Hasta Luego Comarca!

This past week was our last week in the Comarca. While at the Clinic in Soloy I have had the opportunity to learn lots of clinical skills (I did 30 vaccinations!) and see a new culture face to face. The experiences that I have had here are so different from those that I have had in the states. People literally walk for days to get to this clinic (one morning we picked a woman up in the bus on the way to the clinic who was being carried in a hammock by two men to get to the clinic. Just by us driving her for the last 20 minutes of our drive to the clinic, we probably shortened their journey by hours.) While it was heartbreaking to see these people suffering from preventable diseases and infections, such as gastroenteritis caused by unclean water and improper food handling, respiratory problems caused by having wood burning stoves in their living spaces, and skin infections and diseases caused by poor personal hygiene, there was also hope in seeing how the medical professionals at the clinics responded to help the people in the Comarca. It must seem like a daunting task for the doctors and nurses who treat the Ngobe-Bugle people, treating only the outcomes, and not being able to properly address the causes because of the vast shortages of water and hygiene supplies. Even with these daunting tasks ahead of them, the doctors and nurses treat the people of the Comarca daily with empathy and compassion, and I feel as if I have definitely learned from them, how to treat and care for patients. Also in response to the needs of the Ngobe people, there were three health promoters who go out into the community (sometimes literally door to door, and sometimes holding little seminars at community meeting places) and teach about clean water collection, moving stoves to outside to prevent respiratory problems, nutrition, and importance of vaccinations and prenatal care. While the experience in the Comarca opened my eyes to the struggles and needs of another culture, It also demonstrated to me how the people of this country are working together to better the lives of the less fortunate and help the Ngobe people to learn how to improve their standard of living, and move forward with a generation of healthier Ngobe people.