Crazy in the Clinic

Contrary to popular belief, I really am here in Fiji to work.  For the last week I have been observing at a maternal child health (MCH) clinic at the Ministry of Health here in Suva.  It's been an absolute blast!  The first day was a little awkward, as to be expected, but I held in there and at the end of the day was rewarded when I got to go with the nurses to the neighboring hospital's NICU to give some babies their immunizations... talk about some seriously small, sick... but seriously CUTE babies!!  On day two the clinic was SWAMPED with mothers and their kids needing check-ups so they put me to work!  I quickly learned how to measure each baby's weight and height and how to record it on their medical cards as well as in the clinic's record book.  I measured babies as young as one week old and some as old as two years old!  Pardon my Grey's Anatomy reference (its my guilty pleasure) but Arizona Robbins had it right when she said,

"These are the tiny humans.  These are children.  They believe in magic.  They play pretend.  They hope, and they cross their fingers, and they make wishes, and that makes them more resilient than adults.  They recover faster, survive worse.  They believe."

I have seen a lot of healthy kids these past few days, but I've also seen a lot of kids who are struggling, but all of them cracked a smile when I said silly things, made silly faces, or played little games with them.  These tiny humans are strong and I love them oh so very much!

I just hope that somehow what I'm doing gives these little humans the chance to one day grow up to be big humans who somehow contribute to making this world a better place.