breakfast appointment. It included cinnamony oatmeal, hard boiled
eggs, toast, and pineapple. We loaded our supplies, and headed out at
0730 to our first clinic. It was held at a local school about 10
minutes (by drive) from our orphanage. We arrived and set up in four
elementary classrooms down a corridor with an interior courtyard. The
registration was in the breezeway to the interior of the courtyard,
while the vitals/triage station was just inside under some trees. The
pediatric room, staffed by Lynne as well as another peds doctor from
USC, was right near triage. The room had a ceiling fan (life saver!)
and big windows on the interior and exterior walls facing the
courtyard and the entrance to the school.
The room next to peds was dedicated to wound care and women's health.
Beyond that room was the family medicine room, where families could be
seen one member after another.
The last room was our pharmacy, which was wall-to-wall sorted
suitcases of drugs. Kelly worked in the pharmacy, and was proficient
enough in catching errors and troubleshooting that others at lunch
asked her if she was a med or nursing student. When Lynne explained to
one nurse that Kelly is 13, she apparently stared back in disbelief.
Go Kelly! The pharmacy seemed full, but by the end of the day we'd run
out of albuterol for children. There is so much asthma here.
I worked as a Floor Manager, and pretty much stuck around peds all
day, as there was controlled chaos constantly. Children were in class
across the tiny courtyard, and "in class" is better defined as "class
is being offered, if the kids would come back inside." They were super
curious, and wanted to watch their friends and neighbors meet with the
American doctors. We found that these kids have an uncanny worship of
all things dental; if you're looking to stage a Latin American coup
using the population, you'd best pack toothbrushes, and lots of them.
Same with stickers, although this is also a common fascination in the
States.
All told, we saw approximately 300 patients today, and still made it
home in time for a wonderful dinner. What little excitement sack
lunches stirred up was made up for at dinner. We were served mashed
potatoes, seasoned and fried chicken, pineapple, and corn. Kelly and I
returned to the tent a while later to retrieve our gummy worms which,
in the heat, merged into a giant gummy blob. Not appitizing at all,
but we thought we'd cool it off and whip it out on the plane home for
some sugary comic relief. So much for thinking that chocolate
avoidance was sufficient!
After dinner Amy provided a brief talk on the orphanage system in the
DR. It was illuminating, and partially explained some of the rage
issues we witnessed amongst a couple of the orphanage boys over the
weekend.
Although exhausting, today was an awesome start to our week's clinics.
Tomorrow is a new community and new kids. They are all just as playful
and impish as our kids at home, these ones just mock us in two
languages instead of one. Below is a picture of Kelly in the school's
breezeway, saying goodbye to the kids as we were packing up for the
day. The little girls in front of Kelly had just moments earlier been
posing for the group of us, hands on hips, primadonna style. Watch for
more from these two cut-ups in Lynne's pictures.
It's 2300, and time for bed! Goodnight!
P.S. A shout out to my Pops - I'd forgotten what waking up to
dysfunctional roosters was like... The roosters here can't crow (like
they do in the movies), and it reminded me of our past roosters and
sexually confused hens. Cockle-doodle-(cough, gag, cackle). ;-)
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