Dec 11, Tuesday
Today we served at the Headquarters for the 4th Forward Service Support Unit for the Philippine Army at their military base. We were joined by numerous community and church volunteers, as well as the Army dentist and his team. Over 200 patients were seen- some by both the dentist and Jeff P. Kelly is ready to go back to dental school- she found the whole process of pulling teeth enthralling. And a visit to the dentist at these medical missions is really just that- a chance to get bad teeth pulled. The patients were so brave! A few of the kids cried a bit, but for most folks, it was just a relief to have the bad or infected teeth removed. And we had just enough amoxicillin to treat every dental patient who needed it.
Several of our faithful Sankey students joined us again today. Grace (our nursing student) helped Kelly and Kurt at the breathing station, Gelyn (a high school student and Mac Mac’s sister) was a help at the ear station, Leah (a high school student) was our pharmacist and translator, and Randy (a college student studying to be a marine) ran the ear station. They made our day so much fun- they kept us laughing and kept Noah entertained and busy!
Jeff had three faithful translators today- Marshi, Melissa, and Kaye. They were on their feet all day working alongside Jeff taking medical histories and speaking with patients. They were all exposed to numerous cases of lice, scabies, and some very nasty fevers, and yet they approached every patient with a smile and encouraging words.
Please pray for quick recuperation for our team- we have had two very long days and the Sankey Staff and the US team are very tired! Please pray too that our bodies are protected from the diseases that we are exposed to- both from the patients and from the mosquitos.
