Clinic happenings

Ok, so this first picture is not at the clinic, but we have had a bit of a snake issue lately.  Tiny little rattlesnakes.  Which as you can imagine is alarming.  Alarming in general for everyone, but for the most part they are of course in the grass or quiet areas, so it is most concerning for the construction guys moving things, etc.  But we have a snake hunter among us of the first order.  Oscar knows how to catch them and get them...alive...into a plastic water bottle or ziploc bag (they are tiny, a little longer than your hand..and aggressive) and also apparently hunts near his house, where he found this big one.  They are not alive for long, as you can see.    

The first line in defense trying to get the snakes to leave surprised me...spreading garlic around the property.  Fangs they have, but I did not know they sucked blood.  Interesting.  

Maria actually took this picture.  Seems an inebriated man was on his motorcycle up the road and was ambushed, stealing his motorcycle and giving him more than a bump on the noggin in the process.  They helped him out (you can see Luz, or part of Luz, one of our nurses on the left) as they waited for the police to pick him up.  

Violence in the country is reportedly down of late, especially murders, but for many this is more of a statistical drop than one that is felt or seen.  Driving drunk on a motorcycle in the middle of the day is not smart, to say the very least, for a variety of reasons.  One also makes an easy target.

This is far from the first person seeking temporary shelter at the mission campus after a mugging, robbery, etc.  We are thankful to God we have relative safety and protection though for our staff, patients, and facilities.

That is not to say we still do not have issues from time to time.  The fence, serpentine wire, electric fence, and cameras have so far eliminated break-ins from being a problem, and have been for several years now.

But occasionally we have minor issues still.  Our beautiful flowers and plants are hard to keep beautiful from crickets, ants and others that want to eat them, but also from patients who cut/yank them as well to take them home.

We have had some petty theft.  But almost no graffiti in the past ten years by gangs or anyone, although a few parts stolen from vehicles while parked outside.  Valerie though had a new unpleasant arrival at her "white board" of a vehicle yesterday afternoon.  Kids I suspect without supervision...especially since I would presume those are not aliases. They had good equipment, as no home remedy found so far can remove it.  Time to call a professional...or get a driver named Kenilin.

Speaking of transportation, we applied for grants to help us buy an ambulance this year, and IDES and FAME both approved grants to help us get one!  We are waiting on 1/2 of the funding to be raised yet, but eagerly looking forward to this new service, not only for our patients in the clinic, but anyone in the community.  Case in point...last week there was a patient with severe lung issues, and required oxygen and to get to the hospital immediately.

An ambulance was called...and after waiting, deliberating, and asking family members if they wanted to risk going in a pickup truck (with no oxygen), and waiting more and then finally someone going and getting them...

...Over an hour later an ambulance did come to take her to the hospital.

This is somewhat uncharted territory for us in trying to provide such a service, but we are quite hopeful that we can financially make a go of it, while at the same time providing obviously much quicker service to those that need it.  We have all in the clinic that have cars served as ambulance drivers in the past, with no equipment.  Stay tuned for more information about this in the future...as soon as the money is raised in the US, we will move forward purchasing and outfitting the unit as soon as possible!