Volunteer Days 8, 9, & 10: Bisira

A four hour boat ride south of base took us to the river town of Bisira. Weaving through the Rio de Bisira was an amazing natural experience for me. It was impossible not to be in awe of the beauty of the river because it held some of the greenest landscape I'd ever laid eyes on. When natives came heard our boats coming down the river, they would come out to the river edge and wave so everyone on our boats would wave back. Despite the long ride to my final multi-day clinic site, I enjoyed every second because it gave me a true sense of being in the jungle.

Not only was Bisira a beautiful place to work for 4 days, but the people in the town greeted us with a warm welcome. After helping us unload our supplies for the clinic the next day, some of the volunteers were invited to play volleyball with the local kids for hours. We also quite enjoyed eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the town's restaurant and even though we eat the same three meals everyday, the kitchen at this restaurant made the mealtimes more enjoyable.

Like I described in my previous post, November holds multiple holidays and holiday weekends for the people of Panama which lead to more band practices throughout the night. We fell asleep every night to celebrations recognizing Panamanian pride and listened to their Halloween party music in the rancho last night. Although their music and celebrations made for noisy nights, I truly enjoyed being around this very energetic community because it made me feel involved in their lifestyle. I'm glad that I got to experience this side of Panamanian life while they gathered and celebrated and I only regret that we couldn't stay around for the weekend and celebrate more.

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I spent my clinic days a little different this week, shadowing the Floating Doctor's general surgeon, Julio, during his patient consults. While I enjoyed my previous weeks of triaging patients and practicing my medical Spanish, I learned a lot from all the evaluations Julio did. We saw lots of pregnant women and I observed enough ultrasounds to start becoming familiar with the important things to note on pre-natal imaging. Julio performed minor procedures during the clinic, including abscess drainages and cyst and wart removals, which were fun to watch and ask questions about. A great part about coming to these communities was seeing lots of pediatric patients and getting a bit of dermatology experience. Lots of children were brought in by parents with odd rashes, skin irritations, etc. By the end of our first day of clinic I'd seen ringworm in (and on) the flesh.

I had a great time learning about different preferred treatments for skin diseases and even STI's. It was interesting how many cases of sexually transmitted diseases there were in this small town. Some patient's who had been treated for STI's in the past had difficulty getting their spouses to get treated which makes it inherently tough for the patients to avoid getting infections again.

The Floating Doctors take caution when discussing family planning with their patients as it's quite common for Panamanian women to have children in their teens and continue having children into their thirties. Contraception is offered for women in many forms including the Depoprovera injection and condoms, but it is always important to women to take into account their husband's thoughts and preferences. It is against some families wishes to use contraceptives, but the doctors do take on the task of at least discussing family planning with young women.

Overall, I had an amazing time at my last multi-day clinic and enjoyed spending time with my colleagues. Once we got back to base, we had a great swim in the ocean after our very sunny boat ride and shared all of our photos from the week. Sadly, this is my last week in Panama and today is my last night on the Floating Doctors base. Its tough to say goodbye to this very fun gang of people but hopefully I'll get the chance to return again! Please let me know if you guys have any questions about my trip and I'd be happy to talk to you about it. And don't forget to visit the volunteer page from the home page to see all of my photos from the past three weeks.

- Nicole

Floating Doctors playing volleyball with local children: