It has been decided- the blood bank might not like my blood, but the mosquitos and sand flies sure do. Saturday, one of the short term volunteers who was here for 2 weeks wanted to explore the island so Jess, John, and I went along for the expierence. We started off by driving past the dump, which is massive! Past the dump is a hydroponic lettuce farm that we stopped at to explore a little. From there we went to the east end of the island where we were hoping to get a Jam and Jelly tasting...unfortunately they are only for tastings Mon-Fri....what about all those people that have to work during the week?! But we did have lunch there and got to taste a little bit of their jelly on our cheesecake. It was delicious...maybe I will have to make it out there some weekday. After lunch, we ventured even further east to Camp Bay and Old Port Royal. Once here we got out to enjoy the sun (which we hadn't seen for a least a good week!) and water. In the 30 minutes that we spent on the beach, somehow I managed to get eaten alive! Official count yesterday? 66 bites on my back, probably another 20-30 up and down my legs- what now? I itch like crazy!!
Clinic these past couple weeks has been quite busy. We have an OBGYN resident, 2 PAs (for one week), 3 ENT doctors (2 that only were here a week), and an oral surgeon all working with us. Talk about a lot of doctors. However, that always means lots of patients! Since we register 12-15 patients per doctor typically (when there are more than 2), that meant we were seeing 50-60 patients for about the past 2 weeks. While one may think we would fly through the patients with all these doctors on hand, you would be wrong. Our days usually did not end until 2:30/3:00 because even though we had all those doctors, most were specialty doctors. Therefore, they only saw patients in their field of specialty, leaving the majority of the patients to the 2-3 general doctors/PAs. But, we made it through and now they are all gone, so we are back down to 2 doctors: a general practitioner and a pediatrician. The next few weeks/couple months should actually be fairly quiet as the volunteer calendar is looking kind of bare. However, once we get to February, our volunteer calendar is packed! Talk about one extreme to the other! My work around the clinic has come to a plateau, although, that doesn't mean there is ever a dull day. I stay quite busy around the clinic with triaging, passing medications, answering questions, and assisting the doctors. I have even gotten to shadow a little with Dr. Rafael, our pediatrician. Who knows, maybe by the time I'm finished here they will just let me bypass grad school and sit for my doctorate licensing- I know probably a long shot but one can dream right?! Last week I came across some of the material that had previously been used to teach diabetic classes. While it is all very thorough, I don't know if it was completely tailored to the culture here in Roatan. I have also made a list of problems that we see day in and day out. With these, I will soon begin brainstorming ways in which education to the patient population will be most effective. Once I have that, I will hopefully be able to do some health education sessions. From the sounds of it, there are also some groups in the spring that want to do some health education as well so that will be good.
Over the past few weeks, I have also gotten to see how God is working in many different ways. Time after time, Peggy receives news of a generous donor, or a medical volunteer that wants to spend a significant amount of time in the clinic. While this may be seen as something that is just a typical occurance with any non-profit organization, I don't think it's coincidental that prior to receiving any of this news, there has usually just recently been discussion about what we are going to do. For example, about a month ago at the clinic board meeting, one of the topics of discussion was about opening the upstairs (pediatric and birthing center). A big obstacle that has been holding us up has been finances. While the clinic has enough money to keep the doors open, a common reason that non-profits don't make it, is because of going bankrupt; that is the last thing we want to happen. Because of this, the opening has continually been pushed back as the board works on assuring that they will have the funds to keep both the downstairs running (during the day) and the upstairs runnin (24 hrs!). About 2 weeks later, Peggy receives an answer to a prayer. A foundation that she was told about several years ago, has finally gotten everything worked out, and therefore, the funds are no longer an issue! Is there any other explanation except that God is good and gives us what we need, but not before we are ready for it?! Between these events, the work that I am doing/seeing, and the books I have been reading, I have gained insight into a new population. The work of a mission is spectacular work. You never know what you are going to be faced with. While I am currently experiencing the needs of the poor here in Roatan, I am learning about populations that exist within any region, no matter the geographical location. Hmm, I wonder what's in store for my future after I make it through grad school? Only time will tell, that I have also learned. God's graces and plans for our lives can not be rushed; when the time is right, we will be know!
Have a good week!
Peace and Love
Laura
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