January 18, 2014
Got everyone ready after a short meeting today and we had three groups going out. 1 group of surgeons went to Dar Salaam Hospital for surgeries. A second group with to the spinal cord clinic to work with the children, and a third group went to the Ajloun clinic, which is about 1.5 hours outside of Amman.
We arrived and found people waiting on the streets all the way up the stairs and in the halls. Our group got in with boxes of medicine, got set up and started seeing patients. The next thing we knew it was 5pm. No one had time to really look up before they had another patient in front of them. The doctors dealt with so many kinds of patients and there were no beds to put people on so they used decks for children and the floor for adults.
They told us the stories of where they came from inside Syria and how long they had been there in Jordan, and all the people they had lost. So many children without fathers. The older children were so protective of their younger brothers and sisters. Before they would take a crayon from me they needed to make sure that their sibling had one. If one started to cry the older would hold him and kiss him and try to calm them down. You could see in their eyes that they were older than their years. It is so hard to imagine what they have gone thru in their short lives. But people are still so very proud and still have their dignity just asking to have this all stop so they can go home and try to restore their lives.
Got home from being out in the camps all day and just wanted to take a shower. No way, though, the water pump was broken and we had cold water only. I had so much dust and mud on me that I jumped into the cold shower! OMG it was cold! But how can I complain – I had water. I had just left a big group of people that did not even have that pleasure. An 89 year old woman was wearing the same dress that she arrived to the camp in from Hama two months ago. And here I was mad for having only cold water. We take so much for granted.
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