Duck, Duck, Goose

Today was our second day at the clinic, and the first day that I rotated out of triage into the back rooms. We had a really early morning today. Breakfast was at 7:30 and we were in the bus winding our way up the mountain by 8:30. After a couple minutes of chaos while everyone tried to get situated in their new stations, Grace and I settled and began to wait for the first prescription to fill. And wait. And wait. And wait. We started at 9:00 and it was easily 11:00 or 11:30 before we got our first prescription.


But that wasn't an issue at all, because Kathy kept the two of us so entertained with her war stories from the ER. I would have been more than happy to just sit there all day and listen to her stories. I learned so much about the things that can happen to people and the ways that we can work to heal them. Also, I learned where stones are the most painful, how to know if you have them, and what the biggest risk of high blood pressure is - all things I never knew. We also touched on the health condition of a certain head of the state department. It was so much fun and so incredibly informative. It made me look forward that much more to when I work with Dr. Lauri and Dr. Richard at some time over the next four days.

My lunch was provided by a local Guatemalan family - and it was fantastic. It occurred to me about half way through that meal that maybe the meal wasn't all that sanitary, but nonetheless, it was some really good chicken and rice.

After lunch, I was scheduled to go back out into triage and take the blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, etc.... of all the patients. At first, I was a little bit bummed about that, because I did triage all Sunday, but once I got out there I really enjoyed it. The actual taking of the vitals was quite straightforward and sort of boring (although it's always interesting to take the vitals of the babies when they come in), but during my down time all of us in triage played with the small children whose parents were waiting to see Dr. Richard in the clinic. And that was quite an experience. If I was able to upload pictures and videos from my camera to this blog I would. Playing Duck, Duck, Goose with the little children was so much fun. They absolutely loved it. And as much as they loved it, I can guarantee that we enjoyed it much more. I've heard so many people say that they just want to take a Guatemalan child home with them - and today, for the first time, I really appreciated the sentiment. They are just adorable.

Ian Bentley