It's been far too long since my last blog post, but it's not my fault, I tell you! Here at the clinic, with the new doctors trying to get settled and learning Creole, and discovering how the radiography machine functions, and working with sisters in the clinic who don't speak any other language besides Spanish, means there is very little, if any, time for me to just relax and take some time to write my thoughts down. Or type them. Whichever, it's the same thing.
In the past two weeks (wow, it's been two weeks already!!!!!), I have done about 4 or 5 radiographies, two of which were failures and I had to redo. I will be redoing one tomorrow, on a 9- or 10- year old boy who may or may not have broken his pelvis in the earthquake. He's the son of one of the women who works in the kitchen and we don't know how badly injured he was, but he was put in a full pelvic and leg cast, so he must have been in bad shape for a doctor to take such drastic measures. I took three shots today of his pelvis and leg, then as I was developing them, each one I took out was completely black. I had to refer to the on-call x-ray tech, Charlie, back in Tennessee, and find out the problem. Still, I am not sure about exactly what is causing the x-rays to fail, but I will be working on it tonight and hopefully taking some lovely x-rays tomorrow morning. I'll post some photos of my previous, and successful attempts, with a woman with tuberculosis, a boy with an unlabeled and unrecorded forearm cast (the mother didn't know anything about it; where he had gotten it, when, how long he'd had it, nothing), and another girl who goes to school on the compound and thought she broke her writs earlier that day (she had only sprained it, so just a sling and pain meds for her). I'm getting better at it, but just yesterday, the red light bulb burned out and we can't find another one to replace it. After some collaboration with Charlie, I decided to do it mostly by feel, or with the light from my phone, if needed. The biggest part of the problem is that the room is only kept dark by cardboard duct-taped over the door. There is a lot of light that can still enter, and does. Still looking for better options for that.
The new group of doctors (Natalia, a dentist; Paloma, an obstetrician; and Alejandro, a general physician) has started working this week, only working with the previous doctors (Carolina and Gonzalo) for one day. They are doing a wonderful job and I think it'll be a wonderful six months. It sounds so cheesy, mucho queso en verdad, but I really think so. The biggest problem for us is language, but they speak enough English and I can understand and speak enough Spanish that we somehow seem to slog our way through a conversation.
There are an incredible amount of donated medications at the clinic, and we are lucky enough to be able to give lots of the extras to other organizations, like Heart to Heart International. There is also the Red Cross of Colombia staying here at the compound and they are going into the community to do health care for people who can't go elsewhere. Visiting nuns from other countries are also helping around the compound, and that makes for a very international group of people living here (international, yes, but mostly unilingual...I don't know if that's really a word, but let's just pretend it is for my sake. Most people speak Spanish, that's what I mean). A group with Pharmaceuticos Sin Fronteras just left a few days ago, and they will be continuing to help with the clinic in future weeks. They helped to organize all the donations and will be continuing to do so, which will be a HUGE help for the clinic. I am really excited to see so much focus on the clinic and so much assistance for the people around here.
I can't think of much else to write about the clinic, other than it is going really well and I am really enjoying it. It's super hard work and everyone is still trying to figure out how to function, since everything has changed so drastically, but it's still going quite well. I'm excited to be here for the next 6 months. Still haven't made up my mind about one year, it's possible, but I'm only dedicating myself to the clinic for the next 6 months, then I'll make up my mind after that whether or not I want to stay for another 6 months. One thing I must do before I stay for another 6 months is go to South America and visit all my friends there. Chile and Colombia at the least. Maybe make my way up through Peru then Central America, we will see. Before I commit to anything, I have to develop my Spanish. It's severely lacking now. However, I am proud to say I had a bit of foresight and I brought a novel in Spanish (El Leon, La Bruja, y El Ropero). I think I'll start on that tonight, see just how well I do.
Alright, after reading all that boring stuff, I'll sign off. It's about 80 degrees here, I'm at the Cruz Roja Colombiana and I think they'll be starting a movie later (yesterday, it was Casino Royale in English. Excellent.), and it's about time for my dinner, so I'll be heading across the soccer field in a few moments. For everyone in the states (and, actually, around the world), enjoy the Olympics for me and email me if anything exciting happens: margogoboots@gmail.com. I'm glad I'm not being bombarded with the tele and commercials and everything, that's for sure. But living like a nun is just about as much fun as it sounds, so I think I would probably appreciate a little distraction. Thank you Brian and Scott for setting me up with movies and shows and music, it's not going unnoticed.
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