got out it was very busy street, bumper to bumper, window to window, tight. We all had on our yellow t shirts. People passing by smiling, waving and laughing we were such a sight. Our shirts say Help Sri Lanka.us, we pulled the sides together so the shirt just said Help.us, we took photos, there was a bull cow grazing in the small patch of grass next to the bank. An old skinny dark dirty cracked barefoot man had the bull on a leash, right next to the busy paved road. An ice cream man came by and one of the gals bought us all ice cream. The van driver used our bottled water to fill the radiator, and then he dropped the radiator cap in the engine and took a long time to find it. But alls well that ends well. We made it back safely with another story to tell.
I'll sign off for now. I had to come to the computer lab at 330am to get a chance to use the computer for this long. I'll try again next week. The availability is sporadic.
Love sue
