سن الأمل

Went to a refugee clinic in Madaba today. Three physicians saw 76 patients. Extremely well organized clinic. Everything was packed and put in cars in the morning, we set up in Madaba, and things worked like clockwork from the patient intake, to seeing the physician, the possibility of getting a handful of tests (blood sugar, urine analysis, blood pressure - sounds basic but these are not always available) and getting free medicines if available from a pharmacist who volunteered with us. A pic of the crew is below.

Big day, so am a bit tired. Quite a range of illnesses, from undescended testes, to massively impacted/inflamed teeth. A surprising amount of kidney stones, felt like 1/5 of patients had them. But before we went to the clinic today, we met at a clinic in Amman where they had some nice posters on the walls. I liked the one below the best. In Arabic, the word for menopause is "سن اليأس" which roughly translates as "despondent age". Probably the most depressing thing I can think of. But the poster below, which has info on menopause, is titled "سن الأمل" - age of hope. Much better.

There was another poster at the Specialist Hospital that I thought was very cute. It means in Arabic "we take care of you". But they've worked a stethoscope into the word itself. That's a pharmaceutical advertisement in the lower right.