Today marks my second to last day at the clinic :( Throughout this experience, I have learned so much about rural health and grown so much as a person. Being at school, it is so easy to get caught up and sucked into such trivial scenarios, but working in a clinic like Primeros Pasos for two months has been a real reality check. Not only am I reassured that I want to earn a MD/MPH degree, I am fairly sure that I want to spend part of my time working in rural health. I'm so thankful to both Primeros Pasos and Duke Engage for giving me such a wonderful experience.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Thought of the day
It's so easy to get caught up in minute problems, but always be thankful for what you have. This past week, I saw some of the worst medical cases I have ever seen due to lack of access to medical care on a regular basis. So sad, yet so humbling. I'm so thankful for the life I am able to lead.
xoxo
xoxo
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
¡Awww qué lindo! Me encantan los ninos
I absolutely love working with the children both in and out of the clinic! Here are some pictures from today:
LAGO ATITLAN
Well, if you haven't heard of Lago Atitlan before, don't be surprised because I hadn't either until 2 weeks ago. A few of my coworkers decided to go to the lake two weeks ago, and had an AMAZING time. So much that they decided to go back this past weekend. The lake was SO much fun and soooo relaxing, which was exactly what I needed.
We took a chicken bus down to a town called Panajachel (better known as Pana), and took a water taxi across the lake to San Pedro la Laguna. We stayed at the AWESOME hostel, Zoola, which had amazing food and looks so cool.
Inside the hostel
View from the hostel
Same view
Basicallyyyy, my weekend consisted of stuffing my face with some of the best veggie/organic food I've ever had and relaxing. Oh, I also did a hike up Indian Nose (one of the small mountains) at 3AM to see the sun rise. Best weekend ever.
Such a beautiful view
Good Morning!
We took a chicken bus down to a town called Panajachel (better known as Pana), and took a water taxi across the lake to San Pedro la Laguna. We stayed at the AWESOME hostel, Zoola, which had amazing food and looks so cool.
Basicallyyyy, my weekend consisted of stuffing my face with some of the best veggie/organic food I've ever had and relaxing. Oh, I also did a hike up Indian Nose (one of the small mountains) at 3AM to see the sun rise. Best weekend ever.
Espero que pueda mostrarte el camino
Today was really an awesome day. While I'm still tired from the lake (I promise, I will do a post about that tonight), I finally realized what I want my project to be. For the past 5 weeks, I've been trying to come up with some type of research/ project to culminate (and maybe be continued in the future) my DukeEngage experience. Receiving DE funding is such a blessing, and I don't want to passively cruise through my experience.
At the clinic, I work as a children's health educator, which requires teaching talleres (lessons) to the children both in and out of the clinic. However, when the children come to the clinic, their parents (usually mothers) often come with them. Through the Healthy Schools program, we teach the children nutrition, hygiene and how to brush their teeth, and after they receive a free checkup and medicine (if needed) from the doctors. Today, while I was watching one of my coworkers teach the teeth-brushing section of the lesson, I began to look at the children's teeth and realized that many of them have not so great teeth :( I think came to the realization that just teaching the children probably isn't the best way to go about implementing behavior change. It would be beneficial to teach the parents, who sit and talk to each other during the times the children have their lessons. I talked to my supervisor, and she agreed that it would be a good idea to think of some lesson plans for the mothers! This would be really awesome because it would engage the parents as well and try to implement behavior change from multiple areas.
Hopefully I can begin planning tonight and get this together as quickly as possible!!
Until next time,
xoxo
At the clinic, I work as a children's health educator, which requires teaching talleres (lessons) to the children both in and out of the clinic. However, when the children come to the clinic, their parents (usually mothers) often come with them. Through the Healthy Schools program, we teach the children nutrition, hygiene and how to brush their teeth, and after they receive a free checkup and medicine (if needed) from the doctors. Today, while I was watching one of my coworkers teach the teeth-brushing section of the lesson, I began to look at the children's teeth and realized that many of them have not so great teeth :( I think came to the realization that just teaching the children probably isn't the best way to go about implementing behavior change. It would be beneficial to teach the parents, who sit and talk to each other during the times the children have their lessons. I talked to my supervisor, and she agreed that it would be a good idea to think of some lesson plans for the mothers! This would be really awesome because it would engage the parents as well and try to implement behavior change from multiple areas.
Hopefully I can begin planning tonight and get this together as quickly as possible!!
Until next time,
xoxo
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Halfway mark!
It's been a while. I'm actually a little more than my halfway mark here in Xela :( I really love it here and I can't believe how time flies! I had a really busy weekend and I'm excited so I'll write more later!
xoxo
xoxo
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