Mike and Dorothy brought a suitcase full of medical supplies with them for the orphanage, and they have been well-used.

The first time we opened it we had a line of kids with problems to try to deal with. Rashes, burns, cuts that won’t heal, infections, fevers, you name it. Today Dorothy spent a half hour cleaning a young boys foot so she could bathe the wound on his toes and put some salve on it. The dirt was so hard encrusted, and he was in so much pain she had to dab and soak to get anything done. She got it clean, put some antibiotic on it, and then…. what?

His shoes were the remains of a pair of shower flip flops that had seen better days when the last person wore them. She measured his foot with her hand and we’ll try to find a pair of shoes to bring him on monday. I’ve been repairing other kids’ flip-flops with bits of leftover electrical wire and tape, but there’s not much I can do for most. Shoes are 250 cordobas (about 15 dollars) a pair, so it would be an intimidating expense to shoe them all, and would it be worth it to spend the food money on shoes? The priorities are hard to set when they need everything.

We even treated a horse. The cartload of sand was brought be horse up the steep grade to the orphanage site. I am seriously amazed that the horse made it. It fell on the way up and the driver hit it until it got up. It’s knee was literally the size of a grapefruit and it was badly scraped and bleeding. We used the largest tensor we had and the driver said he would cover it with an ointment he had when he got the horse home, and off they went.

In my secret other life I had the inclination, memory and talent to go to medical school and I live my life down here just helping these incredible people with the basic health issues that plague them.

In this life antibiotic ointment, mercurichrome and infant tylenol are all I’ve got, and I’m trying anyway.

Related posts:

1. A final guest post from Dorothy – back to work
2. Postcard from the Edge
3. The Beach Part 3
4. Teach Me to Play
5. End Times