la dulzera de su carácter

"Nunca perder la dulzera de su carácter"

Never lose the sweetness of your character.

I have made a point to closely shadow the nurses who I have been working with for the last three months. I have watched procedures with them (and helped with some!), watched them interact with patients of all ages, chatted with them about all sorts of things, and asked them for advice as a future nurse.

One of my first days working with nurses, three months ago, one of them told me the quote above: Never lose the sweetness of your character. She told me that some days are so frustrating and that sometimes people can be completely rude and ungrateful, but that is shouldn't keep you from offering a smile and kind words

This Saturday, after over three months of living and working in Roatán, I am heading back to the States. I feel more ready than every to go to nursing school, and I'm excited to say that I'll be starting my classes for my nursing degree at Regis University in May.  There have been some very hard, frustrating days. But this advice from my friend will always stick with me. I have also had so many good experiences and learned so much. I am so grateful for all of the amazing people who helped me get here and who I have met during my time here. It's been a great 14 weeks!

go with the flow

A piece of advice that is often given to travelers is to learn to be very flexible. Often things don't happen on time. Or they don't happen at all. Or they happen in a round-about way that doesn't seem to make any sense and takes a lot more time and maybe doesn't produce the results or arrive at the destination you were looking for but you just have to go with the flow.

While living in Brazil, I learned that when people want things to be done at a specific time (for example, a business meeting), they request that it be done on "American time" (as in, like a person from the United States would do it). It was not uncommon for both students and professors to show up half an hour late (or more... or not at all) to classes. When someone says they'll be there soon, usually that means within the next hour or two, not the next five minutes. Sometimes the bus doesn't show up. Sometimes the metro is broken down. Sometimes there is a strike or a holiday so everything is closed for three days (or more).

It's good to learn to go with the flow, to be able to adapt and figure things out when things don't go exactly as planned.  The idea that "time is money" is pretty deeply ingrained in our culture, and don't get me wrong, I like to have my schedule just as much as any other gringo (you should see my day planner from college... yikes!), but traveling has definitely helped me learn that a schedule can't rule my day or my life.

But how does that translate to healthcare?

In both clinics that I am working in here on the island, appointments are not scheduled at a specific time. You can set up an appointment for a specific day, but you still have to make sure you arrive early enough that your "spot" isn't taken. Dra. Cerritos hands out little tiny signed slips of paper with a date written on it. Patients/parents come back on that day and turn in that little slip of paper to the receptionist, who then gives them an even smaller piece of a paper with a number written on it. That represents their place in line to see the doctor. The doctors only see a certain number of patients every day (Dra. Cerritos sees 15) so if you are not here early enough, you don't get to see the doctor. I have talked to parents who have come as early as 6 in the morning to ensure that they are seen by the doctor. I don't start triage until 8:30. Dra. Cerritos doesn't usually arrive in the clinic until around 10:30 (She works in maternity in the morning with the new mommas), and sometimes it is even later than that. So families are waiting in the heat for literally hours to see the doctor.

I can't tell you how many times a morning parents peek their head in the clinic to ask, will the doctor be seeing patients today? What time does the doctor show up? And I cringe because I have to answer, "Well... usually she's here around 10:30, but sometimes she gets here as early as 8:30 or 9..." More than once, emergencies have come up in the maternity ward and she has had to rush off. In these cases, I have to work up the courage to step out into the little waiting area and tell the parents who have been waiting for hours in the heat with their hot, sick, crying kiddos that the doctor will not be able to see you today. I am so sorry.

The inconsistencies are really tough, and this goes beyond the scheduling. One day, the electricity went out. I was reading babies' weights with a flashlight. And with the electricity, we lost our air conditioning (Global Healing has provided an air conditioner that we get to use inside the clinic). So instead of stepping into a refreshing clinic, families stepped into a hot, dark room with a sweaty volunteer (me) to measure their kiddos. Another day, a different lock had been used to lock the clinic, so I spent all morning looking for the key and started triage late. The first week I was here, we ran out of paper towels so I had to use gauze to wipe down the clinic at the end of the day (PS thank you ALL for those donations.....I have never been so excited for disinfecting wipes). One morning I spent half an hour chasing a tarantula out of the clinic. Yesterday, I showed up at the hospital to find out that the specialized doctors had gone on strike after not receiving their pay. All of Dra. Cerritos' patients were turned away by the receptionist, which shouldn't have happened -- She is part of the hospital staff, but her salary from the pediatric clinic is paid for by Global Healing.

I've said it before, but to my foreign eyes all of this can feel a bit chaotic. It is good to see some of these inconsistencies alleviated by Global Healing. Today, thanks to the consistent paycheck from them, we will be able to see 15 patients while the other pediatric doctors do not.  As far as all the other surprises, I guess I'll just keep going with the flow.

On my way to Roatán!!!

Hello from Houston, Texas! I’m finally on my way to Roatán. I left Denver at 6 this morning -- yikes! Thanks, Mom and Dad for waking up to take me!! And I really did need their help… I am bringing with me over $2000 worth of donated medical and school supplies!!!!!!!!!! About half of these donations are from friends and family in the Denver area, and the other half is a donated Project C.U.R.E. kit.

This is what 100 pounds of donations looks like!

making sure it was under the weight limit—is there a better way to do this?

and here it all is changing flights at Houston (The two giant green-grey duffle bags. Photos taken from my seat in the airplane.)

So now I’m in Houston and (thank you, coffee) I am able to think about the last couple months and the months ahead. I have already learned so much just by preparing for this experience, and first and foremost, I have learned about the incredible generosity of people, so allow me a moment to give a shout-out to the Castle Rock High Noon Rotary Club, First Presbyterian Church in Boulder, the Castle Pines Rotary Club, Project C.U.R.E. and countless friends and family. I could not be in this airport today without the support (financial and otherwise) of my community.

A lot of people have asked me what I am most excited about. Aside from, um.. EVERYTHING, I am really excited to start to learn about some of the nitty-gritty of healthcare. In the reading and research I’ve done this summer, especially focused on international health outreach (which included some books and lots of reading news articles and blogs about international development, e-mailing or sending twitter messages (seriously) to people who write those articles and blogs) I really feel like I have only barely begun to attempt to scratch the surface of learning what healthcare outreach looks like. This is a little overwhelming (and very humbling). But now, the opportunity is in front of me to see what a couple of these organizations actually look like in action – and I get to be a part of that action! THAT is the thing I am most looking forward to. This opportunity to work in Roatán is a chance to get my foot in the door in the kind of work I see myself doing for a long time.

But, you know, I’m only in Houston now J I’ll be updating from Roatán soon!