Panama Week 1

Culture shock! Today was absolutely amazing. I've been placed in Alto de Caballeros and I have already fallen in love with it. When we first arrived we were all somewhat timid, but as the day went on every member of our team began to feel comfortable in their surroundings. My first rotation was in the urgent care center and I was stoked to begin. However, I quickly realized that the language barrier was something I would really have to work at overcoming. As I stared into the eyes of a Panamanian nurse ordering commands at me, I couldn't help but to wish I had paid a little more attention in my spanish classes in high school. I was paired up with Matt and we looked at each other in total confusion as the nurse was talking to us. We had absolutely no idea what she wanted us to do. That's when body language came in handy. We utilized gestures and body movements to their full capacity as we slowly began to understand our role in the urgent care unit. We got the opportunity to do multiple intramuscular injections and Matt got to put an IV in. We then switched to the immunization part of the clinic where we did plenty more IM injections on children and adults and started to pick up on some of the spanish terms that were being used. We immunized the patients for influenza, hepatitis B, and polio. The next stop was the school. We had a meeting with the assistant director and he explained the whole school system to us. He also informed us that the biggest trouble they have in Chiriqui is their water supply. The children most often get sent to the clinics or hospitals due to some type of gastrointestinal issue related to the water they drink. At the school, the children have only one drink of milk in the mornings and that is expected to last them all day. The aquaducts aren't as full in the dry season as in the rainy season and water is scarce. They depend on gravity to get their water because the well they have in place supplies only mucky water not suitable for drinking. The team started brainstorming and asked him if they had tried puting in a pump to have a greater water supply. He explained that he would love to, but they have no funding for it. That sounded like the perfect challenge for me. I'm hoping to come back here sometime soon with other volunteers to work on the school and supply them with clean drinking water to keep the children hydrated in the dry seasons and to prevent all the sickness caused by the parasitic water they've been forced to intake by the poor conditions. This is just the beginning of our trip and I am so ecstatic to experience all of what God has planned for me within the next few weeks.