I finally got up on time today, because I gave up on getting my iPod alarm to work and asked Alex to work. We started out the day with a nice workout, doing some pushups, chin-ups, and sit ups. We followed that up with a game of 21 between the two of us. It took about two chin-ups and three minutes of basketball to realize that I am terribly out of shape and I will never be good at basketball. The rims here are only 9’ tall, which makes short white guys like Alex and I feel a little better about ourselves.
After a shower and a pancake breakfast, we headed out to the clinic that is in La Union. The clinic is funded by Vida Abundante, same as the Compound we are staying at, and is located up on top of a hill, near the bilingual school on the outskirts of town. Kelley and Alex Macbriar are both very interested in public health and therefore wanted to see what health options exist in La Union, and what problems the healthcare has. The rest of us were all curious to see the clinic, so we also went. The entire group of us walked out there and, as per pretty much everything we do these days, got in a single file line behind Jose and waited for him to tell us if we could go in or not. Within a few minutes, a man named Victor came out and said that he would be glad to give us a tour. He first showed us the examination room where basic exams are done. Then he showed us the “rehydration room”, which is a room with a few beds and a device to help children with respiratory problems. These problems are very common here in Honduras due to the type of stoves they have. Most homes use wood burning stoves for all of their cooking, and many don’t have proper ventilation to the outdoors. Because of this, all of the smoke pours into the house, leaving soot stains on the walls and getting into the residents’ lungs. I was told that respiratory problems are the most common thing seen at the clinic, that they are the leading cause of death of young children, and that these problems are mainly due to these stoves.
When asked, Victor told us that most of the procedures that they perform are done for a small charge but that, if a family cannot afford it, they are given for free. However, he said that they do not have a large demand for these free services, because many people are ashamed to use them.
After seeing the rehydration room, Victor showed us the dental room. This room had one chair, a light, and what seemed to be pretty basic dental tools. He said that they do cleanings, extractions, and repairs on damaged teeth. We did not get to talk to her, but he said that there is a full time dentist that works there. He also said that there is one full time doctor, Lino, which we later met, and two full time nurses.
Next to the dental room was another room, whose name eludes me, which contained a refrigerator. He said that this fridge is used to hold tests which need to be kept cool, but that they do not keep any vaccinations, nor do they keep any prescription drugs which need to be refrigerated. He mentioned that HIV tests used to be in there, but that they had expired so they were no longer there.
The clinic is also capable of doing minor operations, so Victor showed us the operation room. It contained two small beds and some basic tools. Victor said that it was equipped to handle minor cuts, but that they could not fix breaks because they couldn’t do x-rays at the clinic.
Next it was on to the maternity ward. They had two beds where women could lay while going into labor and, in the room next door, one birthing bed. Victor told us that it costs about 700 Lempira, about $35, to have a child delivered at the clinic. He also said that it was not very common, because most people had children delivered by a midwife in their town. In addition to these two rooms, there was a post-natal room which had several beds in it.
Victor then decided to take us to the pharmacy, but on the way we saw a small stand full of glasses. When asked he told us that this was their supply of donated glasses and that people could buy them for 10 Lempira. He also said that glasses were assigned by age, although an optometrist comes in for one week per year to do eye exams.
The pharmacy was located in a separate building out behind the clinic and contained a pretty decent supply of medications. When Alex asked him what medications they ran out of most often, he said Tylenol and Aspirin. I was shocked to see that they are using the name brand of these drugs, rather than generic brands which are much cheaper, but I am guessing that they were donated. They also had a wide range of drugs to cover most basic maladies.
To our surprise, located next to the pharmacy was a room labeled ‘X-ray Room’. Victor brought us in and showed us an x-ray bed and equipment, which was conveniently located next to two dirt bikes which made the room reek of gasoline. It took me a few minutes to figure out that this x-ray machine had been donated by somebody who had never followed up or made sure that it was in use. The location next to the pharmacy, the lack of protective gear for workers, and the lack of training of workers have resulted in an extremely expensive piece of equipment that has not once been used. I was appalled by this, but Kelley and Alex told me that this is actually an extremely common occurrence. People donate expensive equipment (or the money to buy it), but do not make sure that people are trained, disposable parts are refilled, or the machine can be kept in working order. As a result, they said that there is tons of expensive medical equipment sitting in clinics unused, such as this x-ray machine. This means that the money donated for these machines has been completely wasted, when it could have gone to other, more worthy causes such as buying prescription drugs or other, more basic, testing equipment.
This pretty much concluded our visit to the clinic, although Kelley and Alex, and possibly myself, would like to go back there again to do some more observations. We said thank you to Victor for showing us down, and headed down the hill and to the compound to the school.
This school, the one that Jake teaches it, is the one which we will be getting all of our translators from, so we told Jake and the school’s principal that we would stop by and say hi to all of the classes. We didn’t want to overwhelm the children, so a few of us stayed outside at an observation area, which gave a good view of the city of La Union, while the others went into the classrooms and introduced themselves. With this completed, we went back to the Compound to grab some grub.
Our plan for the afternoon was to go to Valley of the Deer, a small village right outside La Union, in which extensive work has been done by International Aid. As we got ready to leave, however, we saw a few rain drops and decided to wait and see what the weather was to bring. In less than five minutes, we found ourselves watching a full-fledged thunderstorm, with some pretty intense rain. This lasted for most of the evening, so we resigned to staying on the compound for the afternoon.
Much of the afternoon was spent discussing the clinic and potential projects or options for things that can be done to improve medical care in the region. Kelley, Alex, and Derek had most of the discussion, but I thought it was interesting so I stuck around. Alex is interested in coming back down to La Union for around a year, so they discussed potential projects which he could work on this summer, and then begin to implement over the following year. I could talk about these things but it would take me another hour to write all of this, so I am going to skip it for now.
These discussions occupied much of the afternoon, but after dinner some of the children from the school stopped by. It is amazing that, just because we had gone and introduced ourselves, we had almost ten kids come and talk to us. Also encouraging to us, they spoke surprisingly good English and were very nice. One of the guys told me that he could beat me up if he wanted to, but that it would be mean for him to embarrass me.
Once everyone went home, I went on the computer to upload the three entries which I had finished so far. Other than that, I finally got a chance to sit down and do some reading, which was really nice, and then got to a little writing. I am out of things to say for the day so, until next time, adios.
Patrick
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