As Max wrote, we have now switched work places, and I'll be in the RVPC for the next few weeks. It's crazy how fast our time is passing, and it's been fun to see so many volunteers come and go. I'm so impressed by Peggy's ability to be so welcoming to each person who comes through when there are so, so many.
I've been enjoying working in the RVPC, although it can be very frustrating and depressing to work in the public hospital due to the politics and lack of resources. Dr. Charles was in Tegucigalpa this week doing job interviews for the jobs he's applying to for next year, so a social service doctor took over for him. The new doctor came in on Sunday, too, so she had a little less orientation than normal, but it is all going well. Even though there were a number of cruise ships this week, the clinic has been pretty busy. The new doctor isn't very comfortable with Spanish, so I've been able to interpret for her this week, which I'm really enjoying. It does make the morning much more hectic, though, since I'm triaging and seeing all the patients with her, but I've been getting there early and trying to triage in any spare time and it's working out.
I've come across a number of interesting medical beliefs while interpreting this week in the clinic, and it's been pretty interesting to hear some of the same beliefs from a number of patients. For example, many people believe that if you sleep with your eyes open you have "bichos," or you get skin infections because of "bad blood." People have been very receptive to the doctor's explanations of disease that go against these beliefs, but it still is an interesting clash of cultures.
We had a few cases this week that highlighted the island's gaps in medical care. One boy's mom claimed that he had to sit very close to the TV and turn it to its highest volume to see and hear well, so we wanted to get him sight and hearing exams, which shouldn't be too difficult. However, according to the social service doctor, there was nowhere to get them in the public hospital.
Another child had a fused sagittal suture, meaning his head was growing front to back, but not expanding on the sides. What was interesting was that the mother never mentioned that in the list of reasons she had come in, so I don't know if she had been told in the past that there was nothing she could do about it or what the history was. Dr. Normandin, the current doctor in the clinic, said that in the US you would just send the baby to the neurologist and probably break up his skull bones to let them set back together correctly, but there aren't any specialists on the island that could do such a procedure. We ended up referring him to the mainland, so hopefully they'll be able to take care of it. It's probably just going to be a cosmetic problem for the baby, but there is a possibility of increased intracranial pressure, and so it's really important to get it checked out by a specialist.
Tutoring went well on Tuesday - we had four students and four tutors, so we were still one-on-one. The girl I'm working with seems really interested and I'm really looking forward to being with her for the next few weeks and seeing her progress. Thursday, though, was quite a let-down. We got the tutors together and were driving over to the school when one tuttee called us (about 10 minutes before we were to start) to tell us she couldn't attend. And then we got a text message from another. However, when we showed up, it turned out that they had all gone home to study for a test they had the next day, so we had made a trip out to French Harbor for nothing. We'll talk with the students on Tuesday and re-assess their interest in the program, but it was pretty frustrating. I think the hard part about it is that it does seem like extra work to them, since we are really working on math concepts that precede what they're learning but that they may not see as really helpful at the moment. We'll see what they say on Tuesday, though, in terms of their commitments and interest, since we're really there to help them.
We have now moved into the apartment under Peggy's house, which is really nice and it's fun to be living downstairs from her.
