This is getting real!!!!

I mentioned in the previous post that 3 years ago I decided to bite the bullet and go for medicine. I haven't been just sitting around doing nothing in that time. I have actually worked in a hospital and learned everything I could learn, basically doing the work of a nurse, and asking to see surgeries, following doctors around during rounds, and reading everything I could get my hands on.

I will do a few blog posts in the future with some of the things I got to do while working at a hospital in Berlin, Germany.

But now I have big news:

I just got my letter of invitation and bought my plane tickets to go volunteer in a Surgical Clinic in Moundou, Chad. It's the middle of nowhere in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, Chad has the worst health system in the world. In 2006 they had 0.4 physicians for every 10,000 people. That's INSANE!

Take a look here for more details: http://www.who.int/gho/countries/tcd.pdf?ua=1

Anyway... I will be going in TWO WEEKS to spend 7 weeks there. I will be doing everything from providing basic sanitation talks to assisting in surgeries. No joke! (I guess all those years of living in France and speaking fluent French finally come in handy. :) )

The doctor I will be working with is Dr. Scott Gardner, a doctor born, raised and trained in the US. He has moved to Chad just 7 months ago, so he's relatively new at this post. The doctor who was there before him, was there for almost 10 years...

I am **very** excited.... but I would be lying if I said I wasn't also terrified. There's so much death, so much misery, so much suffering, and so little that we (or anyone) can do. The resources are non-existent. There's a very urgent need for everything, from basic meds like Ibuprofen all the way to chemotherapy drugs to treat Burkitt's Lymphoma at $100 dollars per gram!

If you read this and Dr. Gardner's blog, and your heart is touched and you would like to donate anything at all, money, time, resources, drugs, please let us know. You can contact Dr. Gardner directly through the blog posted above (the entry about Burkitt's Lymphoma).

And if you're the praying kind, please pray for them and all the work they're doing, and for me, as I embark in this incredible adventure. I'm not ready. But then again, I don't think you can be ready for this...