Dear RCPHI journal,
Haha. I just had to write that. The other week Leonel asked me what RCPHI stood for and I stood there, at a loss for words. I now know after looking it up on the website. I think I used to know it, now I'm sure I do. Lots has happened in a week. I'm ready to write if you're willing to read. Here we go.
I need to mention a certain taxi driver. Leonel and I affectionately call him "Star Wars Guy." Dunnnn-dun! Dun-dun-dun-Dun! Dun! He has Star Wars seat covers, which is only partly what makes me laugh. He's gotten used to our schedule and actually drives towards Casa Calico in the morning in hopes of picking us up. The first time we rode with him, all of a sudden, I heard what sounded like lasers. Hmm, I thought to myself. Star Wars Guy, instead of honking to gather colectivo riders along the road, uses a car alarm to get their attention. I believe this just drives customers away. Note to future interns: don't be afraid of the lasers.
Leonel had to stay late at the clinic today to help the nurses fix an incubator. When he returned, he said he took longer than expected because he couldn't figure out how to turn the darn thing on. Ah, Doctor Toledo. What a character. I took a taxi back alone. The driver asked a lot of personal questions about my age, if I had a boyfriend, how long I'd be on the island, and the like. I was a bit uncomfortable, but he ended up giving me the ride from Coxen Hole to West End for a discounted 20 lempiras. When I was ready to go to the beach, Leonel told me he'd be there in half an hour. I trekked alone to the beach. I set down my stuff and laid on the beach, reading, waiting for Leonel. There's a bunch of local men that sit beside a tree and watch the tourists on the beach. After a few minutes, a local guy approached me and asked if I was waiting for my boyfriend and if the seat next to me was occupied. I told him I was waiting for a friend and he said he just wanted to talk; he'd stay until my friend came. Oh how I wished Leonel would hurry up. Ray (the guy) asked me if he could take me out for lunch or dinner. Since then I won't go to the beach alone. Leonel is my buffer. Despite random guys whistling and commenting, I've never felt unsafe on the island. Just a heads up for those following me.
On to news from the clinic. There is one resident from Tegucigalpa. He's made it a ritual to come around and talk every other day. His name is Francisco. He's in his early 20's, very nice. He seems to like to come to West End to the clubs and has good suggestions about where to go to hang out on the weekends.
I've gotten a clearer idea of Valerie's clinic, Las Familias Saludables place that gives HIV/AIDS couseling as well as courses for mothers. One lady came in today from Valerie's clinic, asking if I could take a pregnant mom's blood pressure. I did, but had to go to the pre-clinica to use the enfermera's stethascope. The head nurse, I forget her name, is actually very nice and has warmed up to me. I don't even have to go to the pre-clinic to pick up the charts anymore. She brings them to me with a
smile. Everything has become familiar to me now, even names and faces of patients. I see kids and parents on the street around Coxen Hole and they wave and smile.
It is a very rare thing to see dads bring their kids to the clinic, but we've had a couple this week. It's so refreshing to see how caring and absolutely loving parents are, especially when the dads come in. I've noticed the children here are mostly well-behaved. It's different from the States. In the clinic, on the streets, around town, I never see kids throw fits or yell and scream. Another reason to love this island. The pace is slow, the people are kind, and the music is great: country music, classic soul, reggaetone, soca...it doesn't get much better.
This past week Charles and Leonel also admitted some patients. We stayed until 2 or 2:30 a few days for this.
On Friday, while Leonel was still on rounds, a lady burst into the clinic and asked me to get the doctors. Charles had just come in, so I told him about the littel girl outside, who was throwing up. She was in pretty bad shape. It surprised me how nonchalant Charles was about the whole situation. Without even raising his head, he told me to tell the mom to take the girl to the emergency room. Panicked, she didn't listen and brought the girl into the clinic. The poor girl threw up on the floor.
Charles walked out the door. I told the mother to stay calm and took them to the ER. I couldn't find the cleaning ladies so had to clean everything up.
Friday we saw more older kids. The nurses usually assign us the kids five years and younger. I was surprised to have to move the scale arrow to accomodate someone more than 50 pounds.
News of the week: Charles got a new thermometer from Peggy! Woo hoo. Well, I didn't think it was such a grand happening, but Charles did. It's easy to use. We now just have to stick the thermometer into the kids' ears for a second, versus waiting several minutes for the old, under-the-pit thermometers. Also, it helps with the kids who think that the pit thermometers are going to injure them. So that's that. New thermometer. We're all very happy.
Lately I've been having a little problem with patient flow. It's difficult to manage who knows Charles and who's just another pushy patient wanting to get a prescription written. Charles likes to take his friends and family ahead of others, which makes lots of patients a bit irritated and me confused. I can understand the frustrations of the mothers.
I met Nurse Betty. She borrowed a nebulizer for an elderly women.
Leonel and I went on another adventure. Leonel wanted to swim to some boats in another bay. It took us 35 minutes to swim there. After we tapped the boat, I looked down and realized I couldn't see the bottom of the ocean. I've never swam in that deep of water. Scary stuff. I swam extra hard back to Half Moon Bay. On the way back, I got ahead of Leonel and swam right
into a shallow reef. I was stuck for a bit. It was pretty gross, seeing that I don't really like sea creatures. I waited for Leonel to catch up then found a way out. When I saw Half Moon, I swam in towards shore and again, had to wait for Leonel. From afar, he gave me the "OK" signal and kept swimming. I thought I was in the wrong bay (I've done this before) so I followed him. After an hour and a half in the water, I asked Leonel where we were going. We missed our bay by a long shot. By the time we started swimming back, the sun had already set and we were swimming in the dark, with maybe 5 feet visibility. Leonel fell behind (yet again) and I swam right into a barracuda. I was terrified. Point of the paragraph: Leonel doesn't always know what he's doing. Haha.
We finished our scuba certification this weekend, but not before I made a little mistake on our first dive. I had just recovered from being sick, so I was worried about being congested, etc. Long story short, I forgot to equalize my mask and ended up at the bottom of the ocean with my eyes almost popping out of my head. After the dive, Leonel pointed out that my eyes looked like they were bleeding. I popped some blood vessels and now I have demon eyes. It's actually pretty cool but also very gross. I've been wearing my big, chunky glasses to clinic so I don't scare the kids. Leonel came up with a good phrase that the dive shops could put up next to a picture of my eyes: "Be Wise. Equalize."
Did I ever mention our Austrian instructor, Mike? I think I did. What I'll always remember him saying: 1) "duh bohdy system" and "duh durr-dull" (English translation: the buddy system and the turtle). He made scuba worthwhile.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I had some romantic, candlelit dinners with Leonel. This thought cracks me up. We manage to find all the good place to propose or celebrate an anniversary. At one restuarant, lights down low, MC Hammer came on, followed by Ganster's Paradise. Haha. Good stuff. Probably ruined the mood for some people, but made a great time for me and Leonel. Speaking of eating, we had some bad food at the West End diver restaurant. The only redeeming quality of the place was that they let us watch soccer on the t.v. Ah, t.v. What I wouldn't give for some SNL and Simpsons.
Some Sundays we play soccer in Gravel Bay with some local guys and Raymond and Charles. This Sunday Leonel and I rented a truck and went to the east side of the island. We were in search of an isolated beach. Instead, we found an isolated resort, swam, and had some dinner. We'll have the truck all week, so we'll be picking up Jess up on Saturday with it.
Jess will be bringing a new computer along with her. More good news!
Sad news: I have no new books to read. Dr. Toledo has made it a new requirement to read Lonesome Dove. Just kidding. Interns, bring lots of book. You don't want to end up spending your afternoons on the beach reading Stephen King or Mary Higgins Clark (those books are made for boring plane rides, right Katie?).
At Casa Calico, I've got some friendly new neighbors, a pregnant wife who speaks no English, and her husband, who speaks English and a little Spanish. They seem to like to peer in my windows and wave.
It's been a busy week. Leonel and I can't have two computers working on the wireless at the same time. Leonel steals all the bandwidth and I end up waiting 10 minutes for one page to load.
That's it for now.
