First of all I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update the blog. It has been a crazy week with a lot of swings. Last Thursday I was working in the same health clinic that I had been working in since I got to Fiji. Around noon the doctor called me and the other volunteer working there into her office. When we got there she told us that we did not have the proper registration and could no longer practice in the clinic. She then asked us to leave immediately. After that happened I had a meeting with the Projects Abroad staff. They were just as confused as I was and they said they would find out more right away. As it turns out the Ministry of Health had not received the proper registration forms from Projects Abroad. After a week of talking to the Projects Abroad staff, the Ministry of Health, and the U.S. Embassy it turns out that all projects abroad medical volunteers have been working illegally for the last few months. After learning about this the Projects Abroad was required to pull all medical volunteers out of their placements. The only solution that they could come up with was to place me with a private ambulance service in Suva. In the last two days I have learned a lot about the way the EMS system works in other countries. Here in Fiji the best ambulances are the taxis. When a call comes into the ambulance service I was working for, if it is an emergent case, they advise the patient to get a taxi to take them to the hospital because it would be faster. As a result, the ambulances are used to essentially transport minor cases. This essentially means that the ambulances are the taxis and the taxis are the ambulances in this country. At the ambulance service there are 12 ambilances, only two of which are functional, with only 2 medics working per 12 hour shift meaning only one is actually operational. In the six hours I was working for them we had two calls. This is my first experience with Fiji EMS:
12:15: The call came in to pick up a 62 yo woman who had fallen out of bed.
12:16: The dispatcher woke the main paramedic up from a nap in the back of a broken down ambulance
12:20: The main medic and myself went to pick up the other medic who was a few blocks away buying lunch
12:35: The main medic got lost in the boonies and had to call the patient for directions
12:45: The house we were called to was up in the mountains off of a dirt road that I would hesitate to take my truck up, and the ambulance promptly gets stuck in the mud.
12:55: We finally got the truck unstuck with the help of about 10 locals.
1:10: We finally get to the house and meet our patient.
1:30: After struggling to get the patient loaded onto the cot and down a slippery driveway we finally got here in the ambulance.
1:35: The ambulance got stuck in the mud a second time in roughly the same spot. Luckily the locals had suspected this and stayed in the area.
1:40: We got the ambulance out and moving again.
2:25: After more than two hours we finally got the patient to the hospital in one piece.
All I can say is that despite the many issues with the American medical system, I have never been more proud or thankful for what we have. However, my stay with the Fiji EMS system was short lived, as they are also under the Ministry of Health. Even though they are a private company, they still report to the ministry and my registration problems followed me there. After only two days working with them I was once again sent packing. Now we are having immigration issues because we have lost our volunteer status. Without active projects we cannot be considered volunteers. All of this is stemming from Projects Abroad not filing the right documents or not having a valid agreement with the Fijian government. In short we are getting hosed but Projects Abroad in Fiji and they are doing little to help anything. At this point most of the volunteers have begun fulfilling their personal goals for the trip such as learning to dive or learning to surf since we cannot work in the hospitals. Most of them, myself included, are looking for ways to get refunds for our trip and flights back home. I am planning on staying here until they make me a reimbursement offer and I spend a week with my mom, who is coming to visit. With all that has gone on this last week I have become very home sick and I am so unbelievably excited to have my mom come visit. Hopefully things will work out for the best. I have faith in God’s plan for me whether that is here in Fiji or back in the States. Only time will tell.
On the bright side of things I have had a lot more time to do the fun touristy things. Last weekend I had the opportunity to go on a shark feeding dive! We got to go on two dives where the crazy Fijian dive masters were hand feeding 20-30 bull and tiger sharks. Because of all the rain Fiji has had the visibility was only about 10 feet making the dive that much more impressive. We were on the bottom with seemingly no fish and all of a sudden a 15 foot bull shark would materialize right in front of us. I have been diving with reef sharks for a long time, but this was something completely different. It was one of the craziest things I have ever done. I decided not to tell my parents about the adventure until I was safely back on dry land with all of my extremities intact! When I got back I was immediately surrounded by the other volunteers who were extremely interested in hearing about the adventure. To my surprise, I was the only certified diver in the group. Even the Aussies were not certified. All that quickly changed after they saw me light up when I told them about the dive. Since none of the medical volunteers have projects after this fiasco they spent this last week getting certified with a local company so that they could dive with the sharks as soon as possible!
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