Wow...

Ok so I'm having difficulty uploading pictures-this whole blog thing is new to me. I'll get to it later hopefully.
This place is the real deal guys!!! None of that "oh, I'm just travelling abroad to do a little work and some backpacking...." The trauma here is ridiculous! Justin and I walked through the ER this morning on our way to conference and there were all kinds of trauma patients just lined up waiting (some for days) to be treated; they were very happy to see us. The ER is not really clean at all-there are bodies everywhere and it gets really hot and doesn't smell too great as you can imagine, but there is much work to be done and that's why we're here..

I also got my nickname today already-"Balah." The members of "The Church" gave it to me this morning after my first surgery. "The Church" is the room in the OR's where they clean the instruments-they have "deacons and deaconesses, and a bishop" too! I joined the congregation today! It means "one who comes to help those in need-Balah." The OR nurses and techs are great-they seem to be very caring and diligent in their work.  Justin showed me the storage room where he had accumulated things during his time here-I'm going to try and re-organize some of it. It's pretty cool to see some of the supplies that we use back home tucked away here :-)

I've already done one above-knee amputation and another surgical debridement for a mangled extremity after a car crushed this guy's foot. He's going to need an amputation in a few days unfortunately. I also have a few more amputations lined up for later this week. The orthopaedic surgical volume is quite intense...it's going to be a life changing experience.  On my first visit to the orthopaedic floor, the nurses were very receptive and I met a few of the patients who I'll be operating on-there is such a variety of trauma cases here from severely burned patients to multiple fracture polytrauma patients. This place gets it all..

It's also quite humbling to see how frugal everyone is-the way they value every little thing and get the most of all available to them given such limited resources is inspiring; it's amazing how easy it is to take things for granted back home...enough said-you guys get the point.

Anyway, sorry for the long blog today-that's only a small portion of my day, but for those of you who are interested I'd like to try and keep you abreast of my experiences. Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts. I hope that you all are well...