In the previous post I explained what went on at the clinics and how they were set up. One station that I did not mention was the photo station. My job at the clinics was to capture the people in a photo. It is a privilege for me to know that I was able to see every person who came through the clinics, maybe I didn’t see them in person or talk to them but I saw their picture.

Majority of the people we saw had never owned a photo of themselves. This is rather mind boggling coming from a culture full of photos and pictures we often just throw away!

Seeing the people

While people were waiting to be seen, we would take their picture and then print it using a mobile printer. We put it in a plastic sleeve and gave it to them when they were finished. So many people broke out into a huge smile or even cried. I received a few kisses from old babushkas. I discovered later that many of the people have no record of their existence. There are no birth certificates, no shot records, nothing. So when someone dies it is often as if they disappear. Families have nothing to remember them by. The missionaries we worked with explained that they have been asked more than once to take a picture of a loved one in a coffin.

Writing Isus te iubește (Jesus loves you) on the back.

So taking photos of the people who came through was not just a fun hobby or a job to keep someone busy, it was a true ministry and blessing to the people. I was blessed to see on a house call, photos from the year before on the wall in the home of a dying man. The family treasured those small pictures.

The people varied from single moms to single dads. There were the young teenagers to 80 year old men with great health. We saw 20 year old moms with 10 year old kids, we saw grandmas taking care of multiple children, we saw singles, widows, couples, and families. Everyone was different in their own way.

I wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the people we saw. I don’t know all their names or their stories, but I love their faces. The people are beautiful and God loves them all.

How in the world do you set up a mobile medical clinic, you might ask. That’s a great question.

We had 8 days of clinics in 6 different villages, there were two villages that we came twice to.

There was one doctor, one nurse acting as a doctor, one pharmacist, three medical students scripting or working in the pharmacy. There was one other American nurse working at triage, one Romanian nurse doing triage and helping translate, 2 translators, one CNA acting as an optometrist, and there were about 8 people that were not medically inclined that were either a) acting as a medical person or b) helping in the logistics and admin of the clinic. There were also other translators that changed each day and people who acted as crowd control, trust me that was an important job!

The Medical Team

It takes a lot of people to help run a successful clinic!

The clinic requires bags and bags and bags of drugs. Lots of drugs, we have a miniature pharmacy station at every clinic. We had lots of supplies that were needed or were there for “just in case” since you just never know what you might see in the villages.

At the start of the clinic, someone goes around the village to announce that the medical team is coming and that they should bring their whole family to such and such place. We pull up in our two vans and a trailer and quickly set up.

A half full trailer

Every location is different, sometimes it was just one giant hall and people rotated around the room to the different stations. Sometimes there were different rooms that they had to float between, it just depends on the place.

They got a pulse!

Checking blood pressure

Waiting to be seen

The different stations start with a waiting area. Every member of a family gets a number. Next is triage. This is where they take blood pressure, pulse, name, age, and write down the major complaints. Then they wait some more for the doctor stations. They take the little slip of paper they got at triage to the doctor, he reads it, asks some more questions, maybe the doctor asks to have an EKG done on their mobile EKG machine. (There’s a separate station for that.) The doctors generally always look into their ears, listen to their hearts and breathing, check throats, maybe freeze a wart and then prescribe some medicine.

The doctor stations

Say “Ahhh”

The major complaints were headaches and back pain. Many of the people we saw were very, very poor. Many of them were gypsies whom are never treated well in the hospitals. There were more than one instance of someone having had a heart attack a week ago and was sent home from the hospital with only a few pills. Nothing else. Most gypsies are afraid of the hospitals because of how they are treated there and therefore have many health problems.

Waiting again

There is also the optometry station. Triage may prescribe them to go and get some glasses. Lots of people needed reading glasses. We had a bunch of glasses donated and so simply needed to find the right fit for each person. I was amazed at how many people desperately needed glasses but did not have them. Quite a few people cried when they could read for the first time.

Reading numbers

Waiting some more

After seeing the doctor, the next station is the pharmacy. Everybody gets vitamins, many people receive Tylenol or something similar, there are many people who received high blood pressure medicine, lots of people had worms and so got medicine for that. We had many instances of scabies and ears that needed to be cleaned out. We actually cleaned out a piece of wood from someones ear and saw a dead fly in someone’s ear. (They didn’t believe us when we said that and didn’t want their ears cleaned.) There were several ulcers that needed to be dressed and other various wounds that needed cleaning. Sometimes we gave out canes to the those that needed it.

All ready to deal drugs!

At the pharmacy

Cleanin those ears out!

The goody bags

We did a few house calls to some that could not come. Once to a man who was dying of cancer and once to a lady with diabetes and was not able to walk very well.

The last official station was a prayer station. There was almost always someone who stopped people on their way out the door to pray for them. There were several people who gave their life to Christ and wanted to know more about God. This is a very important station.

As weird as it may sound, I think I’m picking up an Irish accent in Romania. I really don’t know how that all works out but it’s true. I’m here in Laslea, Romania working with a bunch of Irish (Northern Irish to be exact) and English. Yesterday I caught myself speaking in Ukrainian… with an Irish accent! What is going on?!

Here are a few things that I’ve learned about Northern Irish English:

-“That’s a funny crack” has nothing to do with a crack in the ground or someone’s rear end, a crack=a joke.

-“That’s good crack.” is not talking about the drug or a joke, they’re sayin it’s good fun.

-The hob is the stove.

-“We’re having mince tonight” means we’re having ground beef.

-“Sufferin ducks” is just a funny phrase that makes me laugh every time.

-Power is pronounced ‘paaar’

-Pants are not pants, they’re underwear. I got some weird looks when I was at the table at lunch wearing capris and I said “I think I’ll put my pants on.” It was a little chilly, what should I have said?

-Vests are undershirts.

-“Clean boggin” has nothing to do with something being clean, it is actually the opposite. It means something is really dirty.

-“That’s class” means that’s awesome.

-A brew is not alcohol, it’s coffee or tea.

-“It’s tapping down.” means it’s raining.

-“Dear” means expensive

-Buns are not rolls or bread really, they are cookie like things maybe more like bars or squares of something. So we ate rice krispie buns.

-Fringe = bangs

-“It’s half 5” is 5:30

-“I’m goin to the big smoke” means “I’m going to the city.”

-“She’s in a bit of a warbler” means “She’s having a tantrum or a rant”

-“You’re a minger” is “you’re gross.”

-Bonnet = engine & boot = trunk “I’m just gonna look under the bonnet” or “I’ll just throw this in the boot.”

-Wee really does mean small or little and ‘me’ can be used in place of ‘my’

-Our dear UK friends sang the common Christian kids song “Oh you can’t get to heaven on roller skates” with a new verse, “Oh you can’t get to heaven in a biscuit tin, cause God don’t let those crumbies in” Hahahaha, only in the British Isles…

Yes, the Irish really do talk like they do in the movies, I still can’t over that Hollywood was actually right on that one! I’ve learned it might be useful to have a translator from English to English when working here!

I know I missed other differences, there were just too many to keep track of!

Since part of my job here in Ukraine is to manage staff vacations I can see when people have not taken enough vacation. When our English school ended I caught myself up with some personnel duties and made the realization that Joanne and I had not had a vacation in over a year! Yikes!

We promptly remedied that.

Staff member Marichka and my former roommate, has been on sabbatical since April and we have missed her terribly.

So we also remedied that.

This involved a train trip to Lviv, her hometown. I won’t tell the whole story of how we actually got there. Let’s just say that we thought Marichka said to stay on the bus for 14 min and that she will be at the bus station. In reality, she said 40 min at when she said bus station she meant bus stop. It was truly a miracle that we found each other!

Driving a flying car!

View of the city, can you spot the flying car?

Enjoying some dessert together

What do a couple of girls do when they get together? Well, we went into the center for dinner and tea. Walked about in the beautiful city and enjoyed the great weather. We stayed up late and watched a girly movie. Next day we slept in, ate a late breakfast and then went for a walk before we had to head back to the train station. It was just a quick getaway but so worth it.

In front of the theatre

Traveling is not complete without some kind of adventure. Although I have to say, I don’t necessarily go looking for it all the time, but it is fun once you’re in the midst of it!

The scene

While in Cahul, Moldova visiting Lance, we made a “short” trip to pick up his leader in Odessa, Ukraine. It was supposed to be short but the fog and ice slowed us down. We arrived to a sunny Odessa picked up Kyle, dropped off someone else and were on our way. Despite being pulled over by police our trip home was uneventful… except for one stop.

The GPS had led us to Odessa on one road, but for whatever reason, decided to take us back by a different road. It was a bad road, we thought about marking it in the GPS as the Never-Go-Down-This-Road road, but I think we forgot. It was like we had entered onto Mars without a landrover. Or maybe it was a remnant of a mine field littered with holes, potholes to be exact. I know roads can be bad in Ukraine, but this was hardly even a road. We kept thinking it would get better at every turn, but it never did. The fact that we saw less and less cars should have told us something but we were busy chatting until Lance finally said “we got to get off this road!”

We looked at the GPS and saw that we were basically traveling next to the road we took in the morning. There were no roads apparently connecting them. Lance just decided to take the first left that he came to, we had come to desperation out of concern for the car. So we took a left.

It was a slightly better road, a little more deserted, but was a degree better than the previous road from Mars. It led us into a little village where it seemed the road ended. Great. We looked around, asked some villagers who directed us a different way. This led us to the outskirts of a different village. We were traveling on what reminded me of a dike between two fields. We were just driving between some fields in the middle of no where. No. Where. This is where it got a little too adventurous.

We saw another road closer to the field that looked better so we thought we would just go down off this crazy dike road and continue to the road ahead… what? what’s wrong? Why aren’t we moving? Ack! It’s mud… no it’s worse, it’s clay!

Yep, we turned off a perfectly good road for a deceptively muddy road and got stuck. We tried for a good 20-30 min to get out, spraying the car with mud/clay all over. We were quite the sight. As I noted the fuel gauge bordering empty and the sun nearing the horizon I began to determine which house looked the friendliest and might allow some strangers to stay the night with them. Lance and Kyle decided to go ask a villager if someone had a tractor they could use to pull us out.

Lance trying to get the clay out of his wheel well.

Don’t be fooled by the road’s smooth appearance…

Praise the Lord they found one! The tractor was slipping all around as well but eventually managed to tow us out. The man who had towed us out was a pig farmer, with him was his brother, dad, neighbor, son, and neighbor kid. We were a spectacle. They enjoyed the spectacle so much they invited us over for homemade wine made with red and black pepper. Typical Ukrainians, always ready for guests and hospitality.

We muddled through the mud to their farm. As we rounded the corner, I saw them defuzzing a pig they had just roasted. The man brought out a pitcher of wine and one cup. His brother (or neighbor I kept getting confused) downed a glass in one gulp. He filled the glass again and gave it to Kyle. Kyle finished his glass, the man poured another glass and handed it to me. I weigh like half the weight of these guys and I had not eaten much that day, I cautiously took the glass and took tiny sips until I had finally finished the glass. I was proud of my accomplishment.

At this point, they brought out some  food. Since they were pig farmers they brought out pig skin, just a big ole flap of pig skin. It had been roasted, but was not crunchy or hard, just sort of a grey rubbery consistency. Luckily, it did not have much of a flavor ,just chewy, really chewy. Then there were some nice little meat patties, I like meat patties, can’t go wrong with those. Then there was this sort of triangular shaped jellyish-looking meat thing. Not sure what to call it. It was made with pork meat and ground up pig skin. It had a slimy jelly texture, reminded me of a JELLO jiggler with meat and pig skin. This also did not taste that bad, I just kept thinking “JELLO jiggler” and swallowed it.

I was offered another glass of wine which I took but drank even slower than before. I managed to finish it, but when they offered me another glass I had to decline, after accepting two glasses I was sure they would not be offended if I refuse the third glass. We chatted for a while longer about the farm, they gave us a tour, we talked about what we were doing here, and Christmas. They were happy to help and refused our monetary offering. We drove off in our clay covered car just as the sun was about to set. It was a fun adventure indeed but I will think twice before turning on seemingly smooth dirt roads!