That's right folks, I have officially been a nurse for 1 whole week! While I have learned quite the same things that I would have learned in the states, I have learned soo much! I have become a pharmacist, an intake/triage nurse, a surgeon assistant, a sterilizer, a source of knowledge, an EKG giver, and an IV starter. I think that's about all, but I could be wrong. My brain has just been flooded with knowledge this week and starting Monday I will be the one in charge of all the volunteers and everything that's happening in the clinic (of course there will be Dr. Raymond who is in charge of everything medical and Allison who is in charge of everything non-medical). However, something that hasn't greatly improved while being here yet is my spanish and I think that is partly due to the fact that I have been stuffing my brain with soo much other information that it had reached its max capacity for the week- never thought that could happen! I'm hoping that within the next couple of weeks I will have more time to look over and review spanish as well as practice it. A big help in this is that Jessie, the volunteer that is living downstairs wants to learn more, and there are a few people at the clinic that want to learn english- so I'm sure we will be able to do a trade off.
Aside from all my nursing work that I have been doing this week, it hasn't really left room for a whole lot else. I end my days feeling quite exhausted and that was discovered when Jessie and I sat down to watch Inception Thursday night at 8:30 and could barely stay awake- we didn't even finish the movie we were so tired. Better luck next time! There are many volunteers here aside from myself and they are all right around the same age so that is very nice as well. Tuesday night we had a potluck over at the apartments where John (another clinic volunteer) is staying and we met some of his friends. There are about 8 or so of them that are from South Carolina teaching at a school here in Roatan. There is also a school in Oregon that supplies the clinic with 2 PA students every 6 weeks; over the past week I was able to get to know 2 of them. They are however leaving this afternoon and 2 more are coming in- so next week I will be in charge of getting them acclimated to the clinic.
Last night I got to experience my first tropical storm- Tropical Storm Matthew. It was supposed to produce high winds, lots of rain, and maybe even a hurricane. However, we only ended up getting some high winds and a little bit of rain....better luck next time I guess :( Speak of the water and ocean, that is something that I have not really gotten to fully experience yet- we are going to have to change that. I went out swimming one afternoon and then watched a gorgeous! sunset afterwards but that was the extent of it. There are coral reefs surrounding the island just waiting for me to come out and explore them, and I myself can hardly wait to go see them either! And it's really cheap to get diving certified here too, so I might check that out in the weeks to come.
On Thursday, Peggy and I drove up into the Colonia because she needed to drop something off for her housekeeper who lives up in there. I could not believe my eyes when I saw what conditions they were living under. I will try to paint a picture for you. Imagine: You have a gorgeous mountain side covered with trees and bushes. It would be perfect for hiking through. Now, someone has chosen to clear a path just a little wider than what a vehicle would need to pass through. There are now one main dirt road with small trenches through them, because of how the rain washes it away, running up this mountain side. At various points along this road there are "side streets" that look the same. These aren't nice level roads either; they are so steep that as we were driving them, we had to stop at the bottom wait for it to clear and gun it going up. These people of the Colonia have to walk up these streets daily! Can you even imagine? I don't know much about grades but it must be like almost a 50% grade going up. Then off to the sides of these streets people have started to build their houses. Houses are built on the hill sides; there is literally half their house that is built on stilts and the other half that comes out of the hill. These aren't nicely built houses either. I mean they may be fairly sturdy, but they are merely pieced together with small boards, wood pallets, or whatever other supplies these people can find to build their houses. There are also not really doors or windows on anything. We drove by 5 little kids that were carrying this box of wood (and they had carried it quite a distance up the hills); they would either be using it for firewood or building supplies. Everyday, people go out of the colonia to work; in order to get to work? They hike down the hills, walk or bum a ride to work, if they are lucky they can afford a taxi. Taxis are only anywhere from $1-2, but for them that could be just under what their daily pay is. Then at the end of the day, they all have to hike back up to their homes. If it happened to rain that day (or night), it is all muddy and I'm sure even more challenging to get around in there. These are also the same people that we see in the clinic. Typically, they are nowhere near as clean as we would be and they may not have enough to afford the care they are coming to recieve. Money, however, is not seen as a factor that prevents them from getting care at the clinic. If they need meds, they given what they need, assuming the clinic has it. The clinic can only have the meds, if they are donated or received through the WHO. Therefore, there are times that we unfortunately don't have the medications that we need for these people. They only get running water once every 8 days. So on Thursday when we were there it was water day. They take huge barrels and fill them full of water in hopes that it will be enough to last until the next time. The water that comes isn't safe to drink either. However, these people have no way of filtering it. Therefore, they have to boil all of this water before it is usable too. Garbage? That used to get picked up every 3-4 days, but Peggy just informed me that they will be changing that to once every 3 weeks I believe. Unbelievable! Keep in mind, there are 3,000 people living in this Colonia, and it really isn't that big. Now granted, the islanders don't want this people living there in the first place, but still! The conditions that they live under are horrible!!
Well, I think that's about all I have for now. I have gotten a few pictures, but I need to get some more, so hopefully I will have some to share with you all soon.
<3
You have no idea of the perfect irony of you falling asleep while watching Inception.
ReplyDelete