Interning from A-Z

I think that when people find out I’m interning in Honduras with a medical clinic, they often assume I do really awesome things like perform brain surgery on babies or chase monkeys through the rainforest. Today, I alphabetized patient files for 4 hours. The only upside to filing in Honduras is you can take a break to go bother the men sowing plantain roots in the field down the hill. Let’s be honest, an intern’s life is a glamorous one, no matter what country you’re in.

Besides the great file-fest 2009, I’ve gotten to see a lot more of how the extended care aspect of the foundation works. When North American teams come down they refer kids from clinics to extended care for things like heart problems, club feet, cleft palates, eye problems, etc. I spent most of Monday working with Pascuala the nurse, helping her organize patient referrals from the last round of mountain clinics. Tuesday I went with Pascuala and Elmer (the foundation’s bus driver) to a city called El Progreso, where we met with 11 kids and their guardians who had been referred for extended eye care. I never really understood how easy we have it in the States between computerized medical records and a high adult literacy rate. Suffice to say everything is done by hand, explaining the concept of “every 2 hours” to a grown man with only a 3^rd grade education takes some creative thinking and I can’t imagine anyone from home walking 12 hours one way to get their kid in to see the ophthalmologist. By the way, that word is a whole lot easier to spell in Spanish (oftamologo).

In all seriousness, I really like it here. I have a great set up at the house, this place is beautiful and everyone working at the clinic is so nice. Pascuala already invited me to her house on Sunday (although I think that’s because she wants help figuring out how her internet works), and Esmerelda, the woman who cooks, told me I could come over next weekend and learn how to make tamales.  North Americans and Hondurans keep asking me if I get lonely around here but so far the answer is no because a) it’s only been like 4 days of being alone, b) I go to bed by 10 every night anyhow, and c) there is usually a steady stream of people in and around at least until 6 when it gets dark.

And also, if I’m ever bored, I can just eat a mango.