Mocohan Clinic

What a busy week.

We had a team of nursing students here last week. They were a lot of fun, still learning a lot, but they were getting the hang of it before the end of the week.

We had a doctor and a nurse practitioner here with the team, and they each took a few students to do scribing in the computer, and to learn from them. The rest of the students either had triage rooms, or helped me. I was on pharmacy duty this week. We also had a few students doing health talks every day.
I had Elvin and Isaias helping in the pharmacy and with registration, but I was the English speaker, so any questions about the medications were my job.

It was challenging, because we didn't always have the medication that the providers wanted. Sometimes we didn't have enough of that particular drug. We did end up getting a shipment of medication in the middle of the week, which was wonderful and very utilized.

Towards the end, I admit I was getting a little frustrated because our prescriptions weren't printing, and sometimes we would be late in figuring out that someone needed a certain medicine. We worked together to write out the scripts, and sometimes the girls would give me a list of meds that the person needed so that we would not miss any. That definitely helped.

I didn't get a chance to sit in with any of the patient visits this week, which was a little sad, but it was fun being the pharmacy girl. I got to get to know the Guatemalan staff a lot better, and really began to feel like a part of the family.

The crowning moment for me was when Isaias (who is happily married by the way), said "You can make good coffee! Now you are ready for a husband!". Of course they all started to tease me and asked when I'll live here for good. I felt so loved and like they were my big brothers. It takes a while for this culture to accept white people because they are so used to having teams come and go. If you are willing to stay and live with them, they start to warm up to you. I finally feel accepted here. 

I even got to ride in the Guatemalan van instead of the Gringo (white people) van. 

We stopped on the way home one night and got roasted corn. It was dry but delicious.

They put salt on the lemon and rub it on the corn! yummy!

We had the chance to challenge the Guatemalans to a game of Futbol during lunch in the middle of the week. I played with the Americans because they needed help.

The Guatemalans creamed us though.

The whole week was a bit of a whirlwind. We saw about 300 patients total, and prayed for each one. We had two girls who were most likely being sexually abused, and it was hard to figure out what we could do for them. We wanted to get them to see a psychologist, or maybe get a social worker involved. At the moment we are still trying to follow up with them. 

I think my favorite part of the week though, was our final debrief with the team. One girl shared that she had lost her faith before coming here, but that God really reached out and pulled her back this week. She told us that she never wants to let go of God again. That was really encouraging. I hope to keep her in my prayers in the coming weeks. She is going to need strength as she goes back into her normal world, and nobody will have experienced what she has experienced. My prayer is that she goes and tells people about the God who is strong to protect and guide, and never leaves.