Indonesia

Wow- long time no blog- I've been busy- and lazy (couldn't be bothered to haul my computer around Darwin). So here's the recap of Indonesia which ended up being our longest mission site (technically it was 3 sites we were in Tobelo, Ternate and Ambon). I have a couple of stories from our time spent there that I'd like to share...

First of is the story of my friend Santi (she turned into everyones friend). Santi came on board in Jakarta with her aunt and was here to see if we would be able to operate on her congenital cataracts that had made her blind and stopped her from being able to read and write (she previously could before they got bad) and also stopped her from just being a normal kid. She got to hang out with us from Jakarta to our first mission port of Tobelo (about a week) where we were finally able to operate on her left eye. During our time with Santi we learned a lot about her, she's a HUGE Shakera (spelling?) fan and has the "Latina" style of dancing down to a tee- she even taught us some moves. Santi was also one of the most patient and thankful kids too- I mean how many 7 year olds when faced with eye drops that sting- a lot, jump into position on their bed, hold their eyes open, don't freak out when the drops go in and after you're done say "Thank- you" in a foreign language and then run off to play?! Speaking of the foreign language she practically had English learned by the time she went home. Fortunately for Santi her first surgery went so well that the doctor's decided it was safe to proceed with her second eye and only hours after having surgery she was up and about- dancing for the other patients who had had surgery as well trying to make them laugh or smile and feel better. I think this kid has a future in medicine or maybe show-biz who knows but whatever she does she'll be able to see her family, read, write and get an education and I'm thrilled for her.

My other story is about another girl who is not as lucky as Santi. She also came on board for cataract surgery but once here we knew that surgery wasn't going to be an option. She was 15 years old but looked a bit like a 90 year old woman. She weighed just over 50 pounds and in doing a history with her family we learned that she was diabetic but they had very limited access to insulin and even when they did have insulin they had no way of testing her blood sugar so no idea of how much to administer. When she arrived her blood sugar was over 3x the normal limit, I spent one very long night shift working with our pediatricians to try and safely get her level to something closer to normal. This was another time when I had to think to myself- "If she lived in North America, she'd be a healthy teen with a relatively normal life". Diabetes isn't like a cleft lip where we can come and in one day change the course of a kids life. Diabetes is every day, day in and day out and it's expensive- there aren't many organizations out there that I know of that have figured out how to combat this disease in the third world. We managed to get her levels down and were able to get a 3 month supply of testing strips and insulin. So we put a band aid on a problem for 3 months- then what? She was so far gone that I don't know how she'll end up doing- even if someone miraculously were to send her to America and give her state of the art care I don't think she'd come back from 15 years of no treatment. At the end of the day her family was so grateful that we'd tried, that we'd given them something- a small amount of hope for the next few months and after that I guess it's in someone elses hands who knows better then me.

Indonesia was a beautiful country with some really beautiful people. The part of Indonesia that we ported at is more remote but more beautiful and unspoiled because of it. Of all the places that we've been to so far I think that Indonesia and in particular the outer islands would be somewhere that I would come back to. Fortunately for the people here the government is starting to make them a priority. PP2010 was a part of an Indonesian festival called "Sail Banda" that was recognizing the potential of the smaller Indonesian islands in the future and I think that potential is huge. So if you're looking for an amazing place to visit, with gorgeous diving- check out Indonesia. (I'm starting to sound like a vacation add so I'll stop now!)

Cheers!
Amy J:)