Seven Arches

 
Somehow we manged to do 4 cases before noon today.  Then we had a parting ceramony with the hospital administrator and a lot of pictures. it was actually very touching and sad to leave.  The nurses and techs in the OR volunteered to do OT or just volunteered to work with us, long hours lots of questions and putting up with the silly Americans who do things differently.

 Here are a few pictures from near the hotel this morning.  The inside of the mosque they are building across the street, and neighbors of the hotel;

Our hotel restaurant.

Work, work, work

7 cases, 6 cases, 6 cases and poor internet coverage at the hotel.  Today is our last full day at the hospital.  I am off to the out door restaurant at the hotel for breakfast of eggs, hummus, tomatoes, honey and yogurt.  Nescafe is getting better all the time.
  The best thing I saw yesterday was an anesthesiologist boiling Turkish coffee on the floor of the break room with cotton soaked in alcohol.  Picture to follow.

And we're off!!

 Six cases completed Sunday.  Seven on the schedule today.  8am -8pm yesterday, probably longer today.  Woke up at 4am today and could not get back to sleep.  Too late to take an Ambian.  I will be toast tonight.

Clinic Day

Another very busy clinic day. 9-4pm we screen 62 patients.  As is typical for pediatric urology, too many patients and not enough time.  The next four days will be very long days.  We are trying to do more difficult cases because Dr. Fayez is now able to do hypospadius repair on his own. This means more  (get out the wikipedia) uretral reimplants, removing ectopic kidneys, repairing mitrofanoffs, etc.
Here are a few cute girls from clinic today;

I went for a second walk on the beach yesterday, this time with John as my escort and with my scarf on my head.  People were very friendly, asking our names, where are you from and to come join them for tea.  The beach was packed with families, there were camels, games, people washing horses, just enjoying their Sunday.

Politics on the Beach

  John and Kevin both asleep at our planned beach time, I asked the front desk if it was OK for me to go the beach alone, "yeah, yeah".  As I walked out the hotel drive way I heard someone running up to me, the guy from the front desk wanted my cell number for "security purposes" and brought a friend to escort me.  Crazy white woman with no head cover!  Mohamed guides me to the popular family beach right across the street.  You know that sound of a hushed room and a hundred eyes on you....add the waves.  I'm thinking I better snap a few pictures and get out of there.  Next thing you know I'm under a shade tarp drinking Fanta with a local fisherman who wants to discuss Hilary Clinton in Arabic.
  Beach scene Gaza style is packed with young boys romping in the surf, grabbing flotsam for surfboards.  Women huddled under shade tents.  Fishermen coming in on their over sized SUPs.  And yes, the water is very warm!

We are settled in our hotel in Gaza.  This is a definite upgrade from any place I have stayed in my 6 visits to Palestine.  Al Mathaf Hotel is across the street from the Mediterranean, has beautiful ocean view rooms with AC, comfy beds, hair dryer in the bath.  They served us fresh melon smoothies on arrival and I have already received 2 fruit baskets to my room (not sure what they're trying to tell me).  Al Mathaf translates to museum. They have a small museum off the lobby and old (?) carved wood trim and tile.  The restaurant windows are large and open to the sea.
  We crossed into Gaza at Erez checkpoint.  For some reason they had our old passport numbers.  Unfortunately, Kevin and I both have new passports since we were here last.  After 45" in the sun, they decided to let us in, though they want us to also carry our old passports next time.  I don't think it ever goes smoothly at Erez.
  The Israeli woman at the checkpoint told us that 3 people were killed in an attack on Weds. Suhail, our PCRF contact here says "don't worry if you hear bombs while you are here, the Israeli's strike where there are no people".  We three nod and agree that we will have no worries if we hear bombing during our stay.......right?
View from my window;

  I watched the SUP fisherman come in as we finished our lunch of hummus, pizza and Nescafe. 

Gaza Again

I am headed back to Gaza tomorrow.  I will be working with John Gazak, pediatric urologist and Kevin Healy, anesthesiologist, again.  We will enter at the Erez border crossing on Friday morning and do a screening clinic Saturday, beginning surgeries Sunday.  Then, it is 12-14 hour surgical days until Thursday night.  We will cross back into Israel Friday.  John and Kevin leave that night and I will stay in Tel Aviv to work on  my retirement plan.  More on that later......