Week 1 in El Sauce

Week 1 in el Sauce was such an adventure! I am working in the Rural Community Health Posts with a doctor and nurse each day. The main health post that I go to, Puesto de Salud en Panales, consists of 5 rooms: one for the doctor’s desk and examination bed (1st small photo); a pharmacy room; a room with 2 cribs and a small desk for one of the nurses; a room with the desk for another nurse, patient files, and hanging scale to weigh babies (2nd small photo); and finally a rather empty room, which is more of a hallway for patients to wait inside if they chose to do so. The health care provided at the posts is a social service program. The medical services and treatments are free to the patients and the medical workers are paid by the government. I have proved to be more helpful so far by working alongside the nurse. I am able to see and hear the questions and responses of the nurse and patient, and during the consult, the nurse often repeats important or interesting information to me to make sure I have understood and noted the medical issue. To assist her, I take blood pressures, weigh the babies (or mothers on the adult scale), chart the percentile of the child’s weight to check for malnutrition, and retrieve the necessary medications for the patient from the pharmacy, as prescribed by the nurse or doctor.
We also travel to other places along the countryside to bring medical services to those who live far away from the city and have little means of transportation. To do so, the medical group (consisting of a doctor, 2 nurses, myself, and occasionally other community members or World Vision workers) travel in the back of a truck, often picking up individuals (usually women and their children) who are walking in the same direction or who are on their way to the health post already. One time there were 16 people, including myself, in the back of the truck and 3 people sitting in the front. The roads that these trucks ride over are so rutted and riddled with pot holes, often very steep, and include several creeks and large rocks that are ridden over by the truck, so the truck rides are quite an adventure! On the way to the countryside sites, we pass fields of the plants shown in the picture, which will be used to make sheets of paper.
This past week I worked in the health posts Monday through Thursday. Each day I would meet the doctor at the Health Center in el Sauce at 7:00am, we would take the bus or truck to our destination, and return to el Sauce around 2:30-5:30 depending on the sites we went to. Several times, I believe, the doctor continued to see patients at the center after we returned to the city and one night the doctor and nurse worked all night without sleep at a health clinic, and then met me again at 7:00am the next morning. After returning from the health posts, I return to the house where I am staying (the house of Ileana Rivera, her husband, her husband’s mother, her daughter, her granddaughter, and her son) to eat dinner at around 5:30pm. If I get back early enough, I try to get some reading done for the SPAN399 course or go the Geneseo office to use the internet. Then at 6:00pm I go the English class to help out those who want to learn the language. The English class runs from 6-8 and is one of the most fun parts of the day!