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Boathawk

I spent two hours today riding in a 10-meter utility boat. During my time bouncing up and down through the waves, I would every so often see a helicopter (Blackhawk or a modified version of one) and I would think that I would like to do that just once on this trip. I don't think that will happen, so I've come to think of our 10-meter utility boat as a 'Boathawk'. I like numbers, so I'll tell you that in the past two days I've spent four hours and travelled 36 miles in the utility boats.

My day started at 05:00 this morning and by 06:40 I was headed to shore. When we got to the Naval Hospital at Bahia Malaga and began to set up, I found that our coaxial cable for the antenna was not long enough to reach inside the building. So we had to move to plan B. That meant being outside all day, but at least we were under the cover of the front walkway. Just before 11:00 we had the GATR online, and were able to start supporting the work at the hospital by providing a means of communication back to the Comfort.

This clinic site that is being run at the hospital is not seeing the large numbers of people that were being seen in Ecuador. But, from what I understand, some of the people we are seeing are being pre-screened by the Red Cross, and then being brought to the military base. Most of them are traveling two or three hours to get there. I'm not sure if they come by road, or are coming down river by boat. Most of the people are black, and are descendants of slaves. This part of Colombia has been long neglected by the government, and is a very poor area.

This evening when I was back on the Comfort and eating dinner, I sat with a couple doctors and a nurse practioners who are volunteers with Project Hope. They saw many malnourished children today. Even the adults were listless, and didn't have much energy. The people that they saw live on a diet of fish, rice, and plantains. They also pointed out that they don't have milk or other dairy products in their diets. People could not read, and seemed to be surprised by things like doorknobs, pens, and paper. With the exception of one person that the doctors treated, nobody had a refrigerator at their house. That is important when you are wanting to prescribe medications that need to be refrigerated.

So when I had to take an hour Boathawk ride at 17:45, get wet with sea spray, and arrive back to the ship late after a 12 hour day, I realize that even my worst day (and today was far from a bad day) is better than the average day for people on the Colombian coast.

Posted by David at August 23, 2007 06:53 PM