Today we did our
final teaching at the school. We taught 5th and 6th
graders about nutrition and had them cut out the various food groups and glue
them on a plate. The kids really enjoyed the activity and loved the fruits and
vegetables that we gave them afterwards. Dr. Eric was a great help in
translating the presentation. Unfortunately Kevin was not in town, so he could
not help us and we did not get to say goodbye to him. We left him a USF CON
T-shirt and a card, so hopefully he will remember us (I’m sure he will since we
greatly abused his translation skills).
I was able to
try an IV on a baby today, but unfortunately I did not get it. The first
attempt was ruined because the catheter kept slipping above the needle, and
then the vein disappeared! The second attempt I got the flash, but blew the
vein. I was discouraged, but this was only my second time trying IVs and
infants are difficult. Adelina, the nurse, even had difficulty getting the IV
in and she is amazing at inserting IV’s. I can tell she has a lot of experience
and enjoys her job because she is efficient and always has a smile on her face!
She never hesitates to educate the people at the clinic on how they can remain
in good health. She is not from the community but knows how to speak to the
people so that they will understand why they need to prevent illness and how to
do so.
 |
| Performing my first IV EVER on an 11 year old boy with Dehydration. |
We also got to
see Dr. Eric take a thorn out of a woman’s finger. Her finger looked a little
swollen with a small entry wound that looked infected. Dr. Eric decided to make
an incision to see if he could find the source of infection. He injected with
lidocaine and the woman began to cry. I was surprised that she showed such
emotion because most of the people are very stoic and strong. She cried into
Kayla’s arms as the doctor injected the lidocaine. This was a memorable moment
signifying the bond that we have formed with the community and their growing
trust in us. Dr. Eric used a scalpel to cut a two inch incision in the finger
and immediately puss began to drain. We could see a brown spot which was the
foreign object in the finger. Dr. Eric tried to pull it out with tweezers, but the
object would not come out. He pushed on the opposite side of the finger and
POP! Out came the inch long thorn, so he grabbed it with the tweezers and
completely removed it. I think all of us gasped because we were not expecting
the thorn to pop out like a jack-in-the-box! He laughed at us. Chiara got to stitch
two of the three sutures, which was cool, and the woman was put on antibiotics
and kept overnight because she lived so far.
We really lucked
out when it comes to the doctors of the clinic. Both speak great English and
they are great teachers. They could not be more excited for us to be there and
we have created such a great bond with them. They have invited us to come back
to the clinic any time and Dr. Eric has even said any time we want to come to
Panama City we can stay with him and money is no problem! Haha. We were saying
our goodbyes today because it was our last day at the clinic. When Dr. Eric was
telling us how emotional he felt and how we made his heart hurt because we were
leaving I felt like tearing up. If he would have kept talking I might have
cried. Everyone in the clinic was extremely happy to have us there and sad to
see us go. They all invited us back and said their doors will always be open
for us to return to Buenos Aires. The people of the village were also grateful to
have us spend time with them. They appreciated our taking interest in their
community and said we are like family to them. I did not expect to get so close
to the community in only three weeks; I will truly miss Buenos Aires. All of
the people in Panama have been so welcoming and hospitable. We walked into
their community as strangers unannounced and left as family invited back
whenever we would like. This experience is one which I will never forget and
actually makes me want to return to the village to visit or volunteer in the
future. I would like to polish my Spanish so that I can further bond with the
people of Panama.
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