1 ship, 8 days, 6000 served

The USNS Comfort arrived on April 12 and set up the clinic on shore the next day.  Medical assistance was provided from April 14 to the 21st and the ship pulled anchor today, April 23 for Peru.  We received a phone call today from a branch president telling us that the ship was still in the harbor and would be doing more medical service -- the rumors they are many.

The waiting area during a calm time.

Our volunteer efforts were to help the Ministry of Health people organize the people and get them in the cue for the Navy to put a wrist band on them indicating the type of medical service they would receive.  They could select one only examination from eye, dental, adult general medical and pediatric care.  To move from the crowd at the gate to a seat under the tent to the Navy cue requires getting an assigned number from us, thus, we were mobbed, pushed, and sought after. We can literally relate to the man who lay by the Pool of Bethesda waiting to touch the water and be healed and he could not because everyone ran over the top of him and got there first (John 5:5-6).  Each morning we would arrive and the croud pressing the gate would be larger and larger.  One morning, the woman from the Ministry of Health tried to open the gate to let in a woman who had a medical emergency and the crowd crashed the gate, knocked down several older people and streamed into the waiting area.  It was chaos and very difficult to restore order and get the tickets distributed.  We had police using their sticks to try to control the crowd and we had to back out several times when it looked like the mob was going to push past the police.  I now know what it feels like to be the Walmart employee holding the last Tickle-Me-Elmo doll on Black Friday!

We estimate that about 6,000 people received medical care of some kind; that's over 600 people per day.  And, that's about how many didn't get in.  That was the hard job to turn people away because the number of people the doctors could treat for the day was "finished."  (That's the Jamaican word for done, ended, etc., but they don't believe you so they hang around hoping.)

This was the hardest volunteer effort we have done because it was so long - 6-8 hours a day - every day except Sunday and standing most of the time.  Both of us are so tired, sore, and sunburned.  Well, enough about us, let us tell you some of the stories.

Story 1 - The Duhaneys
Elder and Sister Duhaney (age mid-50's) live in lower Kingston and attend the Kingston Branch (the one we attend).  We had contacted the Navy in his behalf to see if they would operate on his eyes; he is almost blind.  They selected to pre-screen him.  Sister Duhaney accompanies him.  He has macular degeneration and there is nothing they can do; however, the doctor notices a large mass on Sister Duhaney's back and she is accepted for surgery.  We saw them take the launch to the boat and she was almost in tears to think she will get this surgery.

Story 2 - Jahie Francis, age 9
Jahie we were told had cataracts in both eyes, we sent his name to the Navy for pre-screening, but he was not accepted.  They came to the National Stadium and saw the optometrist there.  The doctor told his mother he does not have cataracts, just bad eyes.  This young man was fitted with glasses and was amazed at what he is able to see.  His smile was so large and he was just looking at everything around him and beginning to explore a world he did not know.  His younger brother was also fitted with glasses.

Boarding the boat to travel to the ship.
Melissa is 3rd on the ramp.  Sister Duhaney is in the green dress.

Story 3 - Melissa Smith, age 22
Sunday night at 9:30 p.m. we get a phone call from the ship asking if we know anyone with a cleft palette.  One of the surgeons would like to operate on several people with this birth defect and they haven't had one.  In talking with Sister Russell on  Friday when she and her husband were volunteering, she mentioned a sister who had a lip that looked like a cleft palette malady.  We called Sister Russell, she called Melissa, and yes she had been born with a cleft palette.  She had, had four operations when she was young.  Yes, she would travel down and be pre-screened.  however, Port Antonio is 2.5 hours from Kingston and she has no money for travel.  How do we find a ride for her;   Chance, we don't think so, Elder and Sister Smith from Ochee have to come in on Monday to bring their truck for inspection.

Melissa is a candidate for a surgery, but she elects for the lip portion not a reconstruction of both the palette and lip.  She told us she has an exam in early May and can't afford the recovery time.  We haven't seen her since the surgery but will post pictures when we get them.

These are just three stories from this experience.  So many people came back to us and showed us their new glasses or were so glad to get some cream for a burn or a prescription for a malady.  Getting eye glasses is very expensive and the Ministry doesn't have a way to get glasses even if they could prescribe them.  The Navy brings boxes of every strength.  Dental public health is almost non-existent and private dentists are very expensive.

LDS Charities had 100 volunteers who served 382 hours during this time.  We will recover, on our own, without medical assistance other than the Ambian I took Thursday night.

The berth of a 40' container

It seemed like last week was a week of culminations.  The USNS Comfort arrived, we had one new project approved, and we berthed our 40' container of national emergency supplies.  We have been working on this berthing since September.  Our first container was diverted to St. Lucia during tropical depression Nicole.  After that, we began to prepare all the paperwork to get custom clearances and a GCT (general consumer tax) tax waiver of 17.5% of the total value and import duty of 40-60%.  We then had to get a clearance from the Coconut Board to import the 12,500 bars of soap that are part of the hygiene kits. 

Customs inspector, doc worker, and shipping broker

This container will be permanently berthed behind the Spanish Town Chapel as a first line emergency response for hurricanes, natural disasters, and civil unrest.  Last year, we didn't have access to these supplies and they were sorely needed.

Customs inspectors verifying that the contents match the paper work

The Ministry of Finance called us on Monday to say that our custom and tax waivers had been approved.  We immediately called the shipping broker and scheduled a customs review and deliver to the site.  This all came together on Wednesday.

Backing our container through the chapel gates. No small feat.

The crane lowered it into place.

It will need to be painted even though it says Glory on the side.

Our hearts are full of thanks to everyone who contributes to the Church's Humanitarian program.  This container is going to be so valuable to us!!  As you can see, it doesn't match the building, so we'll spring for some paint.

After last week and these next two weeks, we are going to take a couple of P-days and go to a tropical part of the island.  Upcoming events are building the first chicken coops, delivering 95 beehives, teaching square foot gardening, and teaching dry pack canning.

We are Comforted - USNS Comfort

We have known about the USNS Comfort coming to Jamaica for several months and have been in communication with Church Headquarters and finally two weeks ago the US Navy.  Yes, it was official and they would like us to assist as volunteers.  Wednesday, the USNS Comfort pulled into Kingston Harbor and the Navy began setting up at the National stadium site to administer dental, optical, general medicine, physical therapy and some pediatric care to the general public.  They began pre-screening surgeries of patients that the Ministry of Health had referred to them.  It's a once in a lifetime experience and we are glad it was part of our lifetime here.

This is our tour group, Fitches in blue are on-board the ship running LDS efforts.

Thursday, we were able to tour the ship and were able to take Susan Moore from Food for the Poor and President Deans the District President of Spanish Town and all the senior missionaries.  This is a big humanitarian effort.  LDS Charities (The Church) provided 8 semi-truck loads of medical supplies for the trip.  This will be a five months cruise going throughout South America and then end in Haiti.
Our volunteer effort is to do crowd control at the "unsecured" entry point so that the crowds of 700 or more can be served each day.  The Navy will provide care for about 220 adults in general medicine, 180 children will be served, 130 or so dental patients and 200 or so optical patients.  We have had so many people show up that we have had to turn a lot of people away.

A little about the ship:

The ship is a converted oil tanker that they "gutted it and dropped in a hospital."  There are 4 wards 'forward' and 8 wards 'aft'.  (you have to use correct nautical terms or they will throw you out one of those little round windows).

The Comfort was built for use as a combat casualty hospital.  The ship also provides disaster relief around the world, and its current mission: Continuing Promise - is a quality of life Humanitarian mission.  Right now, the Navy has 10 ships helping in Japan.

There are only two helicopters on the ship - storage is a problem.  However, when the Comfort was helping in Haiti they had two helicopters landing every 6 minutes...so their capacity is much larger.

The Comfort is based in Baltimore, Maryland and can be ready for duty with only 5 days notice!

The ship carries 30 thousand gallons of fuel.  It takes in sea water, processes it and uses it for drinking, cooking, and all other water uses on board.  They make their own oxygen, also.  

Inside one of the operating rooms.

Recovery

Surgical rooms are in the middle of the ship - providing the maximum stability - if the sea gets rough - they pull up anchor and go around in circles which keep the operating rooms more stable!  They can do a maximum of 32 operations a day.

There is a full modern laboratory, burn unit, physical therapy, ICU, labor and delivery, and a great 'spin room' for exercising.  The ship provides education to the native health care people - even Vet services for cattle! They repair medical equipment and are doing research on diseases in ships both Navy and cruise ships.

The Comfort has a state of the art CAT -scan machine.  When the Comfort is docked in Baltimore, it has the largest blood bank in the whole USA!

The USNS Comfort docked in Kingston Harbor.

LDS Charities is very much involved with this mission. There are 26 LDS nurses and doctors and other personnel on board here in Jamaica.  Only 12 of them will stay with the mission the whole 5 months - others will come and go...all in all there will be 71 LDS professionals involved.  Elder and Sister Fitch are the leaders while at sea.  Elder Fitch is a Captain Retired and a dentist - and the Priesthood Group Leader for the whole 5 months.  They are both set apart Church Service Missionaries.   Elder Fitch told us that the doctors leave their practice for 4-6 weeks, and when the mission is completed the LDS personnel will have donated over 5,000 man days - 12 hour days!  A side note:  The ship needs language translation while in Latin America - they have 5 on board and called Salt Lake to see if they could arrange for more.  Salt Lake asked the Navy how many more do you needed?  The Navy said they could use at least 5.  Salt Lake told them they could provide over 50 at each stop!  Gotta love those LDS missionaries around the world!!

They are short on storage space. This is a long hallway of donated supplies.

How do you every get anything done?

We start each day with what I have dubbed "staff meeting."  We write down the things we need to get done, people we need to visit, calls we need to make and so forth.  Monday, there were 11 items on the agenda to get done.  Just before we left the apartment, we reviewed our e-mail and happy day, the Ministry of Finance had granted our customs and tax waiver for the 40' container of emergency supplies we want to bring into the country and permanently place behind the Spanish Town Chapel.  We have been working on this waiver for about 5 months getting all of the paper work ready (including approval from the coconut board to import the 12,500 bars of hand soap) and the container has now been on the docks for over 2 weeks.  This container was ordered by the Church to help us with our first response efforts in cases of natural disaster or civil unrest.  This item wasn't discussed at staff meeting but but picking up the tax waiver quickly became #1 on the list.  With the waivers, we now have to prepare a foundation for the container; we've only had 5 months to prepare the foundation, but I guess it was the cold weather and we were waiting for the spring thaw -- oh, wait -- I was thinnking of your weather.  Sorry for the snow this week!  Building the foundation becomes #2; it wasn't on the original list either.

Elder Schaefermeyer and Elder Flake hired two members, Brother Dakins and Brother Bennett, to help them and off they go to Spanish Town with picks and shovels and they work all day.  Brother Dakins says he will work for $2500JD - for a whole days work? -- Yes.  (That's about $28.00US).  Brother Bennett usually makes about $1500JD per day ($18.00US).  How do you support a family on these wages.  Brother Bennett washes cars at the mission office and maintains the yard at the mission home.  He rides a bike everywhere.  As he told us on the ride to Spanish Town, he wants to buy a car so his family can all go to Church (How do you buy a car on that wage?).  It took the four of them a day and a half to dig the footings build the frames and hand mix and pour the concrete.  The footings are in and the two old guys are stiff and sore.  Hopefully Tuesday of this week they will deliver the container.  That's on for staff meeting on Tuesday.

Brother Dakins and Brother Bennett digging footings for cement foundation of 40' container.

The construction crew - Bro. Bennett, Theron, Elder Flake, and Bro. Dakins.

Monday, I am now at home doing paperwork and cleaning.  I get a call from Food for the Poor that a school order we placed is available for pick up on Tuesday.  I plan on going there to pick out the books from their donations.  The rest of the order won't be ready until Wednesday.  Sister Flake and I put on our best P-day clothes and climb over and through stacks of boxes and pick out 26 boxes of books.  The foundation gets worked on and that's all for this day.  There's still 11 items on the to-do list.

Wednesday, we go to FFP in Spanish Town to pick up the order.  (That's 3 days straight traveling to Spanish Town.  Everything we needed to do is in Kingston, go figure.)  Our little community of Caledonia has two schools that need books, paper, and other supplies.  We placed an order for these items.  What a fun time to take these supplies to them - 26 boxes of books, cricket equipment, hooded sweatshirts for the cricket team, paper, pencils, pens, a couple of bulletin boards, and other miscellaneous items.  These two schools are so far up in the mountains that they are forgotten.


A man was walking by as we were delivering books.  He was excited to get 3 books.

 At Freedom Basic School, we had several in the nearby homes come to us and want a book.  We gave two teachers and one man walking by 3-4 books and they quickly began reading them.  This is a precious item for them; books are a rare commodity and one they can't afford.  We arrived there well after school had let out so only the principal was at Mt. Industry Primary School.  We started unloading the car and the principal pulled up a chair and started going through the boxes.  She was teary eyed as we gave her these books and supplies.  We were told that the school has only one or two books on the shelves of the library.  We are now down to 10 items on the task list.  We'll get it done in no time.

The principal of Mt. Industry Primary School looking at new books.

I just don't know where the week goes and why we can't get our task items accomplished.  We start this Monday with 8 things that are carried over from last week.  This week, we probably won't get them done -- wait for our blog next week.  We are involved in a special treat.  Wait and see.  It is one of the items on our task list!