This week has been a bit of a vacation for me as I've had two visitors from the US to entertain. I worked at Peggy's both Monday and Tuesday mostly in the pharmacy filling prescriptions. I'm feeling much more confident in that job as I get to know the organization of the pharmacy and the uses of most of the drugs. I have had a Canadian nurse's aide helping me in the pharmacy, and it has reminded me of how hard it is to utilize short-term unskilled volunteers. She helps me count pills and enter some information in the inventory, but really she mostly just reminds me of how amazing Peggy is to be able to
utilize so many people so graciously when a lot of them really just create more work for her.
On Monday, the psoriasis patient from several weeks ago returned to the clinic looking much better, and I took him down to Peggy's to clean off (this time he was able to shower himself). I was happy to see that he returned when told to and his skin was much better than when I first saw him, but I could tell that he hadn't bathed in days and was probably not going to be able to bathe in the sea as instructed to keep his skin clean, moist, and exfoliated.
I took Wednesday and Thursday off, which worked nicely because Peggy's clinic is always closed on Wednesdays and was closed this Thursday for Thanksgiving. Friday was a pretty normal day filling prescriptions in the pharmacy. I don't think I will ever be a professional pharmacist, but for the time being I do enjoy learning about the drugs.
Outside of clinic hours I have done a few work-related things. On Wednesday I stopped by Los Fuertes with my dad and girlfriend to look for a deaf girl that should receive a hearing aid next week. We had a vague address (above the Adventist Church) and two different names (neither of which was correct) to look for in Los Fuertes, but it ended up being a fun little search. I think especially having my father there helped lend a fresh perspective on the situation; recognizing that tracking someone down in the United States would proceed much differently than here. We found the girl without much trouble and gave her the necessary information, and I felt good about being able to navigate Honduran society to complete at least very
basic messenger tasks.
I have also been chauffeuring a lot of people back and forth around town, which I am happy to do, but I do worry a little bit about the liability involved. I feel comfortable driving on the streets, but I fear that it is just a matter of time before some driver makes a poor decision resulting in an accident. I know that in terms of safety, my driving is probably just as safe as if not more safe than other peoples', but I do feel a slight burden of responsibility being the regular designated driver.
I spent most of my Sunday at Peggy's clinic inventorying new medications that just arrived in a big shipment from the US, which was fun. My girlfriend, Maya , will be taking over for me in Peggy's pharmacy next week as I go back to the Global Healing clinic while Christine visits the mainland, so this afternoon was a good opportunity for Maya to get to know the clinic outside of regular business hours.
Our tutoring project is not going well because the students have not been showing up. Tomorrow we hope to meet with the students and maybe the principal to ask how else we could structure the tutoring to be less of a burden on the students, but I am disappointed that we will not be able to conclude the curricula that we began.
In addition to clinic work this week, I've had a wonderful time hanging out with my visitors and getting to know some of Christine's visitors. We've eaten tasty Indian food, toured Oak Ridge by water taxi, scuba-dived with turtles, had a proper Thanksgiving feast, and fished real "island style." This all makes me realize very clearly how "social tourism" or "voluntourism" can really work to many organizations' advantages, and how non-profits in less picturesque locations have a lot of unique challenges.
