Jan 07, 2013
After an exhausting day of jumping borders the day before, we were ready to start our first clinic at Santa Familia. My group, which called ourselves Dengue Fever, were assigned to do triage, meaning that we were to intake patients, get their weights, heights, and find out what is wrong with them, so that the people who were in assessment could easily pinpoint the issue.
In a matter of mins we were set up and ready to roll; we didn't have to wait long, as many people started pouring in. There was a little issue with language barriers, but after getting down the basic phrases of taking people's heights and weights, it wasn't that big of an issue.
Several interesting cases came in --from a baby with a very high fever to another small child taking a baby aspirin to an adult with a the simple headache. The highlight of the day came in the last few mins of the clinic, when a man came in, stating that he was using his machete three weeks prior and ever since, has not been able to bend his pinky finger, even when bending the remaining fingers.
Dr. G sprang into action and using his magical arts, managed to put the finger back into joint and the machete man was able to bend his whole hand, just like that.
It was awesome to see everyone working so well together, considering the fact that pretty much no one had ever done anything caliber ever.
After said clinic (and after going to use a random person's bathroom and feeding some malnourished cows), we drove over to where the Mopan and Macal rivers meet. It was gorgeous to see a clear river meet with a murky one. We even saw some huge, orange, iguanas on tees.
On the way back, as we were all fearless explorers, we tried some (hopefully ripened) Jamaican Limes. The only way I can describe them is to say that they tasted like a warhead, but looked like a tangerine.
After making our way through a wooden bridge that seems to have been made during the dawn of the dinosaurs, we made our way back to Proworld. Grant gave us a little speech about how well we worked together, and then gave us a kind of wake-up-call, if you will. He made us think about what would happen to those people who came into the clinic had we not gotten there. That baby with a high fever? The mom probably would have stayed at home without knowing that the baby's life was in danger. The man with the machete finger? He probably would have continued living with a non-viable finger for the rest of his life.
I knew that what we were going to do was important, but until he said what he said in the way he said it, it didn't truly sink in just how much of a difference we were making. The more I think about it now, the more grateful I feel that I was given this chance to participate, because I feel like I touched the lives of each and everyone of the patients.
Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post: (1) My camera died (2) other people have better pictures, and (3) I didn't want to DL other people's pictures and put the on here.
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