Friday, March 30, 2012: Hello from Las Mercedes, Honduras! Today was our first day of clinic! We woke up at 0600 and started the clinic at 0800 after a little setting up. We were divided into groups, one in the pharmacy and four groups divided into examination rooms. Patients usually don’t come alone and come with friends or family.
Today was a slow day at the clinic which proved to be beneficial as we were able to get familiar with our resources and the flow of the clinic. I was in the pharmacy with Trusha and Rosa! We filled prescriptions and educated the families on how to use the medications. By the way, the 8 of our 21 bags of medications and Ray’s bag have not yet made it… still waiting!
We ended clinic around 1600 and had a wonderful dinner of beans, sausage, plantains and rice! It began raining during dinner and has not stopped. We took our cold showers in the rain which was a unique experiencewith the dusky, cloudy sky – the shower has no roof.
Tonight, the electricity went out and we are now sitting in the room we eat in playing cards, boggle and other games with our headlamps for light! I’m excited about the next few days of clinic as they are expected to be busier!
I’d like to say hello and send my love to Kenneth, Dad, Mom, Spence, and the rest of my family!
-Brenna
Random Thoughts of the Day:
1) The food here is absolutely delicious and we overeat like it is our job. I’m pretty sure they are surprised that a group of all ladies can eat so much
2) Achievement of the day: CR and I finally worked up the courage to shower in the unheated outdoor shower and survived (only with Brenna’s moral support of course).
3) Ray reads American Bee Keeper magazine with a really serious face. It’s quite a site to see.
4) “El Jefe” seems to be pretty at peace with directing everybody from his hall chair.
5) Wendy and Sally are actually ophthalmologists even prior to their training.
6) Caitlin has an endless supply of chocolates and snacks that she’s hoarding. Unfortunately for her, we’ve figured out her secret.
7) Lesson of the day: don’t open the shower curtain if you hear water running. Seriously though.
-Trusha
Penny would like to give a shout out to Touche and Rosa to Igor and her girls.
Wendy says hi and miss you guys to Mike and Olive (she also says she’s been feeding the dogs Olive’s treats which they absolutely love!)
Saturday Morning:
We woke up to a beautiful clear and temperate day outside. It looks like the rain cleared away with the clouds. Breakfast was delicious with fresh eggs, fried tortillas, strawberries, and pound cake (Iknow, it’s probably hard to believe we’re in a rural community in the highlands of Honduras). Everyone is getting fast with the morning routine. It’s been quite the convenience to sleep, eat, bathe, go to the bathroom and work in the same building.
Funny story from last night was Sally pulling her sleeping bag, air mattress, from the little room she shares with Wendy, Kaitlin R, and Ariella to sleep in an empty room away from the girls’ snoring! It sounded like a “freight train going through the clinic” as she dragged everything out, lol! But great news is that everyone slept well last night J Ok, back to getting ready for the clinic day to begin! We’re anticipating a much busier day. Stay tuned! More to come…
April 1, 2012
Today was day 3 of clinic. It was also Palm Sunday. So, we opened up the clinic at 8 as usual, but then took a break at 9 to attend the Church service (the church is right across the path from our clinic). It was wonderful to see the community in a different setting. Although we clearly stuck out as sore thumbs, they welcomed us and made more room on the benches for us so we could sit amongst them. We saw about 130 patients today despite the break, so it was a successful day overall. We also had a pretty great variety of skin conditions and interesting physical exam findings throughout the day. Most of us are getting much more comfortable with the way the clinic is running. Even those of us who didn’t know any Spanish seem to be leading interviews and managing the patients really well (shout out to Sally whose almost fluent on day 3 of her mission to go from 0 to fluent).
The food has been delicious. They cook bananas, plantains and tortillas everyday with a variety of other things. I think everyone eats well with yummy desserts and also tons of snacks that everyone seems to procure from their bags- Caitlin with candy and Sally with random treats.
Also, the other eight bags arrived today. WOOHOO! Rey’s bag also finally arrived…but he has yet to change into fresh clothes. Luckily for us he doesn’t smell too much. We also ran out of toothbrushes yesterday and our big bag of toothbrushes also came. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Hasta luego!
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