New Website is Up and Running

Here is the new Website.

http://afghanwomensclinic.wordpress.com/

Another baby boy

Just got done delivering another baby boy. It was a rough delivery as the girl was only 14 years old. By time we got over there she was already crowning and still had another 30 minutes or so of pushing to go. The little boy definitely had a cone head when he came out! Here are the pictures.

First Steps

Today was the most rewarding day of this whole deployment. Thanks to the folks at Walk Easy and my dear friend Jenn, because of them a little boy in Afghanistan took his first steps today. He's got a long road ahead of him trying to learn how to use them but for the first time in his life he stood up on his own.

Attached are pictures of him trying his crutches. I can't tell you how thankful his father was for these crutches. He is so excited that his boy will have a semi-normal life now and can at least get around on his own. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

April 21, 2009

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, the weather here has been really rainy meaning no patients at clinic. Today however we were swamped at clinic. There were at least 20 kids and 10-15 women. As usual, not enough children's medicine to go around and we used up the rest of the formula that I received. We had two babies come in that were 9 months old and looked like they were maybe 3 months. It was really sad!

I wanted to say thanks to Jenn and the employees at AVI. I received both the crutches for the little boy with the missing leg and a box full of formula and baby supplies! It was great! The little boy comes to the clinic on Thursday so I'll be posting lots of pictures of him taking his first steps :)

As many of you heard, myself and SSG Jarrin got the go ahead to remain behind and continue our work at the clinic, instead of travelling north with our Company. They finally realized what an important mission we are doing, in winning over the hearts and minds of locals. This however puts us back into the situation of having no supplies. I've emailed a few companies seeing if we could get some children's medicine, vitamins, and formula, but have not received any responses. Does anyone have any suggestions or know someone I could contact? Any suggestions would be super helpful!

I've attached a picture of some of the kids that came into the clinic today. Hope everyone is doing well and I'll post again on Thursday when the little boy receive his crutches!

HA Mission to School

Yesterday was one of the funnest and most rewarding days in Afghanistan. As many of you know, the school in Waza Khwa was blown up by a terrorist and has yet to be repaired. Myself, and some other soldiers got to go to the school yesterday to distribute desks and school supplies that people have been sending me. Also, we had some desks on base and I purchased some paint to paint desks to give to Afgahn kids. There were about 500 kids in the school and all got school supplies / book bags. It was an overwhelming experience and the kids had a blast. Here are the pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2309902&id=22914614&l=2a7db3b555

Thanks go everyone who made this possible. Myself and the local kids really appreciate it!

Another Afghani day

I'm so sick of the weather here. I thought it was bad in Chicago! It goes from nice to cold to rain to hail...I just can't keep up. Other than the bad weather things here have been SLOW! The new company arrived and now I have no job. Clinic has been very slow also with all the rain. People just can't make it in to the clinic because there are no roads and therefore all motorcycles and cars get stuck in the mud when it rains.

My sister sent some gym shoes in the mail and a family of 5 kids whose mother died recently got a lot of them. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them. I also learned how to make an Afghani dish yesterday. It's fried bread, I put sugar on it and make it into a funnel cake though....so yummy!

Hope everyone is doing well and I will post again as soon as I get the pictures.

April 02

Clinic day today and as usual it was amazing. We got to hand out tons of clothes and shoes to the little kids that came in. I just love seeing the smile on the face of a little kid when you give them their first pair of shoes. Nothing else compares to it! Clinic was slow today but sometimes it's more fun that way because you can interact more with the children and women. It still amazes me that even though I don't speak their language I can communicate with them. I've discovered I am an incredibly gifted pantomimer. It always cracks me up trying to ask them about their issues as I point and make gestures and faces. I think they think I'm crazy half the time as they usually just laugh.

We had the first ever male clinic on Tuesday. It was overwhelming. The new Doc on base handled it but needed the women's assistance to try and get through all the patients. We mostly worked with the little kids as he treated the males. I brought out a bottle of bubbles and I think it was the first time any of them had ever seen them. They were scared at first of them but after a while I got a few of them to even come up and blow some bubbles. It became a HUGE hit! Of course we had to run around showing them how to pop them before they thought it was fun to try and catch the bubbles.

Well that's all for now. Oh and I just wanted to once again thank Jenn for getting the company to donate the crutches - it's amazing! Can't wait to post a video and pictures of the little boy walking for the first time with his crutches.