August 1, 2010: Week 3
This week was a short week in the clinic – we only worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. There was a pediatric conference on Thursday and Friday, so all the pediatric clinics were closed. I suspect we had more patients in these 3 days than we normally do because of this closure. We saw over 20 patients everyday, instead of 10-12 patients. I liked being able to see more patients. It kept me in the clinic longer, and we were able to see more sick children. This was also the last week that Dr. Quinn (Kevin) was going to be with us. There is a new doctor coming in on Monday though.
Because we were able to see more patients, there was a larger variety of illnesses aside from the usual diagnoses of parasites, chickenpox, cough/cold and fever. Some of the more notable patients had cancer and hydrocephaly. I felt really bad for these kids because it seems as though they need more medical care than they were receiving here on the island. Both cases were shipped to the mainland for additional care. I really liked these children because even though they had disadvantages, they were still the happiest and least tempermental in the clinic.
Outside of the clinic, I continued teaching in the afternoons with ESL and E-learning. This was going to be the last week for ESL because there was a break in the school session. We did a thorough review of everything we had learned in the last 3-4 weeks and played a couple of games to help the material sink in. We had an awards presentation for those kids who regularly came to the classes. In E-learning, we continued with reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The kids are warming up to me and the other volunteer. They look forward to our lessons and reading sessions.
I’m starting to get into the swing of things here. The weeks are passing by a lot quicker than it did my first week in Roatan. The weather is still a little erratic, but it has gotten a lot cooler. I did a couple tourist-like things like white water rafting and ziplining so far. I plan to go snorkeling more and visit more shops to buy souvenirs soon.
