I’ve been here for a whole week, already, and still not a single Starbucks in sight! In fact, there's no sign of corporate America, except for the occasional 21st Century Real Estate sign and a Bojangles (which I’ve never heard of anyway). I must admit that this was a bit unexpected, because after reading about how Roatan was a resort island, I expected some measure of corporate America following the American tourist. However, it is really refreshing to be here in a completely foreign land, with very few recognizable symbols of America. It’s almost as if Roatan is back to the basics, building everything themselves with little reliance on American culture.
Anyway, I’ve been here for a week, and I love it here. My week here has been everything I expected and more. The community of volunteers and health workers here is amazing and has introduced me to an entire movement and purpose to provide healthcare to developing countries. Peggy and all the other volunteers here have read Mountains Beyond Mountains, which tells Paul Farmer’s story of building clinics to provide healthcare for developing nations, and they all seem to swear by the book. It’s very encouraging and inspiring to see such devoted and proactive workers who come out here and build entire clinics from the ground up out of their own will and initiative. I’ve just begun reading the book today, and I hope to finish it soon.
I’m enjoying working in the clinic as well. Monday was a very daunting day for me as Molly tried to fill me in on everything I needed to know to run the clinic, from the location of different meds to how to take a history in Spanish to showing me around Coxen Hole. At first, I was very intimidated by the two attendings in the clinic too, Dr. Rom and Dr. Karina, and I was not very confident at all – it’s very intimidating to call a patient in front of 20 other impatient mothers. However, as the week went on, I became more confident in my ability to perform the job. Although my Spanish wasn’t as good as Molly’s, I found that it was enough to communicate easily with most patients. I learned that Karina and Rom weren’t nearly as scary as my initial impression of them. I started to get the hang of giving meds to patients. And most of all, I really enjoyed being able to help the patients – I loved the feeling of walking into the hospital every morning knowing that I was going to help the dozens of sick patients I saw sitting on the benches. I’m glad I can help in very direct and meaningful ways here, as opposed to the limited role we students are allowed legally in the United States.
I’m also enjoying my time outside of the clinic. The last few days when Molly was here were spent traversing the island with the other volunteers. On Sunday, a bunch of us went to the east end of the island by car and enjoyed the white sandy beaches there. On Monday, we went to a beautiful hidden swimming hole called the Creek by boat. On Tuesday, we went hiking through some of the poorest barrios called La Colonia, which was formed when a lot of the poorest islanders living near the coast fled up the hillside in 1998 during Hurricane Mitch and squatted on the land. The houses there are built up a nearly 30-40% grade hill, and there is little infrastructure of running water or sewage, creating a huge health risk. It was mind-boggling to see how humans were forced to live under such poor conditions.
Other than that, I’ve occupied myself with swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, cooking, and reading. I’ve had a lot of time to relax, and I think this month is going to be an excellent way to end the summer.
