Hello everyone. This is my third day in Albania. The weather is warm, a little hazy, but warm. The mornings are soo cold it must get down to the 40's at night or maybe lower and that is in the house. They don't keep the fire on during the night and only rarely during the day, and that was yesterday early morning and in the evenings. So multiple layers go on in the morning and begin shedding them mid moring. Yesterday we went and walked down by the outdoor market-which sold everything from food, clothes, shoes, household items. The roads are filled with people, buses, cars, bikes with makeshift trailers, and horses.
In the afternoon we went out into the Roma (gypsy) village to gather the children to take them to the gypsy school. They are very much a shunned people. Albanians treat them as unclean and don't mingle with them. They very rarely get treatment at the hospital, most are turned away. The children are not allowed to go to school with the Albanians. There are also many different tribes of Romas, and most of them do not mingle or get along. The children love to have their pictures taken and then love to look at the digital pic. They have warmed up to Rachel and I very quickly. One little girl that does not speak to the other children and does not mingle, took to me very quickly yesterday. They thrive on affection. There is very little affection shown to the children here. Alot of abuse takes place here! One little girl had a quota to meet by evening, if she did not meet it her dad would beat her. There are three sisters that were told by their parents that they would return in 1 week they took the son. But they have not returned to this day. Other childrened are orphned. Wow, unbelievable poverty in every area of live.
Last night we saw our first patient in the village. We were told that he had not eaten or dranken very much in the last 2 weeks. Lying on his bed on the floor, he was weak, thin, non-productive couph, with a low grade temp, and of course a low blood pressure. So we left to get medicine from the house. We started him on an antibiotic, tylenol, and oral hydration. We prayed continuously for him and were not sure what we would find out in the morning. If he wasn't better we were considering hydrotherapy, and IV fluid hydration. We initially thought that maybe had pneumonia, but after talking to the missionary family and reading some books we then thought mayby he had parisites. So today we are going to give him some medication to treat parisites while also treating with antibiotics. This am we went out to check on him about 8:00. When we got there he was sitting out by the fire and walking!!! He looked soo much better, still not his perky self, but wow, praise the Lord what a difference. He has been drinking his water-so they told us, we gave him some more medicine, his air exchange in his lungs had improved, and he was now having a productive cough. This boy is about 10-11 yrs old. So we will go back for another visit tonight...until he finishes his medicine.
Today we will be having clinic at the school. It will mostly be children. We are not sure how many will come, but we are planning on quite a few. We went over to stock the medicin cabnets, went to the town pharmacy to get the meds we didn't have. such as IM injections of penicillin, and Rocephin. Won't the kids luv us after we give'm a shot. And of course since I (heather)am the nurse, Rachel (doctor)has designated me to be the mean :) one and do the shots:) how very nice of here to pass it to me, but I guess that is my job :) making poor kids cry. Hopefully we won't have to give to many and they will be able to forgive me. :)
Well we will let you know how it goes! Keep praying for us!!!! God bless you all.
In the afternoon we went out into the Roma (gypsy) village to gather the children to take them to the gypsy school. They are very much a shunned people. Albanians treat them as unclean and don't mingle with them. They very rarely get treatment at the hospital, most are turned away. The children are not allowed to go to school with the Albanians. There are also many different tribes of Romas, and most of them do not mingle or get along. The children love to have their pictures taken and then love to look at the digital pic. They have warmed up to Rachel and I very quickly. One little girl that does not speak to the other children and does not mingle, took to me very quickly yesterday. They thrive on affection. There is very little affection shown to the children here. Alot of abuse takes place here! One little girl had a quota to meet by evening, if she did not meet it her dad would beat her. There are three sisters that were told by their parents that they would return in 1 week they took the son. But they have not returned to this day. Other childrened are orphned. Wow, unbelievable poverty in every area of live.
Last night we saw our first patient in the village. We were told that he had not eaten or dranken very much in the last 2 weeks. Lying on his bed on the floor, he was weak, thin, non-productive couph, with a low grade temp, and of course a low blood pressure. So we left to get medicine from the house. We started him on an antibiotic, tylenol, and oral hydration. We prayed continuously for him and were not sure what we would find out in the morning. If he wasn't better we were considering hydrotherapy, and IV fluid hydration. We initially thought that maybe had pneumonia, but after talking to the missionary family and reading some books we then thought mayby he had parisites. So today we are going to give him some medication to treat parisites while also treating with antibiotics. This am we went out to check on him about 8:00. When we got there he was sitting out by the fire and walking!!! He looked soo much better, still not his perky self, but wow, praise the Lord what a difference. He has been drinking his water-so they told us, we gave him some more medicine, his air exchange in his lungs had improved, and he was now having a productive cough. This boy is about 10-11 yrs old. So we will go back for another visit tonight...until he finishes his medicine.
Today we will be having clinic at the school. It will mostly be children. We are not sure how many will come, but we are planning on quite a few. We went over to stock the medicin cabnets, went to the town pharmacy to get the meds we didn't have. such as IM injections of penicillin, and Rocephin. Won't the kids luv us after we give'm a shot. And of course since I (heather)am the nurse, Rachel (doctor)has designated me to be the mean :) one and do the shots:) how very nice of here to pass it to me, but I guess that is my job :) making poor kids cry. Hopefully we won't have to give to many and they will be able to forgive me. :)
Well we will let you know how it goes! Keep praying for us!!!! God bless you all.
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