Clinic Days: Santa Familia
My first day at the clinic we road up to a small village and
it was a little white cement building with a red cross symbol on it. We had to
find the lady in the village with the key and then she let us in. The place was
never cleaned so she was quite embarrassed but we didn’t mind. We set up the
pharmacy and assessment tables and there were already people waiting while we
set up. Santa Familia was nice because many spoke English. I was at the
assessment table and i took blood pressures and blood glucose. Since it was my
first time really doing this I wasn’t sure what worked best and how patients
would respond to our suggestions. It got easier as the time went on. What stood
out the most was that people wanted minor pain medications and vitamins. We had
a ton so we were happy to give them out. Fungal infections were popular also.
Oh and dehydration was like the biggest problem. These people are working in
the hot sun all day and only drinking a glass or two of water a day. I think
the most important thing we counseled the patients on was drinking water. It
was simple and solved a lot of problems.
Billy
White
Billy white was a much different experience. So many people
spoke Spanish and I couldn’t understand any of it. Thankfully I had a wonderful
nurse with me to translate. She was the mother of our ProWorld leader and a
very brilliant lady. She even delivered two of my host mom’s kids. I was at the
assessment table again for this clinic. It was a building right in the middle
of the schoolyard. Some kids even walked around to different classrooms and
taught kids on different health subjects. I remember using the bathroom and
they are like out houses and it was just a cement circle in the ground
thankfully I just had to pee. A couple of the children had chocolate covered
bananas and so we saw where they got them from and went over and bought some.
They were only 25 Belizean cents (12.5 cents in American money). Some of the
kids had nervous looks on their faces so I blew up a glove and drew a happy
face on it then handed it to this little boy he was so happy.
Duck
Run 1
The third day was similar to the second in the fact that
most only spoke Spanish. It was at another small Red Cross building but it was
so wet that a lady from Duck Run 1 let us use her house. She had a large tent
we borrowed and let people sit under it. I was doing what they call triaging
the patients. When the patents came in I greeted them and then took down their
basic info like their name, age, gender, and locations. Then I brought them to
get their height measured and weight measured and asked them what their main
complaints were and if they had any allergies or were on any medications. There
was a ton of us so Catherine our ProWorld leader took me and a couple others
into the Mennonite town and we got pizza. The Mennonite town seemed so advanced
for Belize almost like a rural New York town almost. When she parked the truck
initially it was parked in a wet area so again we had to get out and push it
out of this poor ladies yard that lent us the space for our clinic. The people
down there are just so hospitable. They are so happy we are here and helping
the people. After the clinic we went back to the Mennonite town to get ice
cream it was actually really good. They also gave out free coffee.
Duck
Run 2
So this place was just a little further than Duck Run 1 and
we actually had two buildings to use. We set up the pharmacy in one and the
assessment in the other. I was going to do assessment again but Catherine asked
if I wanted to go to the pharmacy to get more medications with her. So we drove
to this Mennonite pharmacy and it was real nice. We got vitamins and Tylenol and
prescription strength ibuprofen. The cashier showed us all the meds and you can
get like anything over the counter. They have Cialis and Levitra and clonazepam
and diazepam and vicodin all over the counter. You’re supposed to have a
prescription but the police don’t enforce the law. When he was showing us all
the meds I asked if we were able to buy just anything and the owner was there
standing behind the cashier. So when I asked, the cashier said we needed a
prescription for stuff like clonazepam but the owner was nodding her head yes.
It just shows that with money you can get anything. Later on at the clinic we
thought a women was pregnant so we had to go back and get a pregnancy test. So
I went on another trip to the Farmers Trading Post in the Mennonite village and
our ProWorld leader Catherine asked the Mennonite girl if they had pregnancy
tests and she looked at us like we were psycho. I guess contraceptives and
pregnancy tests are against their beliefs so we went to another pharmacy and
got 2 for $5. The lady needed a cup to pee in also so we walked down to a
little corner store and bought cups and there was a parrot so we tried to get
it to sit on our fingers but it ended up just trying to bite us. She ended up
not being pregnant though. Another lady had terribly high blood pressure so we
brought her to the Mennonite clinic and it was like we stepped in a time
machine and went back 60 years. The nurses wore big white dresses with bonnets
and the exam rooms were scary like something from American Horror Story. The
nurse said she needed to see a specialist in Belmopan and gave her Nifedipine
in the mean time to help lower her blood pressure. She wouldn’t go to Belmopan
until she had permission from her husband first so we drove back to Duck Run 2
and let her discuss it with her husband. Fridays are lazier days in Belize so
we closed the clinic early and headed back.
Home Visit Clinics
Today was our last clinic day. We took a bus to this small
village called 7 Mile. It was really nice there. There were many fruit trees
and flowers but no electricity. It was very rural. We split up into two groups
each having a pharmacist and then headed door to door asking people if they had
anything wrong with them or if they needed any vitamins or medication and also
if they would like their blood pressure and blood glucose taken. A woman that
knew the village brought us to the people who she knew needed help and wouldn’t
be troublesome. We saw baby chickens and many dogs so that was fun. Then we
stopped at Hodas Place Restaurant to discuss what we thought went well with the
trip and what we thought needed improvements. Lastly, we divided out the
medications so we could give some to our host mother and family. Soon my host
family will get home and we can enjoy our last home cooked meal with her then
David is going to come with us to learn garifuna drumming at proworld since he
has a project due soon on that.
