A Day in the Life of...

...ME! a volunteer.



The hill leading up to the clinic

 The roosters start to crow; I think to myself- could it be morning already?  Oh no, that's right, the roosters crow at all hours during the early morning starting at about 2 or 3-- it's all the same right?!  Lucky for me, because I have a big family I am not a light sleeper and I can sleep through it.  But now it's 6 o'clock, the alarm is sounding-- do I have to get up?  That depends...do I need to get things accomplished before heading to the clinic? Do I want to take a shower before I go to work?  How fast can I get ready this morning?  Maybe just 15 more minutes of sleep.  As all these thoughts go through my head, I decide that a little more sleep won't hurt anything; after all it only takes 20 minutes to get ready and 5 minutes to walk to the clinic (that is as long as I'm not moving slowly lol).  Now it's getting to be 6:30 so I drag myself out of bed, get ready for the day, and head to the clinic.  Upon arriving at 7:30, I make sure everything's unlocked and the computers are up and running.  By this time, Angely, the secretary, has hopefully started to register patients so that we can begin triaging them before the doctors arrive around 8:30, island time!  The morning carries on with patients coming and going and tasks never ending.  If I am not triaging patients, I could be doing an assortment of things-- administering medications, assisting the docs with something, cleaning and sterilizing instruments, consulting with the doctors (to get a jump start on my future!), organizing supplies, translating handwriting, or answering questions.  The day is never dull, always something to do!

"John, how many patients do we have today?" I commonly ask around 11:30.  It's about this time that we all start to wonder, "are we going to be here all afternoon again or will we be done shortly?"  Depeding on the number of patients we have registered and the number of docs in the clinic, we finish seeing patients anywhere between noon thirty and 2:30. 

Dr. Raymond with a girl who had some bad pneumonia

Days that end early allow for more time in the sun!  Days that go longer allow for less free time in the afternoon.  While one may be preferrable to the other, as long as the time at the clinic is moving along quickly, it doesn't really matter which day it is--unless of course, it is sunny out and we haven't seen the sun in days or weeks! 

Afternoon is upon us and what should we do?  Well, it's time to catch up on emails and accomplish other work for the clinic (i.e. medication donation requests,

Our Vitamin D dock

thank you notes, health education plans, etc).  If the day is nice, we may take advantage of the sunlight (as it sets around 5/5:30) to get our needed Vitamin D and enhance our minds through reading.  Wednesdays at 2, Karla has prenatal classes; I have gotten roped into helping.  Not a bad thing though, cause I get to hear spanish for an hour, while learning all about prenatal stuff and being an extra resource for Karla as expectant mothers ask their questions. Jess and I also work with ESL students at the Sandy Bay Alternative School across the street from the clinic.  At 3:00 the school bell rings and kids take off for home.  However, there are a few students from the colonia that stay around afterwards to read or work on homework.  Vanessa is her name.  You've heard of her before; she is 11 years old, in 3rd grade, with even a lower english comprehension level.  She is my little girl for the next year.  Twice a week, we hang out after school and read, unless she has homework.  As time has gone by, I have started to pick up on the quirks of the english language that she isn't understanding-- contractions, pronouns, abstract words-- all the things that can be difficult to explain, of course!  While it makes tutoring a little more challenging, there has been so much progress already, and it's only been 2 months!  I can't wait until the end of the year!

The sun has set, but the night is still young.  What does one do in the dark?  Time to think about dinner but what shall we have?  Let's look in the fridge and throw something together.  Our diet has quickly been converted to a Honduran cuisine consisting of many tortillas and rice and beans.  Any given combination of ingredients from the fridge usually results in some sort of taco or tostada or casserole.  Depending on what's being streamed in Denver, sometimes dinner is followed with TV, other times with a movie or our new addiction, GLEE, or sometimes the evening is spent catching up with friends and families from home via Skype, facebook, or emails.  Bedtime can come quite early if it's allowed...sometimes as early as 9:00.  While it's tempting, at times, to give in, if I did it would be a day of drowsiness the following day.  So, I push it off as long as possible by raeding and doing other things and then finally hit the sack around 11/11:30.  My day is complete; time to reflect on the day and the people I touched, thank God for my blessings and pray about my shortfalls.  "Sweet dreams," I say, "see you en la manana!" 

So there you have, my (and most of the other clinic volunteers) day in a nutshell.  Variations of course do occur ranging from a night out with the teacher volunteers or a dinner meeting with one group or another.  But for the most part things are pretty low key.

In other news:

• Today I learned/watched Dr. Raymond remove an ingrown toenail. So the next time you have one, look me up, I'll probs be able to do it for you (maybe not legally, but socially).
• As I sit here, the winds are picking up; I think our past 5 days of sunshine are done and rain is on the horizon :( 
• One of our dogs had puppies this morning-- therefore, in addition to the 2 dogs and a cat, we now have 3 puppies.
• I think I'm developing allergies- to what I have decided; but, I'm thinking it could be from pets..hmm?
• Pictures are POSTED!  Check out the link on the right hand side of the blog :) http://picasaweb.google.com/home (or here)
• Oh and how could I forget...CMMB has a telecare series running right now.  The most current episode was on the medical volunteer program.  You can view it at http://www.cmmbheals.org/medical-volunteer-program and see me towards the end of it!

That's all folks!

<3