Week 1: Entendamonos
Empiezo este discurso en espanol en honor de la cultura Latina que me va rodear por el proximo mes que anteriormente solo conoci de Mexico. Aunque no soy de familia Hondurena, todavía puedo disfrutarla y llamar este pais mi hogar. Inlcuso, este discurso es en honor de toda la gente que voy a conocer, ayudar y, si Dios quiere, toda la gente que ayudara en el futuro como medico. Ya cuando leen esta nota, jamas sera la misma persona. Pero no necesariamente es algo malo. Al contrario, yo me considere un humano un poco mas completo.
I arrived in Roatan on Saturday morning, July 14th in a state best described as a hodgepodge of different feelings. I was excited to start on an experience that I hope will continue to blossom as I forge my own path in life and also a little nervous because I want to give my best to the people of Roatan Global Healing. I’ve never been on any island before but as the plane ascended onto the tarmac, you could already tell that the island was picturesque to say the least. Deep blue ocean wrapped around the lush greenery on the island littered with buildings topped with Spanish roof tile. Dee, who I will be staying with for my trip, greeted me and took me on a short tour of Coxen Hole and Sandy Bay. In Coxen Hole there was a greater density of cement homes, some without windows, some homes along our way looked like they were half finished. Some homes were made entirely of wood and a few were in pretty poor shape. We traversed a few dirt roads until we reached the main highway which is a two-way paved road. Before arriving here, I was not sure what the island would look like. I’ve read that Honduras is considered a “developing country”, but even then I wasn’t sure what image to associate that term with. After the little tour throughout Coxen Hole and Sandy Bay, I realized that to a significant degree the population is poor. Although I am not a stranger to being low-income in the US, this was poverty at a different level. I have always held this belief that your character is not determined by the amount of money that you make, and after my first week at the clinic I have already determined that this is not just true in the US but even internationally.
I was anxious to meet Jena, who is the HEAL intern at el Hospital Publico de Roatan, and curious enough I met her while snorkeling right after I came from the airport. This alone tells me just how relaxed it is to live on the island. Curiously, I don’t even keep track of time. As for snorkeling, with a little push from Dee I got used to snorkeling even though I was really apprehensive about going out so far from land. The reef itself was very vibrant with its curious formations and the vibrant sea life. At the end of it I was happy that I wasn’t afraid to step out of my comfort zone. I have a feeling that I will be doing plenty of that during this internship.
Monday was my first day at the clinic and everything went extremely well. Jena met with me in front of Miss Peggy’s home and we hailed a taxi to el Hospital Publico. Right before we arrived at el hospital, Jena made a comment that it would not look like how I would imagine and oddly she was right. El hospital publico is a modest, largely single floor building with a lot of different clinics inside and a large ward which comprises the Emergency department. I imagined that the hospital would have a general waiting area and a little more organization. There were a lot of people sitting on benches and standing in front of the registration office. Rather than having waiting areas, the hospital has benches where the patients can sit as they wait to be attended. Jena and I made our way to the Global Healing clinic (Clinic #10) and the work began. That is where I also met the two attending physicians: Jess, who is a resident at Stanford, and Lenia, who is completing what is the equivalent to residency in Honduras. Jena is an excellent teacher and she gave a lot of terrific advice which helped me adjust to my duties. One of my duties as an intern is to triage patients for the Global Healing clinic at el hospital. Jena first demonstrated all of the questions to ask the patient’s parent(s) and where to place their records for the attendings. For the first couple of patients I fumbled a bit but as I kept working I felt as if I was getting better. And according to Jess, I got much more efficient at triaging by the end of this week. One observation I have made about the types of sickness that the children here have is that there are generally more cases of communicable diseases whereas a resource-rich country like the US has a significant number of children with chronic illnesses.
After my time at el hospital which has been ending generally around noon, I also have been going to Clinica Esperanza and volunteering there. For the most part, it looks like the clinic is fairly full with volunteers so I would like to include another activity in my afternoons. I am hoping that I might be able to do health education at the library or maybe plan a study comparing the health beliefs of children with diabetic parents and children with non-diabetic parents. I have started tutoring a few school kids at a nearby after-school program and that has also been very fun.
