Volunteer Days 5, 6, & 7: The Mountain Village
This week's multi day took us to a small mountain village south of Bocas called Pueblo Nuevo. Here, we hauled all of our medical equipment, donated supplies, and camping gear across a suspended metal bridge to set up for our 3 day clinic. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of our clinic site but I did get amazing photos below of the nearby river and mountainous background.) We washed and bathed in a local river, about a 5 minute walk from our living site.
The month of November holds three festive weekends including the Day of the Dead on November 3rd, the Cry of Freedom on November 10th, and Independence Day from Spain on November 28th. As a local told me, the November holidays in Panama hold a special place in their hearts and they love to pledge their political allegiance to their country. This love for their country leads the school children to practice their drums and horns in the dark of the night while everyone else tries to get some shut eye.
This was a fairly slow clinic compared to last week. We saw a multitude of patients beginning at 8:30 am and did not stop seeing patients until 5 pm. The people in this community seemed to have much more modern technology than Ensenada, the last community we served. The people in Pueblo Nuevo had cell phones, street lamps, and a large primary school with an even larger school band. They had tons of tiendas which are small home businesses that sell local drinks, canned foods, and any small necessities (like the Rite Aid of small Panamanian communities). The other largest, most noticeable difference was the presence of a Centre de Salud, a government-issued and volunteer-run organization that provides health education and serves as the communities main medical center. Here, they can follow up with doctors when they are available and get free health care services including contraceptives, hygiene products, and health education information.
Despite having a Centre de Salud, the communities still lack physicians to see regularly and they often do not have access to pharmaceuticals to treat their chronic or acute diseases. This is what makes the Floating Doctor's work necessary. We were able to treat growing abscesses, provide antibiotics, give a month's worth of diabetes medication, and give ultrasounds to the ever growing population of pregnant women.
Overall we had a successful week, but the lack of volunteers drove our work to a standstill at some times. Given that fall is the normal school and work season for people around the world, organizations are always in need of volunteers during the fall years. Regardless, we learned from the slow workings of the first day of clinic and managed our time well for a successful second day of clinic.
Stay tuned for blogs from my adventures for the weekend and next weeks multi-day clinic! Crazy to think I only have one more full week in Panama until I'm off to Peru. Buenas!
- Nicole
The month of November holds three festive weekends including the Day of the Dead on November 3rd, the Cry of Freedom on November 10th, and Independence Day from Spain on November 28th. As a local told me, the November holidays in Panama hold a special place in their hearts and they love to pledge their political allegiance to their country. This love for their country leads the school children to practice their drums and horns in the dark of the night while everyone else tries to get some shut eye.
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This was a fairly slow clinic compared to last week. We saw a multitude of patients beginning at 8:30 am and did not stop seeing patients until 5 pm. The people in this community seemed to have much more modern technology than Ensenada, the last community we served. The people in Pueblo Nuevo had cell phones, street lamps, and a large primary school with an even larger school band. They had tons of tiendas which are small home businesses that sell local drinks, canned foods, and any small necessities (like the Rite Aid of small Panamanian communities). The other largest, most noticeable difference was the presence of a Centre de Salud, a government-issued and volunteer-run organization that provides health education and serves as the communities main medical center. Here, they can follow up with doctors when they are available and get free health care services including contraceptives, hygiene products, and health education information.
Despite having a Centre de Salud, the communities still lack physicians to see regularly and they often do not have access to pharmaceuticals to treat their chronic or acute diseases. This is what makes the Floating Doctor's work necessary. We were able to treat growing abscesses, provide antibiotics, give a month's worth of diabetes medication, and give ultrasounds to the ever growing population of pregnant women.
Overall we had a successful week, but the lack of volunteers drove our work to a standstill at some times. Given that fall is the normal school and work season for people around the world, organizations are always in need of volunteers during the fall years. Regardless, we learned from the slow workings of the first day of clinic and managed our time well for a successful second day of clinic.
Stay tuned for blogs from my adventures for the weekend and next weeks multi-day clinic! Crazy to think I only have one more full week in Panama until I'm off to Peru. Buenas!
- Nicole
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