What up? This time it's Paul Pena bringing you the latest from the Philippines.
Today, we went to Payatas again, but this time we were joined by 10 nursing students and another doctor. Having them certainly allowed more patients to be seen; we had 6 stations (approx 2 nursing students and 1 med student at each) with Dr. G roaming and the other doctor checking up patients. The nursing students were especially helpful in translation as now we each had a translatr and didn't have to rely on my disgraceful mockery of Tagalog.
We started bright and early at 9:30 and went until 3:30. According to the log, we were able to see 364 patients, about 70:30 of children to adults. Many patients complained of cold and fever or needed wounds treated. The more interesting cases included TB, scabies, asthma, sores around the mouth, perforated ears, failure to thrive, pus in the ear, removal of a massive pimple that was causing eye pain (this list is lacking as I didn't hear of all the other stuff the rest of the crew encountered).
We definetly got along with the nursing students (3rd and 4th years who were mostly 19 yrs old). We took a lot of pictures together, traded e-mail addresses, and just had a lot of fun. Some of the highlights included teaching Tiffany pickup lines in Tagalog and playing a game from the immensely popular Filipino game show, Wah-Wah-Wee (Kelsi won), in which Benji belted some mean Celine Dion. It was a very enjoyable time (the whole experience, not just Benji)
After that we went to my aunt's house in Quezon City. I introduced them to my grandmother (or lola).and we just relaxed and traded stories over a bottle of Johnny Walker. Then my aunt treated us to a Chinese restaurnt and we feasted like kings. It was glorious.
Overall, it was a very productive and fun day!
On a personal note, I just wanted to say I LOVE THOSE KIDS that we saw. I loved playing with them and interacting with them. In fact, they started to call me cuya which means big brother in Taglog.
Additionally, the whole experience has really increased my drive to become a doctor. I LOVE THIS STUFF. If I could, I would do this for the rest of my life. I LOVE IT.
Peace out, everyone!
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