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30 November 2004
So.... I've been putting this off for a long time. I'm gonna sit here for the next hour or so and actually try type something.
Half of me just has been too busy to update the site, and the other half knew it'd be like drawing blood from a stone. I've
been doing the volunteer work at the farm for the last 4 months now, and will be there till I leave Melbourne at the end of
January. Most of what I have to say out loud about all this will be kept for conversations with friends & family when
I return home, but I'll put the jist of it up here.
Anyway, I love it here. It's not just a job, its a whole new world that changes your view on things. In the simplest perspective,
yet probably one of the most important, you see how x amount of money can save a life. Depending on the particular heart problem,
between $10,000 - $17,000 will fly a heart kid over from his/her country, say Somalia, have the operation here, then fly home.
This means every time I see a huge Plasma TV screen in a shop window for $7000, I'm thinking..."2 of those = saving a
heart kid".
I'm trying to remember all the things that have happened over the last few months, so I'll just start with the big picture.
Since I've been here, a 2 year old Somalian boy has returned home, having finished bowel surgery.
We've seen the arrival of 4 kids from Palestine, after much difficulties of getting them out through Jordan. (This will
make sense to anyone familiar with the Palestine - Israeli situation). 3 of these kids have gone back home recently.
There was major surgery to remove a facial tumour & reconstruct the face, and jaw surgery amongst them.
A Bosnian baby and his mother have arrived also, the baby awaiting major heart and bowel surgery.
An Albanian girl has also gone home, after being here on and off for 3 years. She had a reverse colostomy and surgery
on her ankle.
An Etheopian girl has arrived, and had surgery to remove a brain tumour.
And Pat, who got me involved in all this, arrived a few weeks ago for another 6 month stint here.
One of the young Somalian boys, whose heart has been fixed, will be going home soon, whilst more kids will be arriving
in a few weeks.
A large aspect of all this is hospitals. Hospital, hospital, hospital. All of us volunteers have spent a lot of time in
hospital with the kids. Particularly the Royal Childrens Hospital (RCH), where all the heart kids are fixed up.
For the younger kids, we make sure there's a volunteer with them in hospital all day. This means we all get a few days
there. One of the Somalian boys had some complications after his heart surgery, and spent the bones of 2 months in hospital
where they could keep an eye on him. As you can imagine, we all got quite familiar with the staff and so on. We learned a
bit about heart conditions too. You start using the acronyms after a while; ECG, Echo, ICU, VSD, etc. I had my turn of rushing
that particular kid over to the hospital one day, where he ended up in Intensive Care. Quite scary.
And, apart from that, we're always bringing kids in for appointments and check-ups and so on, so we all know the place
like the back of our hands now.
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