Life here overall is really good. Fr. Greg has developed an organization that is run by Guatemalans and then American volunteers can come down and fit in where they can, but the main focus is on learning as opposed to "helping". There really isn't much Americans can do that the Guatemalans can't do better, faster, and with fewer resources. Their hospitality to us has been amazing and we are grateful to be here. A typical day for us is to wake up around 6 and get ready for the day. At 7 we head down to the Parish for coffee and breakfast. By 8:30 we are up at the clinic getting ready to start the day. I see inpatients with Dr. Tun while Lois starts seeing physical therapy patients. After inpatients, we visit the new babies and new moms, then to the ER to see if there's anything big going on there, and then to the consult clinic where Dr. Tun sees 10-15 patients and I see 5-10 patients in the morning. We give numbers to the first 15 folks who show up - then after we finish with them, its kind of first come first serve. The reason for that is that if you get a number, the price is discounted. It provides an avenue for poorer folks to come early, get more complete care, plus the discount. People with a number pay roughly 50 cents for the visit, and then buy their medicines at cost. People without a number pay around 7 US dollars, and buy their medicines at a little bit higher price. People can also choose not to wait at all and go straight to the ER (much like the US) but the price there ranged from 10-15 US dollars. People who show up early get a number and as a result get their chart from chart room with all their other records. They also get their vitals taken before they see us. People that just wait without a number show up without any charts and no vitals so its a little more challenging to understand the full story. People can also choose to go to one of the private clinics in town, but ours is the only facility that is open 24 hours a day and weekends. Our most busy days are Mondays and Fridays because of the weekend, and then Tuesdays, because it is a market day. Wednesdays and Thursdays are a little quieter, so we spend more time working on development projects. Some of these projects are: preparation materials for medical groups, medical presentations for promoters or hospital staff, and medicine storage organization.
We are enjoying the people and the work as well as learning more every day about the culture, language, and just medicine in general. We hope in the coming days we'll get to keep learning and fitting in where we can.
***The picture is of Dr. Tun. He has been the hospital physician for about 10 years and it is clear he is well respected in the community. He has been a really supportive mentor for us both.***
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