Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Success with First Mentoring Contact


I have been out at a nearby training facility for the past few days. Ostensibly we went there to provide follow on immunizations for ANP recruits, but I knew better.

After just a little effort we were able to find the ANP clinic on the camp. It was a small but well stocked and set up space. My interpreter and I had a very cordial visit with the Dr and his assistant. By the end of the meeting the Afghan medic agreed to assist us drawing up the immunizations that night and both of them participated in the immunization process for the entire time the following day. I was able to spend 3 more hours teaching them on almost a one on one basis- going over some pharmacology based on their medications on hand and trauma bandaging. They were extremely appreciative and by the end of our time there they agreed that they plan to take over running the immunizations for their recruits after a walk through with us next time. We also came up with a training plan for my next visit. I must say that during the teaching I have never had a more attentive and interested audience. They were taking notes constantly so as not to miss anything. It felt really good to do the actual mission I was sent here to perform. I look forward to my next chance to work with the Afghan medical professionals of the ANP.

2 comments:

  1. The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 07/22/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

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  2. Hi,

    I came across your website just now during my search for military blogs and think it's an awesome representation of our military. I've actually written a few articles on our men training others in Pakistan, and it's great to actually find a good guy writing a great blog!!! It's extremely difficult searching through the tons of blogs on the web to discover well-written, insightful posts--and I'm glad that I found yours. 

    I like all the relevant information on your blog and would really like to do a link or banner exchange. I operate two similar military-based sites called RealMilitaryNetwork and RealMilitaryFlix that deal with breaking news, war footage, military tech, books, movies, and games. I'm currently working on building up a Bloggers widget (where the video listing is on the far right of our site) on the sites where we'd feature some of the great military bloggers on the net, and give our favorite blogs another outlet to garner traffic and readership.

    I think the exchange would be beneficial for both our sites, and was hoping you'd be open to the idea. I look forward to hearing back from you, and wish you continued success with your blog. Keep it up!

    I'm not sure if you can find my email, as I'm not familiar with this comment box thing, but you can reach me at realmilitaryhotspots@gmail.com. Take care!

    Best,

    John Philips

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