As I mentioned in earlier posts, life expectancy is only about 45 in Afghanistan. This is mainly due to high infant and child mortality. 1/3 of children do not make it to age 5. Part of our mission is to help turn this around. We expect a massive amount of vaccines soon and will help set up vaccine programs. Case in point: one of our patients is just recovering from polio. He is recovering fully but could have ended up paraplegic for want of 4 shots.
So, every family plans on lots of kids. Shown are a couple of the soldiers kids. The boy is just visiting his daddy for the day. The heart-melting girl has a small swelling in her neck and has been losing weight despite a good appetite. Docs reading this are sagely nodding their heads thinking "thyroglossal duct cyst". We will get some labs and then one of the surgeons will remove the cyst. She should be cured. What a doll!
I tend to underestimate the age of children (the boy looks 8 and is 12, the girl looks 3 and is 5) since they are smaller than US kids and mature later. On the other hand, the desert climate makes adults look older than they are. I frequently overestimate their ages by 10 years.
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