Greetings from an internet cafe in Monrovia.
This city is really quite interesting. There are droves of people who walk up and down the sidewalk all day, since they are unemployed, and have nothing more to do. There are many run down or destroyed buildings, and then you find a brand new building or upscale cafe (frequently owned and occupied by Lebanese people, and frequented by foreigners). It is an interesting experience to be a minority for a change. Overall, people are very nice to us Americans. We are frequently dressed in our doctor gear, so folks know that we are helping out at JFK hospital. People will come up in the street and say hello, try to shake your hand and thank you. Overall, the people here are very nice.
Today, we rounded on the inpatient unit. We have seen 2 kids come in with a toxic ingestion of some herbal preparation they use to treat what they call "thrush", which is not really thrush at all. The herb causes kids to vomit, and these two kids got really sick from the toxic exposure. A 9 month old passed away yesterday because of this treatment. Since there are so few doctors here, people try to use all of these herbal and home remedies to treat illness.
I saw a 3 year old in clinic with severe congential heart disease who desparately needs surgery, but there is definitely no one in this country qualified to do it. We are trying to look into the possibility of having the child transferred to another country for the surgery. I saw a 4 year old with Down's syndrome who had never been diagnosed with Down's syndrome, so Mom could not figure out why the child wasn't growing and developing, so I had to try to explain it to her.
And that is a typical day here....
Miss everyone. I will try to upload some more pics.
Love
Trish
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