Monday, October 22, 2007

Christine Journal 5

Things were good in Peggy's clinic last week. I continued interpreting for a doctor who doesn't speak Spanish, and also got to start triaging, which was fun. I also helped Betty out in the pharmacy. On last Monday, the clinic finally received its huge shipment of medications, which was very exciting. We spent the day putting them away and preparing boxes to bring some out to Diamond Rock and to Dr. Black on the mainland. It's great to see how much people collaborate here. We're already running low again on some meds we got in just last week, since the need here is so great for some things.

Max and I have started looking into more long-term donations, soliciting different organizations and drug companies for donations to Peggy's clinic. Hopefully some of those will come through, since as the clinic grows they're really going to need some constant donations.

The clinic was really busy last week since the hospital's been on strike (although it finally ended!).

Max and I have also been doing some work with Shelli on both her tutoring program and a survey that Krista and Dr. Patrick conducted this summer in La Colonia. The tutoring is scheduled to start next week, which is exciting! We have worksheets made up for each tutor to do with their student, based on how they did on the diagnostic test. There has been a lot of interest in tutoring from people living on the island, so hopefully there will be a good group of people.

The survey conducted this summer includes basic personal information, like education level, birthplace, length on the island, etc. as well as medical information. They surveyed about 100 families, and we are in the middle of compiling their data to see the trends. I'm really looking forward to getting a better sense of the community when we get all the numbers together.