Check out this writeup from the January 2012 issue of The Bocas Breeze, the local community newsletter: http://www.thebocasbreeze.com/previous-issues/jamuary-enero-2012-volume.shtml. You’ll get a bit of a feel for how things have gone at the Asilo, but you’ll also, I think, get a sense of the passion and commitment that the FD bring to the work. Sky LeBrot, who wrote the article, is one of the FD’s core members. See what you think; feel free to leave a comment (click on the blue Comment bar at the end of this post).

Not quite finished in this photo, but close enough to give the general idea

Finished the shelving last Tuesday (see pic). Not pretty, but functional and strong. Then went down with a stomach bug or recurrence of the flu or something for a couple of days.

I’m told it’s gonna be slow in the Floating Doctor department for the next couple or three weeks. Two of the key people are or soon will be back in the US, banging the drum and tooting the horn, then the mobile clinic activity will recommence in March. In the meantime someone here is hoping to return early next week from Davíd with some wire fencing and other materials we need. If that happens, we can take the next step or two in building out the warehouse space.

In the meantime I’m in the process of rebedding the big main salon window on the starboard side.

This is just a portion of the supplies to be organized and shelved

Comfortably ensconced on Cynosure these last couple of weeks in Bocas Marina, a pleasant, clean, functional place (a sharp contrast with Club Nautico Cartagena). With electricity and potable water available on the dock and with hot showers, clean bathrooms, and a little cantina/restaurant ashore, life is good, life is easy.

Have mostly been building free-standing shelving in a small (approx 30’ x 50’) warehouse space that also includes a separate office and full bathroom with shower. So far, one 15-foot run along a wall, a 6- or 7-foot run to make an “L”, and another 10-foot run parallel to the long 15-ft run, set far enough away to allow for a walkway. Nothing fancy – just frames and four levels of shelves with storage space below banged together out of 2x4s, plywood, and some odds and ends. Soon we will wrap chicken wire or something comparable around the sides and add some plywood to the top to create a secure area that will be the pharmacy and storage for the dressings, surgical and orthopedic supplies, and other such items.

The bigger picture calls for partitioning off a couple of spaces for exam rooms, setting up a little laboratory (there’s a lab-in-a-suitcase kit, apparently pretty comprehensive), and setting up a waiting area in the front by the metal, roll-up door, which means scaring up a bunch of plastic chairs. Not clear yet where the tables for the exam rooms will come from, but I’m confident that’ll work out. With those and a few other small appointments, the space will be ready to serve as a clinic, open to anyone who can drag him/herself or get him/herself carted up to the door.

People beat a path to the door with various wounds and illnesses even when I’m just working in there alone, sawing lumber or nailing things together or doing some other totally non-doctorlike thing. The other day a guy came in and asked if we could treat him for gonorrhea (yes, but I can’t – come back when a doctor or nurse is here), then shook my hand, deeply appreciative. I washed my hands about three times when he left. Yesterday a young woman came in with a swollen and discolored knee, reportedly hurt in a fall down some stairs, and another woman came in hoping to get some medication she was told she needed. Sorry, nothing I can do except smile sympathetically and explain that I’m not a doctor.

This past week a group of six or eight dentists was in Bocas and in a neighboring town. I stopped by the school that was being used for the dental clinic one day and was astonished to see the number of people waiting – I don’t have a number, but the dentists had to have seen hundreds of patients in their four days here.

Expeditions to nearby villages to run 5-day medical clinics will begin again in March, I’m told. Not sure what my role in that will be, if anything – maybe organizer/grunt/administrator, maybe teacher of such exotic subjects as Why It’s Important to Wash Your Hands, How to Wash Your Hands, How to Brush Your Teeth, Why It’s Better to Drink a Lot Less Coca-Cola. Or maybe I’ll just stay around the home base and keep working on the Floating Doctors boat, the local clinic, getting more shipments of stuff in and stored, etc. Whatever helps.

An ongoing activity is to go to the Asilo (senior citizens’ home, run by the order of St. Vincent de Paul) in town two or three times a week. Weather permitting we take both the ambulatory and the wheelchair-bound out for a little outing down to the town square and back, and a couple of our group do a bit of physical therapy with one or two stroke victims.

None of all this is glamorous, efforts sometimes get thwarted by one circumstance or another, and some things don’t work out optimally. But anything that gets done is an improvement on the way things were previously.

Pulled into to Bocas del Toro a few days ago after a slow and fairly tedious mostly motor sail over from Portobelo thanks to light conditions and a counter-current for much of the way. About an hour into the trip the mainsail gave out, tearing (again) from luff to leach. Fortunately the damage was below the second reef point so I could reef the sail and get some use out of it.

Probably not much point in repairing the sail – putting another patch atop the patches already there – it’s 25 years old and is the original sail for the boat. Time to get a few quotes, pick a loft, and have a new sail made. No rush, though, as I don’t expect to be going anywhere for a while.

The trip over from Cartagena generally went well. I left from Bahía Cholón, a lovely, tranquil bay three hours or so south of Cartagena, and after eight hours of getting out of the Rosario archipelago and away from the mainland I picked up strong tradewinds, 15-20 knots on the beam. Thanks to those and 2-meter seas on the starboard quarter, I had the fastest sailing I’ve ever done for the next 20 hours or so: at times more than 9 knots, many hours at more than 8 knots, and many more hours at more than 7 knots. That’s not fast for a big boat, but for a boat the size of Cynosure it’s very fast. I made 30 miles more than I had planned and ended up in a favorite anchorage in the East Holandes cays, in the San Blas islands of Panama.

And there I waited for the next week or so for wind and sea conditions to calm down a bit before making the next jump, from the San Blas over to Portobelo, which in the early days of Spanish occupation was the most important harbor in Panama. Conditions mellowed somewhat; I got to Portobelo with no problems, and after a day’s layover came on over to Bocas.

The big deal for me is that very soon I will start pitching in on whatever projects the Floating Doctors (see www.floatingdoctors.com) have going. This is something I’ve been looking forward to doing for quite a while, partly because being of service somehow is something that Margarita and I had planned to do, partly because I think that contributing somehow, however I can, will help fill the emptiness I still feel inside, and partly because I really like the approach the Floating Doctors take. They’re really focused on their mission, which is that of bringing medical care to people who typically don’t have access to it or to enough of it, and they’re all about making a difference – now. Not filing papers, waiting around for official approvals, playing politics, but being active, getting hands on, making things happen, taking care of people and solving problems without delay.

Sky LaBrot, one of the group’s leaders, said that projects at hand right now include building some shelves and secure storage for medical supplies in a small warehouse in town and spending time at the local senior citizens’ home. Sky and Dr. Ben, her brother, are in grant-writing and fundraising mode for the next few weeks both here and in the US, and come March the group will again make forays to outlying communities in the Bocas area, to address whatever medical and public-health issues it finds.

The 2012 project list includes other things as well; that will become clearer by and by. For now I’ll be helping out however I can, starting slowly no doubt, and ideally finding a groove that works best for everyone. Stay tuned.

Margarita Moreno
1957-2010

Tu luz brillará en mi corazón y mi alma para siempre. Te extraño; te amo.