Tough living conditions

We are hot! Yes, the temperature is near one hundred and the humidity is close to 100 percent. We had three hard rains, yesterday flooding the rice paddies that surrounded our work site, leaving huge puddles on the gravel road.

But that is not what I mean by hot. We are in the hot zone of need!

Secular relief organizations have stayed in sight of the main coastal road winding out of Tacloban, distributing food, tarps and some medical care. The hot zone now is in the small villages among the farmers whose houses have been blown down, their coconut groves decimated and their rice paddies have lost over half their harvest.

We made contact with the local mayor of a small central village who eagerly welcomed us. There is a small, one room health center at the edge of town where we set up a triage table staffed by Pami Ellis, a missionary kid nurse midwife. Her knowledge of the language and rapport with the local people break down all barriers.

Stephen Euler and I had setup to see patients inside at two tables with local teachers acting as translators. The schools are closed until at least January. Russ, a U.S. born young Filipino doctor, handled the pharmacy, IV’s and injections.

The patients are quite sick – diarrhea, fevers, worm infestations, urinary tract infections, otitis media, an untreated harelip, a large cyst in the abdomen, a huge goiter and lots of hypertension. Underlying those problems are anxiety, insomnia and “their story”; where they are sheltered, whether a family member died and for almost all of them, their house is gone.

We worked hard, not stopping for lunch until late, and then we started working again. The two of us saw 70 patients in about six hours. There is a curfew and it gets dark around 5:30 so we finished, packed and loaded up our medicines. We also helped a mother, her pale, floppy baby with chronic diarrhea and anemia and older child into the car to take with us. We detoured on the way home and drove out to the devastated airport where the Australian government has set up a mobile hospital. We arrived after dark, thrilled to find their ER was empty of patients, and they could take the baby in immediately.

The hospital used to be in the hot zone in the early days, but now those needs are in the community. So as I write this note, we are bouncing down the coast road between the devastation on land and the beautiful sea, heading to another community where people desperately wait for help.

Today, God has provided us through your prayers and support.

Dave