Guatemala Trip: The Clinic

We called the LDS church where we set up all the dental and medical equipment "the clinic." We spent 5 days in the clinic seeing future missionaries. Everyone was assigned specific jobs to do while in the clinic. Pete and I were both on the medical side of things and loved being there!

Our first day, getting ready to work.

Pete's main job was to draw blood in the lab. We figure by the end of the week he drew blood from around 400 people! He put his heart and soul into communicating with each individual who sat in the chair. He had the translators teach him phrases and then he would write them down on a small piece of paper he kept in his pocket and studied the phrases during his down time. What a stud!

I love the sequence of these pictures. Notice how he thinks he is scared but then realizes once the needle is in that it really wasn't that bad after all! I do the same thing every time. 

Most of the kids we saw had never been stuck by a needle, let alone seen a doctor for a full exam so the kids were a little unsure about the things we asked them to do (like hold out your arm to be stuck by a needle, or go to the bathroom--el baño--and fill this cup...). Pete was very sensitive to their concerns and did such a good job making them feel better about getting stuck by a needle.

When things got slow, Pete would head to the back of the lab to help run the tests to determine blood type, Hematocrit level, etc. He worked so hard, it was fun to sneak in and watch him without him knowing.

He also killed a few unlucky flies in the lab

When people were waiting to get their blood drawn and looking nervous I would try to comfort them with my little Spanish and tell them that "mi esposo" would take good care of them. I enjoyed claiming Pete as my hub because he was so charismatic and they all loved him.

My job at the clinic was "medical coordination." Basically I helped make sure that things were running smoothly on the medical side of the clinic and that no kids wandered off without first getting all their medical work done. This job I surprisingly shared with two others, and sometimes that didn't even seem like enough.

The medical team (most of them)

I just get in the working mode and tend to look at things organizationally instead of taking into account the needs of people. For example, I didn't realize I was doing it, but it became a big joke among the doctors that I was hard-nosed. I guess I was just trying to make sure things were running smoothly and began telling doctors they couldn't take lunch breaks, bathroom breaks, etc. I am a little embarrassed looking back on things that I took that job all too seriously. But no one can complain that things didn't run smoothly.

In the end I really was just the gopher, trying to help in any way I could. These two (pictured above) were the real reason everything ran smoothly!

As the missionaries completed their (sometimes painful) day full of medical labs/exams and dental work they could come through check out where they received items for their missions such as white shirts and ties, hair brushes and hygiene kits, blankets, duffle bags, etc. These items were donated by people here in the states and we took them down with us.

I took this picture before the officially final count was made (it was actually 737) but close enough. It was fun to see how many we actually saw broken down into the days we were at the clinic (Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)