Another day of seeing patients was swept right out
from under my feet. I’ve been excited to
work with the hondureño doc this week (and probably my only week), but then I
got asked to work in the pharmacy today instead. Ok… I’ll go where they need me. At least I snuck in some translating for ER
#2 here and there. Then on Thursday, J
and I will be doing pap smears and breast exams all morning. Can’t wait (actually, I can). Nah, we’re pros by now. Maybe more information than you wanted, but
it’s common talk among PA students.
Welcome to the club.
Berta, one of the nurses at the clinic asked me
where I was from and when I said Arizona, she pointed out the fact that that’s
where all the illegal immigrants cross into the U.S. and that now she knows to
come to my house whenever she wants to come to the U.S. Haha, that made me laugh.
A little more about the island that I don’t think
I’ve explained before… There are 3 types of people living here in Roatán. 1) The Islanders, who are Black and speak
mainly English, although they also know Spanish. There are also white islanders (literally
just a handful) who have been here since the British occupied the island. 2) The Hondureños, who are brown/Hispanic and
have come over from the mainland. They
speak Spanish only. 3) The Gringos, who
inhabit every tourist area and restaurant/bar in West End. It’s an interesting mix of people and brings
a nice variety to the island.
After work today, some of us volunteers at the
clinic went to a local school to tutor some students. I think (ok, I know) most of us were
expecting to help poor underserved students who were struggling. Instead, we were bussed over to the most
expensive school on the island to provide one on one help to a handful of kids
who would probably get along just fine if their parents at home spent some time
with them. It was a beautiful school
(remodeled resort), set on the edge of an unpopulated bay with a cooling sea
breeze coming in through the windows.
Any kid would be lucky to attend school there. The girl I worked with (3rd grade)
had some serious ADD, but that didn’t even compare to the kid ER #2 ended up
with. I’m more than happy to help and
love being around kids, but I couldn’t help thinking “I’m so glad I’m not
teaching anymore…” I do miss my high
school kids terribly though…
Tonight J and I had a daring adventure in the
kitchen. We had bought the makings for
spaghetti back on our first trip to the grocery store upon arrival in ghetto
paradise. So we decided we’d finally
attempt to cook in the kitchen. J
chopped up fresh vegetables for a salad and I set to work on the
spaghetti. Background: I trust NO dishes
that aren’t in the dish drainer. Who the
heck knows how long the dishes in the cupboards have sat there, collecting dust
and other things not to be named. So we
have 3 plates, 2 cups, a couple spoons, 1 fork, 1 knife, 1 pot and 1 skillet to
rotate through. Because I wanted a
bigger skillet to warm up the spaghetti sauce, I pulled out a bigger one from
the cupboard only to find a bug (earwig maybe) surprised and disturbed that I
had bothered him. I’ll stick to our
regular skillet then. After realizing we
only had plates for our salads (they are more like teacup plates), I pulled out
a larger one from the cupboard. After
finding a cockroach leg on the second one, I gave up. I will never use dishes out of the cupboard
again. And I will never cook in the kitchen
again. I am more than happy to spend
more money eating out. We start tomorrow
night.
Oh, and I can’t forget that I accidentally
squirted J in the face with mandarin orange juice when trying to open the can
with our new, less than acceptable can opener.
Oops…
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