Back in Monrovia!

Hi Everyone-

Sorry to take so long to set up a posting.  I have been busy!  I arrived here with absolutely no problems. Our flights were great.  I travelled here with one of my pediatric colleagues, Donna Staton. She is a pediatrician from Weston who has done a lot of international health work and is interested in getting involved in this project. 

 Shortly after arrival, we got right to work, working on the pediatric service at JFK.  Days in the hospital are really quite amazing.  You literally do save lives (and lose lives here).  We have several pediatric patients on our service now.  Some clearly have survived from the knowledge and persistance of the team here.   Others don't fare as well. We had a very sad case of a 10 year old girl in the emergency room yesterday.  She was very sick with asthma and pneumonia and on oxygen. We really weren't sure we could even save her.  While rounding on her, her mother approached us to tell us that she wanted to take her home to see a traditional healer (herbal doctor or "witch doctor").  We tried several times to convince her that she needed to stay, and that she would surely die if the mom took her out of the hospital.  Her relatives told us that we were American not African, and she shouldn't listen to us. She ultimately decided to leave with her daughter.  Walking back to the dorm, there wasn't a dry eye among us......we knew she wouldn't make it.

Better news,....Each time I come to Monrovia, it is very encouraging to see the amount of progress that this country is making.  The city is cleaner, and there is so much new development. In fact, we went out to beautiful restaurant and casino the other night that wasn't even here last year.   One of the volunteers who had been here for 2 months was leaving, so we all took her out to this very posh restaurant on the ocean. Dinner only costs about 20 -30$ at one of these places!  No wonder I come here :)

Hope everyone is well. I have hardly taken a picture.   Will post some soon!

Trish