Colombia!

GeoTagged, [S0.94111, E80.73206]

With some excerpts from a letter to my Kenya roomates:

Greetings from Tumaco, Colombia. It's a 45 min boat ride or 15 min helicopter trip to the site each day. I completed 6 interviews yesterday and transcribing/coding today. Things are going well, it's the craziest environment I've worked in yet. As I type my office is rolling back and forth in 15-foot swells as we're located in the highest point on the ship.

Life on the high seas can get lonely after living in a house of 12, but also loving the opportunity to meet new people. The stories of how everyone found themselves on this floating hospital of wonder are really incredible. Some have chosen to be here, others not.

Every night I climb into my 'rack' (bunk bed) and listen to my Kenya playlist while rocking to sleep. Up everyday at 5:30 a.m. to get to the mess decks for breakfast (4 flights of stairs up), then roll call with my team, called 'mustering' which is on the other end of the ship and 4 flights downstairs, then on to a boat/helicopter. Today I'm staying aboard to work, so up 8 flights of stairs to my office. If I leave something in my room or have to use the bathroom, it's another 8 flights of stairs across the other end of the ship.

And about laundry, be careful what you wish for! If you see the previous posts, I was quite excited not to be using a bucket anymore... Yes we have washers but the room is at the lowest point of the ship, on the other end (of course). From my room I take the dirty load up 3 flights, across the ship, and down 3. Clean load is up 3 down 3.

Each country has been really different with regard to site and patient population. The current site is heavily guarded with over 1000 Colombian military troops and additional support from NCIS (yep, like the tv show!) marine and air support. It's quite incredible to experience it every morning. The days are long and work is hard in the tropical (wet) heat but everyone is pulling together to complete the mission in the next 8 days.

I can upload one picture at a time on here, more on my Facebook as I take quite a few with the new smartphone and they load directly. By the by, that is the view from my office window of the helo picking up medical supplies for drop off at the site. They delivered everything needed for the entire site in one day.

Patients come aboard for sugary today and all operations are running at full speed. I'm looking forward to catching up on work and rest, tomorrow it's out to the site again!

More soon...

Calm winds and fair seas,
Dars

P.s. My mom is sending cookies, depending on how they hold up I may send hints for a ugali and kales care package ;) if you did't know, we have a regular US military address. Toys, snacks, gummy bears, and inappropriate inside jokes accepted.