3.29.11 and 3.30.11

“If you don’t use it you lose it.” It’s true. Of both Spanish and Algebra.

Roosters start crowing about 4:00 am outside of my apartment. Since air conditioning is a rare find, the windows stay open. Which means I hear them crow for A LONG time every morning. There are also a lot of chickens and dogs and geckos. It’s a short walk to the clinic in the morning. Just across the road an up a hill. If you’re lucky someone will pick you up and take you up the hill. It’s about 100 degrees and 150% humidity here. You never feel clean, even after a shower. This place is really beautiful. Mostly jungle and beach. Yesterday was a pretty tough day. My spanish is definitely not what it used to be. I am seeing patients (kind of) by myself, but it’s definitely difficult when I can’t understand all of what they say, and I can’t say what I want to. After clinic I went down to the dock and read for a while. I will be tutoring an islander on her Math for the SAT. Yesterday was the first day, and my algebra skills leave much to be desired. It’s been about 10 years since I’ve done algebra, so I’m learning with her. Thankfully, it came back pretty quick. I will be tutoring her 2-3 times per week. Yesterday I was pretty homesick, and I prayed that God would just give me more of Him and comfort me. He did. And for that I am so grateful. Last night, I got a new roommate. She is from Switzerland, and she’s volunteering at a school here. I think it’s going to be nice having someone else to stay with.

Every morning the nurse at the clinics greets me with, “good morning, doctora.” Sounds weird but there’s not really a translation for PA here. The past two days I have spent some time triaging patients and working on my basic medical spanish. I have also spent some time in the pharmacy dispensing medications. Then I will see patients in the exam rooms for the rest of the day. It’s going pretty good. I saw about 10 patients today by myself between 8:00 and 1:00. Mostly spanish speaking only - which means i looked up a lot of vocabulary during the visit!

The manager of our apartment came by yelling at our room around 6:30 this morning. If you need someone here, you don’t knock or call. You just come by their house and yell until they come to the door. It works, I guess. My morning routing which used to consist of shower, makeup, drying my hair, getting dressed (in matching clothes) now consists of brushing my teeth and putting on scrubs.

We are done with clinic for the day now, and I am going to the dock for a while.
Lace