Why we came here

​This is why we came here period. We have seen 6 clinics in the villages around Mykolaiv. All of them have been occupied from several months to a year by the Russians in 2022 with a harsh health toll for the people. We have seen many people with high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart attacks. Sadly, that's about the same as the first times that I visited.  Sometimes it is hard to see progress in primary care, but I have seen several patients from my previous visits.  They proudly announce that they have seen me before and offer a sail and sometimes a small gift. One of them made a friendship bracelet for me and another offered a jar of homemade spread. When people who have so little give you a gift, it is something special.

The roads en route to the villages are really rough. There has been little maintenance performed on the roads except to fill shell holes. When driving, we would just dodge the bigger holes, most of the time. You can still see where these villages were shelled. In fact, we used converted buildings for some clinics,  because the original clinic building had ben destroyed.

I Mykolaiv, we also got to experience extended electrical blackouts. These blackouts  are getting longer and more frequent, but the people are adapting. We visited a mall to try and find a replacement wrist watch band only 20% of the stores in the mall had adequate lighting. The rest operated by portable lamp. But habits die hard. There are two ladies sitting in a closed coffee shop in the mall basically working on their phones.

We are next off to Cherkasy to kick care of people in the refugee centers. A lot more driving but again, it is worth it. As always, I appreciate your prayers. Thanks for following along.