Med Mission

Recently, two PCVs and I spent a week translating at a medical mission for doctors and medical workers from Creighton University at the ILAC center near Santiago. Their team of 40-50 traveled from the States, to treat hernia patients in the Cibao area of the Dominican Republic. The patients, mostly children, were Dominicans, Dominican-Haitians, and Haitians from rural campos or bateys who otherwise would not have had these surgeries. The medical team was great - a lot of just amazing, good-hearted people. Luckily, I had the chance to participate in their experience. This particular team of doctors travels here yearly to do hernia surgeries, so some of the patients had been scheduled last year during the 2009 trip, and in all, the final count for this 2010 mission was somewhere around 120 surgeries during their 5 day trip.

I’d never seen all sides of a hospital/clinic before, and watching a couple of the operations was pretty interesting. I spent most of my time in the Pre-Operation room, where patients came to wait after they had been checked in and approved for their surgeries. This room was pretty busy everyday, a lot of people waiting, some more nervous than others, and each time a patient was called into the Operation Room to start his or her surgery, we’d all applaud and cheer, “Vaya con Dios y Maria!” I chatted with the patients to fill out their medical history forms and mostly just tried to be fun for the little kids. In between waiting with the patients and coloring pictures though, there was work to do, claro - translating for the med students as they set up the patients with their IV’s, explaining anesthesia in spanish between the anesthesiologists and the patients, and translating for the doctors as they located, and marked the places for operation on their patients.

One time while translating to a patient for one of the doctors, we were having a bit of a tough time communicating English-Spanish, since this patient spoke only Kreyol (don't know much Kreyol...yet. ;) ). So I went out to the waiting area to find someone who could translate. Thankfully, some of the family members there could speak both Kreyol and Spanish. So we had a little language train going - the doctor asking the question in English, me translating it to Spanish, the caretaker asking the patient directly in Kreyol, the patient answering, and then passing the answer back along this line, eventually reaching English. A pretty cool moment; I love that sort of thing.

It was a great week, sharing with wonderful people. Enjoy the photos!

Pre-Op Room:

Recovery Room:

Waiting Area:

ILAC Center:

Roomies for the week:

The 2010 Hernia Mission Group:

Ok, that was a lot of pictures. But maybe not quite enough - check out this link and this link for more. :D

Thanks for reading; much love!

XO

Lock it up.

(from Wednesday November 10, 2010)

Events since I last wrote: a Cholera Consolidation, Medical Mission, and Hurricane Tomas Consolidation.

Update and pictures: Coming soon.

For now: This fun little story.

Thanks for checking in. So in exciting Peace Corps news, recently I locked myself into my porch. Wait, what? Reread it. Yes, that is correct - so essentially, I was locked in and locked out all at once. My keys forgotten inside, I found myself stuck between two locked doors - simultaneously unable to enter and unable to exit my house. How ironic. Slightly poetic. And completely idiotic. If you can just picture the scene: iron bar windows on a porch, in a maybe 3x7 foot space, cement block walls on all sides, and me stuck in the middle - going nowhere. Buuueno. So, I did what anyone would do:

1. Spent nearly 30 seconds fruitlessly pulling, pushing, and kicking at both locked doors.
2. Debated yelling for help (...and be forever embarrassed when neighbors recall the time they rescued the Americana who locked herself into the porch? Tempting, but absolutamente no).
3. Immediately nixed the idea of crying for help.
4. Escaped through an opening in the roof and climbed down the outside of the building to the ground level. (Without damaging a thing - on me or the house).

Must have been a sight, but overall - a triumphant success. All in less than 2 minutes. I felt like an amazing, quick-thinking undercover detective-spy-secret agent, able to conquer and do anything. Then I remembered that I was the idiot who locked herself in the porch, and felt a lot less cool. Typically, I think this may fall under the type of embarrassing story that you just keep to yourself and hope no one ever finds out about. So that was the approach I had decided to take. Until I left my keys inside this morning, and had to escape from the house all over again. (Yep, so that’s this story x2). On the bright side, at least now I’ve perfected a way to both enter my house, and escape from being locked in. But twice in one week? A little much. And thus, a story to share, that will hopefully make one of you reading laugh.

So I’ve been sort of out of it this week, maybe it’s because I can’t see well, or because my ears feel like they’re underwater. I don’t know, but it’s cold lately (81 today) - I’m wearing a sweater everywhere. This week I’m making my first trip to the PC medical office (first visit for a medical reason, that is). I’ve heard good things. So in that case - maybe a prescription to help me remember my keys? :) Vamos a ver.

More soon! Take care,

XO