GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!

So Monday morning I woke up to a site that has been 2 weeks to get here. There was the coast of Vietnam- the port city of Qui Nhon to be exact. So far we haven't seen too many patients, it's been a bit slow to get the medcaps (on land assessment clinics) up and running. I will be able to go help out at a medcap next Sunday which I'm really excited about- hopefully by then things will be running smoothly. Yesterday we admitted our first peds patient- a little 3 year old girl for a cleft palate repair and I felt bad for the poor thing because she came onto the ward and immediately had about 10 nurses and coremen all staring at her. We were all SO excited to have our first patient. Today we got about 4 more, one is this adorable 6 month old who is all smiles and laughter- I love pediatrics. Vietnam also provided all of their own translators which has been really nice because it means we have them on nights too.

It's been so interesting to me how much I've learned about military life in the last 2 weeks. I thought I knew quite a bit but until I came here I had no idea how much of a different culture it really is. I appreciate that they still have evening prayer on the PA system every night before taps (aka- bed time/lights out/2200/ 10pm). I think the TV being the "Armed Forces Network" is totally bizarre. All of the adds are geared to service members- which makes sense- but for a civilian to watch is weird because none of them are relevant to me- no McDonald's adds here. I have learned a new word- it's "volun-told" similar to "volunteer" but with some subtle differences. I'm starting to get so I actually know what all of the insignia on everyone's collars mean. Shockingly I have now made my bed for over 20 consecutive days because if I don't make it my bedding will be relocated to the lost and found and I will have to explain to the beefy security guys why I didn't make my bed. Amazing how fast you'll start to do something when properly motivated.

I am also amazed at how I have learned to adapt. I went from sleeping by myself in a queen sized bed, and sharing a bathroom with one other person to sleeping in a 6'x2'x2' bunk in a locker room with 60 of my new best friends and sharing 5 showers with 119 people (you do the math). We affectionately refer to the locker room (aka "A" berthing) as "the Fridge" because the A/C is cranked- which I love, many others however do not. And as weird as it is to perpetually live at girls camp it hasn't been that hard to get used to. It's also more then a bit strange to live 3 floors down from where you work, and 81 stairs down from where you eat. If you're working a night shift and need to do laundry- no problem just run switch it over, the laundry is 2 floors up. I thought the closeness of it all would make me claustrophobic but it hasn't been that bad.

Amy J:)