Finally feeling Useful

Day 18- Up to our elbows in Drugs

One thing that I have really struggled with since being here is the feeling of uselessness. Many warned us that a mission's trip gives you the impression that you will be a great help and service to the people you are visiting with but often, you will take away more from them than they will ever get from you. I had difficulty accepting this. There was just so much that we could do to help out here in little ways. Over the past few weeks though this statement had rung true. Although we were helping out in clinics they were something that would always go on without us. However, I was still determined to give back in some way.

 Today was our first opportunity to really help out in a big way. The volunteers are responsible for running the clinics and managing the clinic materials and drugs. Because many of the volunteers had little medical knowledge the clinic materials and drugs had been neglected and were a mess of assorted items flowing from 4 disorganised boxes. We offered to sort the clinic materials and stocktake everything. Once this was organised clinics would run a lot smoother and we could establish what drugs the clinic was short of.

A few minutes into the job we realised that this was going to be a tremendous task! There was dental drugs from the stoneage, enough gauze to bandage an army, drugs over 20 years out of date, an abundance of needles but no syringes and a plaster of someone's teeth?! We sorted and labeled, grouped and listed. After 11 hours we had sorted all the clinic materials but were only half way through the drugs. Leta was delighted at the help we had been and marveled at the order we had instigated so far. It was great to use our knowledge to contribute in such a helpful way.

That night we discovered that there was a Trufi strike. Violence had erupted between two competing Trufi companies. Apparently, the companies had gone to war with eachother smashing windows and beating each other with sticks. One man came to ER with a large head laceration. He had been attacked by a a number of men from the rival company. We are unsure how long the strike will last for but will have to use the more expensive taxi's as our main means of transport until peace is restored.