Panama

It is the morning of our 5th day in Panama and I am back to work in the ICU. Our first 2 days in every country are spent on shore screening and organizing the surgery patients then day 3 or 4 the surgeries begin and the ICU starts jumpin!!! I worked at the clinic site yesterday, herding cats aka patients. It was a good day, the clinic site is in a run down gymnasium so it could get a little loud and the patients often got lost moving from the check in to the general medicine line so my job was to find them and direct them to the appropriate places. There were tons of children so most of my day was spent playing kick the can with them around the gym...a good time as had my all.
The ship is port side here in Panama which has been great for efficency in the morning/evening, getting to/from the clinic sites and we can get off the boat at night and enjoy a stroll on the pier. Not quite as nice as it sounds, the pier is a shipping yard so there are boxes all around and lots of disel fumes but, it is land and there is a small mall structure set up for ships.
In Columbia we were joined by 20 more Project Hope volunteers so our presence is stronger on the ship, for a week or so there were only 6 of us. The new excited energy is a nice addition to the ship's crew.
We are here in Panama until June 2 and then we travel through the canal on our way to Columbia... I am excited to see the canal. I am told there is a web cam on the canal on which you can see us as we pass through...check it out. I will work on finding the web site but until then google panama canal web cam and look for us on June 3rd!!!

Workin on the night shift...

Its my first night shift on the boat, I have been dreading this day but of course it isnt as bad as I thought it would be, talk to me tomorrow! I was able to get a good nap in today despite the continuous anouncements during the day. I woke up, went to a great spinning class and taught yoga under the stars on the top of the ship...all in all a pretty nice evening. We have 2 more days in Antigua (we set sail on sat) so the surgeries are slowing down and we are moving lots of patients off the boat. This week was nurses week so many of the nurses on board went a shore and celebrated with the Antiguan nurses association, a fun way to celebrate nursing. I didnt go to the celebration but I did teach BLS, ACLS and PALS which were well recieved by all the participants. I have been able to go to shore several days in this country which has revitalized my excitement for being on this mission. Next stop Cartegena, Columbia for 3 days off...Freedom!!

3 days on shore!

It is unheard of...it was fantastic...I just completed 3 days on shore. As we sailed toward Antigua we heard about the prospective lack of patients and work to do on the boat and we worried about how bored we would be, luckily some options for work on the shore started to pop up and I grasped at any of them I could. I started by getting on the list to go to the NGO gift giving ceremony that goes on in every country. I showed up that morning and I was asked to teach CPR instead (great with me, it put me to work all day). The class was in the new hospital here in Antigua and it was really nice, they have some great facilities and thier skill base is coming along. The next day I was already scheduled to teach ACLS at the university and lucky for me the university is about 200 yards from a really nice beach so I took the chance to walk down the beach and once i was far enough away I jumped in the water!!! I try to keep that part of the story quiet since I am sure that there is a rule against swimming. Yesterday, I clung on to one of the people conducting surveys at the clinic sites and I questioned clinic visitors as they were leaving to see how they percieved the US military and how effective the mission was. Overall a great 3 days and now I am back on the ship for a evening shift in the ICU...we actually have patients.
Tomorrow starts nurses week and we are doing some activites with the Antiguan nurses association. Happy nurses week to all the wonderful nurses out there, I am off to my deck chair to enjoy my morning off!!!

The Land of 365 Beaches

We sailed through the Caribbean for the last few days and made it to Antigua yesterday morning. Good news, there is no shortage of beautiful beaches and big houses but the needy patients are limited. I am embracing the experience (embrace is my new favorite word for this trip) and I have made myself comfortable on the deck of the boat with my book and my music, I take a break to exercise and I have been teaching yoga to keep it interesting.
The trip here was wonderful. There is something really special about being far out to see with nothing in sight, the stars are amazing, the breeze is amazing and you are all alone. we had a picnic on the flight deck with live music and games, a great way to make a travel day fun. We also had a resupply during the trip to Antigua. A boat sailed down from Virginia with food and gas for us, they pull up next to us while we are both moving about 12 naughts and we pulled the fuel line across to collect fuel for 4 hours while the Helicopter picked up pallets of food and dropped them off on our ship. I got to watch the event from the Helicopter tower, A great perspective.
I am finally heading to shore tomorrow for a community relations event (we are probably picking up trash) it will be great to be on land.
Be well...Happy May