On Monday, I started work in clinic after the weeklong holiday. I feel now that I have familiarized myself enough with island to have more time to enjoy and observe the finer aspects of life here. In clinic this week, there were a variety of new diseases that I hadn’t yet encountered. There were two cases of falciparum malaria, and, although we see malaria all the time in the clinic, it is usually vivax malaria. We also saw a patient with a bot fly in his head. The parasite bore a hole into the child’s head, and was lodged in his head. We couldn’t take it out by pulling it out, since part of the fly would still be left in, so we used Vaseline to try to suffocate it, hoping it would crawl out on its own. After waiting for about an hour (while seeing other patients), the fly hadn’t come out yet, so we sent him home for his parents to tend.
Last Saturday, our new Global Healing intern, Jessie Duvall, came in. There was some miscommunication as to when her flight was, but we got it all sorted out since our contact at the airport, Banjo, called us when she arrived. Jessie is in between her undergraduate education at Wesleyan and medical school at either the University of Washington or Boston College. She is a pleasure to have, especially since her always cheerful demeanor puts a smile on everyone’s face whenever she’s around.
Coming back from the long holiday, there was a lot of clinic work to be done. This week was spent organizing Peggy’s clinic, and also making an inventory of the RVPC to garner what medications, equipment, and other miscellaneous items we need. However, we had a bunch of donations throughout the week; Jamie (our resident) brought her suitcase of medications for clinic use. I took inventory of the clinic and gathered some of the other needed items from Peggy. Peggy has been getting boxes and boxes of donations (that I sort), so she was more than happy to give some much-needed meds and supplies (ie multivitamins, ibuprofen, and Keflex) to the RVPC. Jessie also brought her bag of donations today, which I updated on the inventory list. Hopefully, the inventory list will be helpful in keeping track of what books and equipment we have so that nothing gets stolen in the future, and will allow future residents and attendings to gauge what medications are most needed by the clinic.
I had my first real taste of island food today—iguana. Dr. Charles, Jessie, and I went to lunch at Las Rocas in Coxen Hole after work. I wanted to try some of the island delicacy, and Dr. Charles was more than eager to let me. After he made some remarks about iguana fetuses while I was eating iguana eggs, I discovered that iguana tastes exactly like chicken, but contains a lot more bones. Anyway, my introduction into Honduran culture was a mildly tasty one. What makes anthropology interesting is that people can be so vastly different in what they value but at the same time agree on fundamental similarities. And even something as basic as food preference makes such a big difference in not only understanding a culture, but in appreciating it.
There is a tremendous collective effort on behalf of multiple people from a variety of disciplines to help with the socioeconomic situation on the island. From the medical workers, like Peggy and Dr. Charles, to members of other industries, such as engineers, construction workers, and businessmen, to blue-collar workers at the airports, gas stations, and in taxis, all these men and women are deeply interconnected to help the island grow medically.
