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.

March 28, 2009

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. To update you on the past week. We had a dinner dance party at the clinic on Monday. It was a blast. Typically in Afghanistan the women are not allowed to eat dinner with the guests, they must eat the leftovers after the guests leave. Every time we go over to the clinic for dinner, the women aren't allowed to eat with us so we decided that we would do a dinner with only the women, and that way they could eat with us. It ended up being a huge success and we turned it into a dance party, as they taught us some of the local dance moves. They also decided to put glass bracelets on all our wrists (all the women around here wear them). Unfortunately, the women's wrists in Afghanistan are a lot smaller than ours. A few of us bled a little as the bracelets were being forced onto our hands. They had to oil up most of our hands just to try and get them on. It took me a long time to get mine off again and I ended up having to break some of them because it was just to painful to remove.

We had a lot of children at the clinic this week. Many of them had vitamin deficiencies and since we are out of vitamins, there is little we can do. I ordered some vitamins so more should be on their way and hopefully we don't have to turn away kids again for that reason. Also...update on the little boy with the missing leg. My friend Jenn is going to purchase the crutches for him...THANK YOU JENN!!! I have also been working with the Doc on base to try and find a hospital that might give him a prosthetic. I've also been emailing and posting the story of the clinic so we can get some more children's shoes, clothes, and medicine sent over. Hopefully I get some responses!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Conversation With Michelle

Hey everyone its Danielle. I just got off the phone with Michelle and she said her APO address has changed so I wanted to make a post so that everyone could have the new address:

Sgt. Michelle Johnson
333rd MP Company
FOB Waza Kwah
APO AE 09311

She has been making some real progress with the Woman's Clinic and has asked for kids shoes and vitamins. She says most of the kids there have no shoes or if they do they are full of holes. Also that there are kids that can not see at night because of vitamin deficiencies. Simple vitamins can make the world of difference in these kids lives. The shoes DO NOT have to be new. They will be ecstatic for a used pair of shoes.

Thats all I have for now.
dj

Another Child Touches My Heart

On Thursday, at clinic, I met the cutest little 5 year old boy ever. He was super shy and just so adorable. He was a healthy child but he was missing one of his legs below the knee. It was from a birth defect and it affected one of his hands and part of his other leg also. I can't describe what a cutie this little boy was and something about him just pulled at my heart strings. Out here, if you don't have a leg your life is bound to be really tough. The poor boy didn't even have crutches and can't move about. His Left leg which is only partially there is incredibly painful at the end and therefore it hurts him to crawl around on it.

I took some pictures of this little boy and I am going to try and convince an Aid organization to help out if I can. I'm also going to order him some children's crutches (the kind that go on the arm) so he can at least move around and be a semi-normal child. If anyone knows a connection let me know, otherwise I'm just going to order them on-line for him.

We also saw and treated the normal gamut of patients and we got to hand out some new clothes. I decked my favorite baby out in clothes from Andrew (my boss) and his wife Laura. I gave him his first pair of shoes and I wish I had a video of him looking at his feet like "what the heck are these things." He wasn't sure if he wanted to eat them, play with them, or take them off. It was hilarious.

Other than that not to much else is going around. We've been playing Volleyball everyday at 3:00 and I've discovered that a being a professional volleyball player is not in my near future :) I am horrible but at least I have fun doing it!

Hope everything is going well for everyone.

Mail

Hey everyone -
Just a quick note to let everyone know to stop sending mail to the FOB Waza Khwa address. If you got something you were planning on sending stick it in the mail by the end of the week. I will still be here for a while but with the inconsistency of mail, I don't want anything to get lost. I'll post the new address when I get it.
THANKS!!!!

Boredom and an Imagination = FUN

Another beautiful day in Afghanistan. Today we had clinic and we are getting to have quite a crowd on clinic days. We now not only treat women but we have men lining up to be treated by the clinic girls. We had a pregnant woman come in who fell down a flight of stairs the other day. She is 8 months along and it made her go into early labor. We weren't able to stay for the delivery but we gave her tons of newborn items to take home with her. As usual they were so thankful for the generosity of the Americans.

At Thursday's clinic we saw one of our "regulars," she likes to bring new people in for us to look at. I made a comment about one of her rings that she was wearing. It was really pretty, almost antique looking. For thanks for all that we have done for her and the locals, she gave me the ring. I felt horrible taking it but she insisted. It's just a cheap ring but it means the world because they have nothing and she is giving one of her valued possessions to me - warms my heart every time.

In other news, they tracked down all our mail and I received 10 boxes today! It was awesome. And as usual, I am amazed at the outpouring of generosity from everyone. I got HUGE boxes of clothes and school supplies from my boss and co-workers, and a box of baby clothes from my cousin. I can't wait to hand these items out, especially the toddler shoes that were in one of the boxes, they will be a HUGE hit out here. None of the kids wear shoes and we during the summer a lot of them come into the clinic with infections from stepping on dirty needles (there is no such thing as a garbage dump here) and other sharp objects.

Today was also Ang's birthday. So to celebrate we had a cookout and had a cake for her. While we were sitting around chit chatting, I came up with the brilliant and ingenious idea of playing glow-in-the-dark volleyball. Needless to say it turned into a laughing fest as we coated the ball with glow-in-the-dark sticks and lined the volleyball court with glow-sticks. We were all covered in the glow-in-the-dark liquid. It reminded me of Miss Congeniality where they play the drums and get covered in the glow-in-the-dark paint. It was so much fun. I guess this is what happens when you get totally bored and are stuck in the middle of nowhere - you come up with ways to amuse yourself.

Hope everyone is doing well and once again THANKS for all that everyone has sent. Myself, the clinic girls, and the locals appreciate it more than you could ever know!!

I'm still kicking...

Sorry for the lack of posts, things have been crazy around here. Just wanted to let everyone know though that I'm safe and hanging in there. My Birthday was yesterday and we made the best of it. Ang made me a play-doh card. It was awesome. Hey you gotta do what you gotta do around here! Then they had ice cream and cake for me at dinner. Wish I could have been surrounded by family and friends but you make the best of the situation you are in!

We didn't go to clinic yesterday, to much going on. I will add some new photos after clinic tomorrow. I missed the last two trips over there because I just had to much to do. Good news is that the weather if finally warming up some - which means more patients will be trekking in to see us. Bad news is that with warm weather comes more Taliban.

I'll try to post again after clinic. Hope everyone is doing well!

A Life for a Life

A busy day today for the clinic girls. We delivered the cutest little girl ever. We got to deck her out in the baby clothes that everyone has been sending. I've included some pictures of her in her new outfit. She was such a cutie. The woman delivering her was 23 and this was her second child. She was so pretty and such a sweetheart. During the delivery, she got really weak so she wrapped her arms around my neck and put her head on my shoulder - it was really touching. Wish I had a picture of it. She gave me and the two other girls there a bracelet off her wrist as a thank you for delivering her baby. As always, it was a touching experience which just makes me realize how brave and strong these women are.

When we got back to the base we were told that a baby who was severly burnt was being brought into our aid station. Our medics started working on her and I headed down to see if I could assist in anyway. The little girl was 8 months old and burnt really bad. Her breathing was irregular and instead of putting burn ointment on her, her family put bengay on the burns. Our medics worked on her for about 40 minutes. There was little they could do and she ended up dying about an hour after they brought her in. I had to clean up the body before giving it back to her family - it was very hard to clean the lifeless body, no matter how many times you see something like that I don't think it ever gets easier.

The thing that always gets me though is the reaction from the families. Her grandfather brought her into us and didn't seem that concerned whether she lived or died. I guess when you live out here though, and there is no real medical facilties, death is just something that they are accustomed to. I guess you have to make yourself not be as attached to these children as the chances of them making it through childhood are not the best. In America, I think maybe people are closer to their children because they really don't have to worry about getting to close to them as we have the best medical facilities in the world....just a thought. I don't know how else to explain the coldness that you get from these people. It's not that they don't care, I think it's their coping mechanism. Sometimes though you get a father or mother who brings their kid in and is crushed that something has happened to them. I have to keep reminding myself that theirs is a different culture and they have different customs / reactions.

I got a care package from my friend Greg the other day. It had paint in it and I've been trying to paint. Not all that great at it but it let's me escape mentally for an hour or so at night. I included a picture of one of my paintings. As I said...I'm not a painter but anything to keep your mind off things is great.

Hope everyone is doing well. Keep in touch and thanks for all the encouragement!

February 24

Clinic day today. I always wake up in the mornings excited for these days. Even just the two hours that we spend over there makes me so happy. We saw quite a few patients today. I got to hand out some of my sisters baby clothes she sent. The sad part however was it was not for a newborn but a 1 year old who looked no more than a few months old. I've added his picture below.

We also saw a two year old who had a servere vitamin deficiancy and couldn't walk yet. We gave him some viactiv vitamins and we will just have to hope for the best. We are out of most children's medicine including vitamins so now we just give them some fruit and send them home. It kills me everytime.

The women who work in the clinic gave us the traditional Afghan head scarves. They are gorgeous. They are all hand made and we had to get shown ( a few times) exactly how to wear these things :) Looking at the picture of all of us I have to laugh though. Reminds me of a childhood game...."one of these things is not like the other"

Other than that FOB life is going good. The wind has started to pick up here which means lots of lovely sand storms in the afternoon. It's sad to not see snow on the mountains anymore. That sure didn't last long! Afghanistan has turned into a dusty and sometimes muddy place. I can't wait to see what it looks like in the summer. I miss green things. I'd love to see a tree or grass or basically anything that isn't brown. And being color blind to brown's it's creates a very dull scenery for me :)

I'm also working on my new Humanitarian project. We found some old desks on the FOB and I spent the day power washing them, sanding the rust off of them, and painting them. I'll try and include pictures later next week. Once again the girls from the clinic are all on board and are down there helping me do all the work. And once again the command doesn't know about it nor do they care. Go Figure! Me and my girls will be winning the hearts and minds of Afghans by ourselves if we have too :)

Miss you all!

February 20, 2009

Yesterday was clinic day and we got to see quite a few patients. We had two women come in with their 2 children. All minor fixes but we got to hand out some of the items people have sent over. Yesterday was also a big day because we got to meet with the school teachers and principals of the local schools. Myself and 3 other females soldiers spent all of Wednesday making school care packages to hand out to the kids. A lot of people from my work sent school supplies and so did others so we were able to put together about 30 backpacks full of pens, crayons, pencils, paper, erasers, etc. The school teachers were super excited about it and it just went one step further to winning the hearts and minds of the local Afghans.

Unfortunately, most of the Humanitarian Aid myself and the 3 other girls do is done under the radar. My command doesn't even know about it. It's sad that we are doing such a good thing and it's not getting the attention or assets that it deserves. Supposedly we have made such a big impact on this area doing the clinic that we breaking cultural barriers, something that is unheard of in this region. We even treated men yesterday - I was shocked that they would let a female, much less an American female treat them.

I've attached some pictures of the kids from yesterday. Enjoy!

The much anticipated pictures I promised..

Pictures of my newly scarred tummy































Some call this being excessive....I prefer thorough

Just another day...

No new news to report on my mice issues. One of the guys in my building however caught one last night. I swear I have the Einstein of mice - he has pooped all around the trap but refuses to go into it. URRRGGG so frustrating!

We went over to the clinic yesterday. No patients unfortunately. I dropped off some clothes and blankets compliments of my sister and her team for the midwife to give out to the newborns she delivers while we aren't there. She told me that the patients are always so grateful for getting some clothes for their baby. I've had a few people ask if we are still accepting things and the answer is yes...however, we might be leaving within the next two months to go to another FOB so if at all possible, please get it in the mail ASAP. If I get them after we leave here I'll just use them at the next FOB I'm sure.

Myself and a few other soldiers were invited over to the clinic last night for dinner. I'm still not sure how I feel about Afghan food. I love the rice but the meat is always iffy. We had goat last night and there was bone and skin of the goat floating around in it. Not the most appetizing. I do however love the bread and sweet rice. They make this rice out of oranges...unbelievable! Wish I could get the recipe. It always amazes me that as little as they have they are so hospitable and always inviting us over for these huge dinners (usually 10-12 attend).

Last night I got an email about luxuries and how just being able to call me is a luxury we take for granted. I started thinking about that and all the things that we take for granted as Americans. Here are some of the little things that I miss:
- being able to flush a toilet
- not having to walk a 1/4 a mile every time I have to go to the bathroom
- being able to brush my teeth with running water instead of using bottled water
- being able to decide I want something for dinner and going to the store to get it
- being able to go and visit my friends and family whenever I want, not to mention calling them
- being able to walk around freely

I obviously could go on and on but you get the idea. As much as I hate these deployments they always make me see life in a different way and not take things for granted. People here have so little and still they are happy - they don't need all the luxuries that we surround ourselves with. I think we could all learn something from the way they are forced to live their lives. Don't get me wrong...I still love all the luxuries I have in the U.S. - it just makes you appreciate them a little more!

And the Mouse Saga Continues...

Upon my return from Qatar I came back to a beautiful sight…..the evil mouse dead in one of my traps. I was so ecstatic that I finally caught the mouse that has been thwarting my attempts to capture him for the past month. I cleaned all my shelves off again because he felt the need to poop all over them one last time….or so I thought….. last night I was slumbering peacefully knowing that I no longer had a mouse running loose when low and behold I hear crinkling once again on my shelves. Pissed off I flip on the lights determined to find this new mouse. No sign of the mouse but there was poop all over my newly cleaned shelves. And to make matters worse the mouse decided he didn’t want to eat my food….he wanted to eat my Q-tips that were left out and my make-up sponge applicator. Not only did he gnaw on them but he shredded them and made the biggest mess which not only spanned my entire shelves but my floor as well. I had to once again declare war on the Afghan mice. This time however I’m better armed as my mother sent me some mice bait. These suckers no longer stand a chance. I once again strategically placed mouse traps throughout my room and the surrounding rooms in my building….I’ll keep you updated on the progress of my hunt

In other news – I got some packages from my sister the other day. Her friends / team members sent some baby clothes which I have already started to distribute. I’ll post some pictures in a few days. I started making baby care packages and when the women come in after giving birth we give them a little starter package with formula, toys, bottles, food, and clothes. They are so thankful for it and really appreciate all that we give them. It makes me feel like I’m making a difference, even if it’s a little one!

Other than that things are going good around here. We got some more snow last night which melted today turning the FOB into a muddy mess. The snowmen that were built didn’t last too long in the afternoon sun. And just for the record because a few of you have asked…No the unit did not get beer for the super bowl. The soldiers got it in Iraq but not here. They did however supply mozzarella sticks, mini pizzas, buffalo wings, etc. It was a pleasant surprise for the troops.

I’ll post again soon.

Return to Afghanistan minus an Appendix

Hey everyone - sorry for the lack of posts but as many of you know I was in Qatar recovering from surgery. On the 21st of January I got MEDEVAC'd out of our FOB for surgery to remove my appendix. It was done in quite a rush and I didn't get a chance to even let my family know I was going to have surgery. After surgery I got flown down to Qatar for 2 weeks of recovery.

Qatar is amazing. I stayed on an Air Force base and man oh man did I join the wrong branch of service. They have swimming pools, movie theaters, pizza hut, baskin robbins, dairy queen, dunkin donuts, etc. Plus to add insult to injury they are getting combat pay for being there! I doubt any of them have even held their weapon must less fired it.

I will try and post more tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well!

What's up with Afghanistan weather?

The weather here is driving me NUTS! One minute it's a perfect cloudless day and then 20 minutes later the sky is covered in clouds. One minute there is no chance of snow and then 20 minutes later we have 4 inches of snow on the ground. Then to make matters even worse it has been snowing a few inches at night and by 1 in the afternoon it's all melted. It makes for a pretty muddy mess. Without any roads or anything paved, you basically just walk through mud every where you go. But enough about the weather - I know all of you have it much worse weather wise then I do :)

I went over to the clinic today. It was a great day. We got told how much we have changed the clinic and how much we have improved it. It's great to be able to give a mother and her baby a chance, I can't tell you how rewarding it is! I'll post some more pictures of some of the patients when I get a chance.

Sorry this is a short update but I have things to do, I'll try and write later!

1/10/2009

Here are some more photos of the women's clinic. The first is of a little girl we delivered a few days ago. The second one is of the actual delivery room. As I said before - it's pretty primitive.

Hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you soon!

1/09/2009

Well another day is dawning in Afghaniland. Yesterday I worked at the female clinic for a few hours. Word as gotten out that we are there and we are starting to see a lot more patients. It's exciting to see that we are making a difference. I saw a young woman yesterday who was pregnant and due any day. She was having pains so she came in to get it checked out. I started talking with her and found out that she has delivered 10 babies but only 3 survived. All the others have died of malnutrition. It's such a shame considering we are the country of excess and we throw away so much of our food and yet here is a woman who has had to bury 7 of her children just because they didn't have milk.

The weather is supposed to get colder finally and we are supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow. Which means I won't be doing my first job and I can concentrate more on the woman's clinic. And in other news....the stupid mouse is still alluding me. It keeps me up at night now but it refuses to eat the food I put on the traps.....cunning little mouse! I'll get him though :)

Take care and keep in touch!

Pictures...

As promised - here are some pictures of me working at the clinic - enjoy!
This is the outside of the delivery room

Spc. Moshage - the other girl who works in the clinic with me

Consulting with the Doc on how to proceed with a TB case

2009 Begins...

Hey everyone - I hope you all had a great New Year. Mine was boring but thanks to my brother it wasn't as bad as it could have been...thanks Matt :)

Winter has finally started to set in here. It was 12 degrees today and two days ago it was snowing. We are a month behind supposedly. By this time last year it was supposedly 15 below. It's nice though to look out and see snow covered mountains instead of the brown mountains we've been looking at for the past 2 months. It makes me want to go skiing though!

I've been busy working on setting up the women's clinic. I have established a woman's clinic in our Aid station on base (with the help of one other female here). We spent all night doing it - it looks amazing though. We can treat anything from minor cuts, deliveries, to surgeries in that room. It's only to be used by females and no males are allowed in it. Me and Jess have also set up the woman's clinic outside our base. It's primitive but we will be going over there 3 days a week and holding clinic hours. Word of us has spread and many females are coming from as far away as the Pakistan border. It's really exciting. It goes against the Taliban's teaching so as one Captain on base put it - "you two are doing more to destory the Taliban than any patrol or mission that the Army does." Makes me feel good that we are making a difference!

I got to deliver a little girl yesterday - the baby was so cute. I got some pictures that I'll try and post tomorrow of the women's clinic and the little girl.

Yesterday was occupied by not only delivering a baby but declaring war on the mouse that decided to move into my room. I heard rustling on my food shelf but was trying to convince myself that the noise was coming from outside. WRONG! I tracked down SSG Wirth to help me find this stupid mouse and we started digging through my shelves. We didn't find the mouse but the mouse sure made a mess of my Ramen noodles. He also decided to go to the bathroom on ALL of my shelves. So I went and come some traps and I may have overdone them. I have 6 set up in my room alone not to mention all the ones I put outside of my room. As of yet the mouse as outsmarted me and has avoided my traps, I will however triumph if it's the last thing I do. I kept waking up last night thinking I heard it....it's taunting me I know it!

I hope everyone is doing well I'll try to post again soon