Day 31

First day of my volunteer placement - how exciting! :)

Today was honestly one of the best days of my life – I can’t even express how happy I am right now! :)

It was my first day at my volunteer placements. I’ve been dreaming of volunteering abroad for as long as I can remember, and quite simply, today was like a dream come true. Not that I haven’t loved the last 4 weeks here, because I most certainly have, but the purpose of my being here, and what I've been looking forward to most, is volunteering. Of course, there were many things I needed to learn in order to begin volunteering, and for that, the last 4 weeks have been essential. All I can say is that I just can’t wait for all that the next 6 weeks will bring!

I could hardly sleep last night, partially because I was worrying about my credit card issue, but more so because I was just ridiculously excited for today! I woke up at 5:50am, and was smiling ear to ear as soon as I heard the alarm go off (which is a definite first...haha). I basically danced around as I made myself breakfast and got ready. Putting on a pair of scrubs (for the first time!) out of my shower brought me more joy than it probably should have :) I enjoyed the walk to the hospital in the morning sun.

When I first arrived, I had to do a lot of waiting. Everyone was just so busy, and no one really had time to show me around, which is completely understandable! I mean, here I am at their hospital, and although I have eager, sincere intentions to help as much as I possibly can, I don't really have much more than that to offer! I definitely understand that for me to be able to help, someone has to teach me how to help! This means that I am going to be somewhat of a burden to this hospital before I can contribute. I was introduced to a few different people, and was basically just passed around from person to person for the first hour or so. No one had time to teach me! Finally, I ended up in Emergency Pediatrics. A really friendly (and busy!) nurse took me under her wing. She did a 30 second run down of how to take temperature, weight, and height (not that it really requires exuberant amounts of explanation…) and she put me to work! I would call patients from the waiting area (there were probably close to 100 people waiting). And just for clarification, when I refer to a waiting area, I really mean outside of the hospital. There are just people crowded outside; parents standing in the sun holding their sick children. And here I am, barely able to speak and comprehend this language, and I’m calling children into the hospital. I had to laugh at myself, trying to pronounce half of these names was a mission and a half! Especially because here, each person has 4 names: 2 first names, and 2 last names. Oh dear. It got to the point where the staff and security guards were just laughing at my unsuccessful attempts to call out these names. Every time I would pop outside to call more names, the staff would be smiling before I would even open my mouth. It became like this mutual inside joke. It was actually a really great icebreaker! Hopefully I can improve my pronunciation of these names, especially as I become more familiar with Spanish names! After I called the patients in, I would weigh them, measure their height, and take their temperature. Keep in mind that they have old (non-digital) models of this equipment! There was one scale in the entire unit, and only 4 thermometers. And the thermometers were the classic mercury ones. We had to shake the mercury down below 35°C before using it. Now, I have no experience using medical equipment in Canada, so I really don’t know how they compare. However, I am assuming we have more than 4 thermometers per unit, and I assuming these thermometers take a digital, accurate reading in about 5 seconds, which is a heck of a lot better than the thermometers here that need to be kept in the same spot for at least 3 minutes! Regardless of how efficient it is, it does get the job done, which in the end is really all that matters!

From there, any child with a fever would be given Acetaminophen, and those without fevers would be sent back to the waiting room. It was really difficult for me to understand much more than that, because I couldn’t understand the coversations between nurses and doctors. I could only understand what was being said to me directly (because the person would usually try to speak slower and clearer), and even then it was a challenge! Over 70 children later, we took a brief break (less than 5 minutes…) for a half cup of juice and a graham cracker. We were back to work right away after that! I was doing miscellaneous tasks between taking measurements and temperatures such as preparing “suero oral” solutions to help with dehydration, bringing cold cloths to overheated patients, and updating records. All of these tasks were rather simple, but there was no doubt that they were important ones! Someone has to do these things! And I felt as if I was really helping, which was a great feeling! I was really happy to have been able to help as much as I did considering it was only my first few hours of work. I imagine I will be back there tomorrow, however my understanding is that I will be moving around to wherever needs me. We’ll see what this placement brings! And I hope I can continue to contribute, even if only through these seemingly small and simple tasks.

I went back to BaseCamp for lunch (from 12-1) and then spent the afternoon at the clinic. I was expecting to be doing much of the same types of tasks, but I definitely learned totally new things! When I was introduced to the head doctor, he didn’t seem very interested in me. He actually hardly looked up from his paperwork. I imagined he thought that I wouldn’t be much help to him, as I didn’t know how to take blood pressure or give vaccinations or anything. I didn’t understand all of what he was saying, but I understood enough to know he wasn’t going to waste his time on me. I piped up, and I explained to him that I may not know much now, but that I am eager and quick to learn! I told him that if he would be willing to teach me things, even if only one, brief time, I would learn. I told him that I really wanted to learn, and to be able to help more, I just really need someone who will take the time to teach me. He looked up at me, and with a half smiled he said “Okay. You can stay with me.”

So I was allowed to stay in the office of this doctor, with another doctor. The three of us sat around his desk, and when the first patient entered, I was expecting to quietly observe as the doctors performed the routine check-up. I was wrong. Apparently this doctor took me very seriously when I told him I wanted to learn (and I couldn’t have been happier!). He said “Alright Meagan, now you will learn how to take blood pressure.” (in Spanish, of course). So he had the other doctor show me once how to do it, they gave me a stethoscope, and away I went. This doctor was firm with me – he had me do it three times until he was sure I would do it properly, and he was very critical. But I loved it. I so enjoy the challenge of learning something new, and the way he pushed me to learn what he was teaching me, and to comprehend the explanation in Spanish, was exactly the type of challenge I wanted. And it didn’t end there. He had me take notes of every medical (Spanish) word that came out of his mouth. These are words that I wouldn't even know what they meant in English, let alone Spanish! And he made it very clear to me that if I was to shadow him, I would have to do research on the internet of all that we covered each day. The doctor was very thorough in his explanations, and I soaked up everything he was explaining. I learned perhaps the most I’ve ever learned in a single day. He taught me how to check for tonsillitis (both by feeling the neck, and by using the wooden stick). He taught me how to administer a vaccine (although because it was only a one-time thing, it wasn’t something I could practise after watching him do it). He taught me the normal and abnormal values for blood pressure, temperature, and the proper conversions between values. He taught me how to calculate the IMC (in Spanish – no idea what it stands for in English!). And all of this in one hour. He sent me one after 6 patients because he said I had a lot of research to do. I have spent a good portion of the night researching all of the vocabulary and conditions and medication he had me write down. I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn tomorrow!