Today is the three-month anniversary of our arrival in Roatan and the beginning of our last week here. I have a lot to reflect on, and hopefully I'll be able to put some more of that into words for my last update at the end of the week.
I spent this week working in Peggy's Clinic, alternating between shadowing Dr. Raymond and running the pharmacy. With Raymond I had the opportunity to look in ears, auscultate lungs, listen for heart murmurs, and palpate abdomens. Working with Dr. Raymond is a great learning experience, but unfortunately I did not feel like I could contribute much to his work. I look forward to learning more about medicine in future study, but right now I am more interested in feeling like I am making a difference using the skills that I already have.
Monday brought a surprising number of bad ear infections with at least one ruptured timpanic membrane – a shocking sight. Tuesday seemed to have a lot of eye injuries, with at least two resulting from construction accidents. Eyes are incredible organs, and contemplating the extraction of small splinters from them is a scary prospect. Raymond mentioned that he looked forward to talking to a meeting of construction contractors to address the lack of effective personal protective equipment (specifically glasses/goggles) used by their employees. Occupational safety has never really sparked my interest, but I am inspired by the wholesome approach that Raymond takes to improving healthcare on the island, and I look forward to being able to use my knowledge and experiences as a professional to influence health-related business practices.
Friday brought another large shipment of mattresses and chairs from the Carnival Legend cruise ship. Despite all of the economic complexity that accompanies cruise ship tourism, I am impressed by Carnival's willingness to donate in bulk to Peggy's clinic. The cruise ship is a glaring symbol of the accomplishments of sophisticated modern technology to provide comfort to the wealthy. It's hard to imagine that this several-hundred million dollar luxury ship can dock within a mile of a public hospital providing primary health care to around 50,000 people without a functioning ventilator, ultrasound machine, CT scan, adequately equipped laboratory, or single narcotic drug. Despite all that glaring inequality, I have to say that the 100 mattresses donated in the last two weeks have been well received.
On Thursday and Friday, I returned to Peggy's clinic to do more of the same pharmacy work. It is reassuring to be able to exercise a practiced skill within the clinic to help people get drugs to make their lives more comfortable. The pharmacy seems to be more organized and effective than it was three months ago, and I hope that it continues to move further in that direction as we develop a more consistent inventory system that will hopefully ensure better stocking of necessary drugs. I was happy to hear that Peggy finally placed an order from one of the drug donation companies that Christine and I applied to on the clinic's behalf. The order supposedly contains tens of thousands of dollars of medications for Peggy's clinic and other medical facilities on the island, at a whopping $465 cost to the clinic simply for shipping and handling. I hope the shipment arrives relatively soon and bears as many drugs as promised.
The tutoring program that we ran at Children's Palace Bilingual School came to a close this week. We administered another diagnostic test and saw modest improvement in all of the tutees' test scores. Overall, I was pretty disappointed by the school's disinterest for the tutoring program. It is not the children's fault that they did not want extra math classes outside of school, but I plan on taking better account of community needs in the future. If nothing else, I enjoyed connecting with the students when they did show up, I had a great time getting to know the other tutors, and I like to think that I imparted a bit of knowledge through my two afternoons each week of teaching basic math. I don't think the kids are worse-off after taking the program, and maybe future tutoring projects can use some of the lessons that we've learned to be much more effective.
Yesterday we had a little goodbye party with food and friends at our apartment, and now we have just five short workdays before our return to the United States. I'll give another reflective update before the end, and I hope all is well as usual back home.
