Blog 041 – Our First Week With Floating Doctors

Staff casitas

We took a few days to recover from the ordeal of crossing the Caribbean. Then in between rain showers on Sunday we took Silhouette over to Floating Doctors Base of Operations, about five miles away. We dropped anchor right off the staff housing, three bright colored casitas built over the water on the edge of a beautiful mangrove bay. There were four but not long ago an earthquake dumped one into the water, staff members included. Thankfully, no one was hurt and the remaining casitas have been reinforced.

Base headquarters – Kitchen, dining, classrooms, work space

Volunteer dormitory

The base itself is an amazing place with several buildings on concrete piers because this area is so low to the water. Wooden walkways that look like narrow docks criss-cross the grounds. This was a mangrove swamp that is being stabilized with clay and dirt, a bag at a time. The main structure in the center of the base is a red, four-story open floor plan building on stilts. At the present time the ground level floor is having concrete poured so walls can be put up and it can be used for storage. The second level is the dining room and kitchen with screened-in walls. The third level is a classroom and the fourth level is a crows nest classroom.This top level has a breathtaking 360 degree view of the surrounding jungle, mangroves, water, Bocas Town and other islands. Another building houses the bathrooms and showers. A dormitory is next door to this with several bedrooms. Each room has 3-4 bunk beds with mosquito netting, a couple chairs and storage.

45 foot cayuco

That evening their 45 foot cuyuco (dugout canoe) with a big outboard motor brought this weeks group of volunteers – a doctor, translators, pre-med, medical and dental students. We all met in the dining room for dinner and to get acquainted.

Monday morning the first panga came out to Silhouette loaded with people, medical equipment, and supplies in Pelican waterproof, hard cases. We formed a human chain and loaded everything in the forward shower, neatly stacked like a jigsaw puzzle without an inch to spare. The second panga was loaded with very heavy soft-sided, watertight bags. These we managed to get stacked up in the aft shower. The next panga came loaded with back packs and personal bags which we crammed in to the v-birth. Then came the rest of the staff and volunteers-22 of us. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. What did we get ourselves into? But it was now time to go. People were perched in the cockpit, down in the salon and many with lifejackets sat on the foredeck. Dr. Ben, a few of the staff and more supplies were also coming in “Dr. Panga” – a 25 foot boat. We planned to tie this to the side of our boat when we got to Playa Verde. The engine was stuck in the down position and couldn’t be lifted to be able to beach the craft.

Passage to Playa Verde

Thundershowers were in the forecast and it started to lightly rain almost immediately. We headed through the Bocas Del Toro Channel into the open waters of the Caribbean Sea for a 40 mile trek to Playa Verde. A small fishing Village almost at the southwestern end of Peninsula Valiente. The sea grew to about six foot swells and our direction left us swaying side to side. I adjusted course to head further out to sea to lessen the motion but it was still too much for many of our passengers – seasickness was rampant. Early afternoon we turned south to enter the Tigre Channel and rounded the tip of Peninsula Valiente. A caution on the chart gave a warning of the inaccuracy of the chart for this area. Boy was it ever. The area we needed to anchor showed a chart depth of 24 feet but we saw depths from 100 feet to 7 feet and we couldn’t tell if the bottom was sand, weeds, rock or what. We finally anchored. Turns out the bottom is rock, not the best for holding.

Dugout canoes

The off-loading process went quickly with the help of a village panga. When we were done we tied Dr. Panga along side Silhouette. Liana and I stayed on board to make sure we were holding. That night everyone slept in hammocks with mosquito nets, except us. I felt a little guilty sleeping in my nice comfy bed. This little fishing village is home to the Ngobe-Bugle, one of seven indigenous peoples of Panama. They build beautiful wooden dugout canoes and live off the sea. Silhouette became a local attraction as soon as we anchored. Everyone in the village at some point during our four days here rowed out to see our boat close up. We must be the biggest boat to show up in this bay.

The dinghy was a hit with the kids

Tuesday morning Liana and I went to shore to help out with the clinic. Kids on the beach asked (through many hand signals and gestures) if they could touch our dinghy. Next thing I know they were playing on it, bouncing on the tubes. More than a hundred and thirty people showed up to be seen at this clinic. Each area of the covered patio had a different station. Floating Doctors has been keeping handwritten records of everyone seen over the years so all began at the check-In table. The medical records are by first name because some don’t have last names, along with the added complication of unnamed infants. Liana and I helped match records from previous visits.

Dr. Ben consulting with patient

Some of the stations were general health screening, pharmacy, Doctor/Provider and follow-up. This clinic had only two doctors so they were always the busiest. At one station the medical students were doing a study on dehydration of children in third world countries, using an ultra sound of their aorta and belly area. Parents don’t name their children until they are about two years old because child mortality rate is so high. I wonder if they think it’s less painful to lose a child if they don’t have a name. Often kids die from simple things like dysentery or a fever. But since Floating Doctors began the clinics, children have seen a gain in life expectancy.

Dr. Emily with a family

Another station was set up to do ultra sounds on expectant mothers and vitamins are handed out at the same time. The diet of fish, rice, beans and root plants lacks a lot of simple vitamins needed. The dental team took over the kids classroom. They handed out red gum and had the kids chew it then look in a mirror. Wherever the red was left on their teeth meant their teeth were not clean. So they handed out toothbrushes and showed the proper way to brush. The kids loved it.

Brush your teeth and don’t drop your toothbrush in mud

The second night we had a huge storm. We were on the beach getting ready for dinner as we watched the dark clouds move in from the southeast. All of a sudden our peaceful little bay turned into a raging monster. The high winds ahead of the storm kicked up big waves and Silhouette and Dr. Panga were violently bucking the anchor chain. We could see Silhouette’s bow hobby horsing in the surf. Liana and I figured we better head to the boat in case the anchor started to drag. The trip over on the dinghy was a wild one and when we reached the boat the stern was rising and falling eight feet or more. We had to time our jump to the ladder so as not to trap ourselves or the dingy under the stern when it came out of the water. We realized we were dragging and quickly started the diesel and generator, put on our headsets, and in the torrential rain we lifted anchor. We found a 30 foot spot much further out and set the anchor, Liana stepped back into the cockpit soaking wet. I went back out and doubled up all the lines on Dr. Panga. We slept well and the storm died down around midnight.

Wednesday morning the bay was flat calm, hardly a ripple on the water. We rode in to help with the clinic. Once again there was a line of patients. The doctors and team worked tirelessly addressing every problem. Today there was not a lot for us to do so we watched and learned and took tons of pictures.

Dr Panga – before storm

One of the young boys was opening coconuts with his machete. It was unusual to see a young child hacking away within a quarter inch of his own fingers with a rusty machete. No adult stopped him as each boy gets his first machete at eight years old – a right of passage. In a minute or so he hacked the end off the coconut and was offering coconut water to all of us. What a treat. For lunch we had rice and beans and for dinner we had beans and rice and chicken. These meals are simple and easy to transport with us. Some of the women of the village cooked for us each day while we were there.

Our cooks and food

I want to tell you about one little girl Jenny or Yenny, not sure which. The kids were playing catch with a lemon which is actually a lime but I am not going to argue with them. Jenny was not invited to play catch so we got a lemon and played a game of our own. I quickly realized why she was not invited to play. She is as uncoordinated as all get out and shuts her eyes when the ball is heading towards her. I gave her a round of applause when she finally caught the lemon. She was so happy. Later in the day Jenny threw a lemon at me when she walked by trying to get me to play with her again. So I asked one of the translators to help me explain to Jenny that if she would keep her eye on the ball she would catch better. Boy did my stupid plan back fire. Jenny said she was going to keep her eye on the ball and points at the ball and her eye. I toss the lemon at her and it smacked her right in the eye… she cried so I gave her a hug and apologized. I wonder if Jenny needs glasses?

That evening we had guests on Silhouette. Dr. Emily and her husband Carl who is a carpenter and translator, and their two children, a three year old  and a 10 month old. The past few nights Dr. Emily has been unable to sleep so we offered them a cabin on the boat. It was after dark when we arrived on board and the stars filled the sky. With no lights on shore except a few flash lights, the sky was brilliant. We could see lightning off in the distance but not threatening us for now. We went to bed and around midnight it started to thunder and lightning. By early morning we were having an unbelievable down pour. As soon as it was light Liana started coffee and breakfast as we listened to the rain.

For some reason I chose this moment to look out at the boats tied along side. Everything in our dinghy was floating in several inches of water. I looked over to Dr. Panga tied along the starboard side and it was on the verge of sinking. I ran down below and had Liana call Ben on shore. We were going to need help. I went back up and the engine was completely under water. One last wave came over the transom and took it under too. The only reason we could still see it was because of the lines I doubled up a couple days before. By now everything that was in it was floating away, fuel cans, deck plates, oars, fishing poles. Carl and I worked feverishly at pumping out our dinghy so we could go round up all the floating stuff that came from the panga. I could see help coming from shore.

Dr Panga sunk

We attached more lines to try and secure it. The only thing not totally awash was the bow. It was full of life jackets in a closed compartment. Ben and a few men and boys from the village arrived in another panga and we went to work trying to rescue the boat. We attached the starboard dinghy davit to it. Our davits can easily support 1,000 pounds or more. We ran the rope to one of our 5,000 pound winches and began to lift the stern. It came up just to the water line and then got real heavy, real quick. We decided to try and remove the 60 horse power motor on the back, thinking we could lighten the load on the davits, but gave up after a stubborn bolt would not budge.

Raising Dr Panga

Ben thought raising the bow with the boom might get it level so we swung our boom starboard and tied two lifting lines off to the bow and ran it to a winch on the mast. Liana cranked on the aft winch and I cranked on the boom lift and all of a sudden we were seeing the rails rise above the water. Two boys were in the boat moving fenders in between Dr. Panga and Silhouette. They did a great job protecting our paint while we winched it up. It was working! As soon as the transom was an inch or two above water the crew jumped in and with buckets and pumps bailed like crazy. Every inch of water that came out Liana lifted another inch until it was floating again. Whew!!! We hoisted the motor after removing the one bolt we missed and laid it in the bottom of the boat. Salt water gets into everything and it only takes a short time before an engine is ruined. We needed to save the nearly $10,000 motor.

We made a plan to get Dr. Panga towed to Bocas 40 miles away. Dr. Ben went with them and we agreed to take everyone and all the equipment back to base. So we loaded our boat with all the supplies, equipment and people, 28 of us. If I thought our trip out here was crowded this is really crowded. We learned from the first trip – seasick pills were freely handed out. I cannot express my level of anxiety those first few minutes. The realization that I was now responsible for the entire team and we were going out of the Tigre Channel into open ocean with lots of people on deck. The rain stopped and my mind stopped playing all the what if scenarios.

Ben radioed us halfway across the bay and said the ocean was so calm they were heading offshore north of Isla Popa, a faster route, more open to the sea. He said we should have pretty decent conditions. They were making 15 knots and we were making seven until we cleared Tigre Channel then we slowed to 4.5 knots because of a current. The Caribbean Sea was as gentle as I ever remember.

We had an absolutely perfect however slow ride back to the base. The sun came out and off came rain jackets. We put out a line and hooked a large fish. One of the dental students was reeling him in. It got pretty exciting everyone cheering him on until the fish spit out the hook, just before we gaffed it. Oh well, it was a bit of fun. We also watched a pilot whale broach off in the distance a few times. All my concerns were gone and I knew we were going to be fine. We pulled into the bay at base just before sunset and dropped anchor. Mission accomplished thank you Lord for a safe journey.