The first two days we were in Anghowat, Aneityum Island. It was very interesting as our first time in Vanuatu. Apparently, they are quite well off due to cruise ships that come to Mystery Island. Then everyone from the island goes and sells their crafts and skills to the tourists. So they get money to buy from a couple of local "shops", so they have more western foods and influences than other towns. But since the cyclone, Mystery Island took a good hit and a representative told them that it was not suitable for cruise ships yet. Every day pangas full of building materials are going many times back and forth to Mystery Island to get it back up and running. It is the livelihood of much of Aneityum. This morning we went to see it, it is very cute with many huts set up to "stamp your passport" or to show shells and weaving and carving for sale. Also snorkeling tours, and cultural island tours. Half of the island has a traditional village built, which I think is where they give the tours. Also they have a Kava hut and I think they do Kava ceremonies (for a price I'm sure). There was also a big pot labeled "Cannibal soup" which was funny. We heard as late at the 1970's there was still cannibalism here. Not sure how you'd confirm that, but needless to say, we took pictures in the pot. The island had many men working, lots of debris that probably needs burning, some buildings standing, others with just frames, but they've certainly been working. The toilets were a big concrete building (western toilets). I think if I were nearby, I'd have gone to the toilets to weather the hurricane; it was the best building there.
We did a clinic for two days in Anghowat with a nurse, Roger. He was such a wonderful and welcoming man! He really takes care of him community with what little resources he has available. He has not been paid by Ministry of Health since December. So he's just been volunteering to run the clinic since then and shows up every day. Twice while we were there he was up at night doing deliveries also (including a 7 month old gestation). He ran a vaccination clinic also. MoH gives him medications (some, no recent supplies, last ones were a month before the hurricane), but has no money to pay staff. He says if it were not his village, he may have left, but since it's his village, he stays and helps them. The clinic was very interesting, a lot of musculoskeletal complaints, so it was GREAT to have Kim (my cousin) onboard with us who has training and experience in such treatments. I was kidding that I was merely triaging for Kim's clinic . . . But in general we were seeing chronic complaints that Roger had been addressing previously and was doing well with.
He was appreciative for the help of getting so many patients seen, which relieved him some. Then we were able to resupply him with our medical aid package. Probably the biggest help for him was that he'd been given a bunch of "aid" medications 2 weeks after the cyclone from New Caledonia (French). He couldn't read it and had no idea what it all was, so was going to give it to Tanna, the provincial center, since he can't use what he doesn't know. Elinor (a Swedish pediatrician) and I sat for 3 hours sorting out his box of things, translating the names, dosages and indications into English. Then I made him an alphabetized spreadsheet that he can refer to. It was a wide variety of pain medications, antibiotics, eardrops, diarrhea medications, inhalers, creams, etc. Strange collection, including lyrica and neurontin and lovenox, but only one box of each, which is nearly useless because these are long term medications or nothing. But some of the stuff was quite useful. No one really understands the genesis of who or why this random selection was donated.
Roger is the only person on the island who can give injections and he does all the birth deliveries for the island. Nelson proudly runs a lab. Further questioning shows that he can make and read a malaria smear as well as prepare TB slides with stains. He sends the TB slides to be read, but hopes to learn to read them some time this summer so he can do both malaria and TB. Incidentally, the last positive malaria was in 2005 and that was a tourist bringing it, not a local. That is the extent of his lab. Most of his time is spent volunteering in the clinic. He too had the MoH contract, which ended in December and is hoping for something in the summer (but there's no back pay). If Roger has a delivery and thinks the woman is anemic, he can give her iron pills, then have her come in the morning that a plane arrives (usually twice a week), draw her blood, then send it to the hospital with the plane. He then has to call them repeatedly for the results.
Now after the hurricane, there is one satellite phone in town provided by the government for the whole town, so he'd have to borrow that from the chief if it was necessary. If he wants to air evacuate a patient, same plan, wait for the twice-weekly plane.
He told me a story of an 18-year-old asthmatic he cared for earlier this year who came in very bad. He gave a steroid injection and puffs of an inhaler. He has no nebulizer or oxygen. He said the boy came on the wrong day; it wasn't a plane day. The boy ended up dying. Roger has been asking and very much wants a nebulizer. The cruise ships organized a fundraiser and just in December 2014 finished building a clinic with 4 exam rooms that Roger works at now. It has solar and 2 batteries, so he can now finally use that nebulizer. I am going to put out requests to boats that have said they are coming and are asking what to bring to see if I can help get him one. He is quite competent if he could be given and taught with new materials.
We gave Roger some clothes for his 2 year old (Valiant's old stuff) and for his new coming baby. We will also give Nelson some clothes as I just learned he has 6 kids. At the end of the clinic, they presented all of the caretakers with a gift of a beautifully carved wood walking stick with a snake in relief and a skeleton head and writing under a polish. It was really nice, made by the father of one of the nurse aids (who again is working voluntarily at this point).
We met two Peace Corp girls there also. They came to the boat for an evening, and then one girl took us up to see her house and the river. It was a beautiful walk through the tropics. We saw the new crops starting to grow and some of the damage, but this village had faired relatively well. The river is a great source of fresh water for the village, but their main supply is through a spring. She showed us her house, outhouse, and shower facility. There is a building for everything. They also have an outdoor, but sheltered, cooking area where they cook over fire. The Peace Corp girl had a propane stove provided for her by her family, but she was out of propane and there was no telling when it was going to be available again, so she told her host father she'd like a place to cook over a fire, he built her an enclosure next to her house. Quite accommodating.
Overall the experience there was wonderful, the people are great. No one is starving or dehydrating, which is good. They have replanted and are rebuilding, so things are not normal by any stretch, but they are making it and on the road to recovery. There does not appear to be a dependence on aid, although there is room for it for sure.
Today we moved up to the north part of the island, Port Patrick, which was hit quite hard. The men presented the chief with a gift and we were welcomed onshore. We ran an afternoon clinic, but the village had 237 people and is very spread out, so word will pass to them and tomorrow we anticipate a bigger clinic. The waves came up quite a distance, to the clinic, but left the clinic standing (it's a "post", small square building with a front waiting area, a consultation room and an exam room in the back half of the building). The walls are made of woven bamboo, you can see out through parts of them, but the roof is corrugated steel. There are a solar panel and a battery, even a wire running to a light socket, but no bulb, so I don't know if the power actually works. The people here were not terribly hurt, no one died. There is some "hurricane house" that she showed like an A-frame construction that is very strong and many people went there to weather the hurricane. Daisy, the CNA who runs a clinic at this post every M, W, F for 11 years (again no pay or contract since December) weathered the hurricane at her parent's house so she could be close to the clinic in case people needed her. She said they were not hurt at the house, but the roof blew off. I said, "so it was OK then?" and she said "no" with a very flat affect. It was very interesting. So, while one month later houses are still leveled, the community is eating what they have and looking after each other, feeding each other, housing each other (or making do with temporary lean to shelters), what they went through was definitely distressing! Everything looks better than I had expected it to, but they are still in somewhat shock and recovery mode.
Steffan on S/V Salsa with us met a man onshore today who lost everything. He has 4 small children, his house is gone as well as everything in it. It was below the tidal surge line. We saw him in the clinic, all of his muscles are sore from so much clearing and building work this month. Steffan was asking what he needed, but he said he was asking for nothing. Steffan asked if we gave him hammer, nails, or machete if it would help. He said they have 2 hammers, but nails and machete he would not ask for (but we think he could use). Also there is a chainsaw, but the pull rope is broken along with other issues. The men are going to find him tomorrow and give some supplies and try to help tune the chainsaw and see what they can do with the building or food or otherwise while the two women run a medical clinic and the kids run wild on the beach (and check out the dead whale in the mouth of the river).
Our third boat, Chez Nous, is waiting in Anghowat for a large donation of food aid from Samaritan's Purse. They have 1.2 tons for Port Patrick and were going to try to bring it all up in little pangas along the coast (2 hours one way). We offered to help transport and they were so happy!! The supply boat didn't come in at 3 today as scheduled, so we will wait to hear tomorrow how that is all working out. Yesterday we offloaded all of Chez Nous' aid supplies so they'd have room for the new stuff, so we are getting a little crowded on our boat now with what we brought from American Samoa as well as what they brought from Fiji!!
Incidentally, we are not finding as much need for food aid as we believed initially. Maybe because they are resourceful, maybe because that's what everyone brings. Sadly they had to harvest all their bananas before the hurricane (the only wise thing to do) and you can eat brown coconuts, but the going rumor is that you cannot eat the green coconuts right now because of all the wind shaking them up. I don't understand that for sure, but the Peace Corp girl said it's a staple of their diet and they won't touch them now. I asked Nelson today and he said the green ones will give you a stomachache and/or make you sick right now because of the shaking. I'm curious if there's anything to that or if it's an old wives’ tale. It's a shame to eradicate any food supply right now and it seem that coconuts of all things are hurricane proof!!
So we are all finding things to do and ways to make ourselves useful out here while getting a chance to really get integrated quickly into a community, which I find, is the best way to learn about a culture and a people. It was been really great and interesting and we are all enjoying ourselves!
Shannon
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