It’s been a week now since we arrived on Roatan, and I’m loving meeting everyone and getting a sense for how things happen here. We were met at the airport by Edwin, the intern before us, and Shelli, who’s working in Miss Peggy’s clinic, and were quickly introduced to all the other people working down here. There’s a really great community feeling among all the volunteers, and I’m excited to learn from everyone who’s working with both clinics (Global Healing and Clinica Esperanza) in different ways.
After moving in to our apartment on Sunday, we were ready to start in the clinic the next morning. We arrived early to find many, many people already waiting outside to see the doctor, and have been told that they arrive around 6 am. I was immediately struck by how different the hospital is from anywhere I’ve been in the United States – no running water was the biggest surprise. I think it will be really interesting to really get to know how things work there over the next three months. Edwin taught us how to triage the patients, where we could find everything, and how to fill out forms at the end of each day. There is an American doctor and a Honduran doctor there right now, and they’ve both been really open to explaining different things to us. It should be a really great learning experience to work so close with them.
I’ve loved all the patient interaction we get as the triagers. It’s been interesting to see the different ways that the kids react to the triaging. Some think it’s fun to stand up on the scale, while some kick and scream and cry when we try to weigh them. I’m looking forward to getting to know people better as time goes on.
Max and I have realized that having two of us at the Global Healing clinic does not really achieve much more than have one of us there, so we both worked at Clinica Esperanza one day last week as well. I went in on Friday, and Alex, a volunteer, helped me learn the ropes of the pharmacy there. That’s probably where Max and I will primarily work when we’re in that clinic. It’s amazing how many donations they receive and how smoothly everything seems to run!
In terms of our public health projects, Max and I are still trying to get a feel for what’s available and needed, especially since Nurse Peggy has been out of town. I’m really looking forward to finding a few projects for the afternoons, though. It seems like there are a lot of tutoring opportunities, and I’m sure there are many other things that Nurse Peggy can tell us about when she’s back.
In our free time, we’ve been enjoying exploring Sandy Bay and other parts of the island, as well as snorkeling, cooking, and getting to know other volunteers and workers at the two clinics.
It should be a really great three months!
