You know we actually do work here...

So while going over the blog I realized that it seems like all we do in Guatemala is travel and have fun. Therefore I thought I should probably explain some of the things that we do and see here in clinic. So we´ve given you the basic overview of Santa Cruz and how everything kind of runs around here. There´s two main doctors and a nurse that are kind of the attendings here that we report to. Then the students come in and can take histories, do physical exams and even give their recommendations for diagnosis and treatment plan before the attendings sign off on it. So it´s a really cool experience that we get to be involved from the beginning all the way to the end. Here are a couple of things that we´ve seen so far!

-Scarlet Fever
-Thrush
-Scabies
-Head Lice
-Diarrhea....every single type of it
-Malnutrition like no other
-Warts
-THE Gout

Christina, Kristen and I have also gotten some training on what to do for prenatal care for women around here. We have been involved in the prenatal care for most of the women in the village and so we tell them what are dangerous signs that they should be on the lookout for during their pregnancy and then what to expect when its time to deliver the baby. I think Kristen already alluded to this but we get to sit in on ultrasounds and we´ve even done some of the Leopold presentation things to feel for a baby´s head, back and extremities. Overall its a pretty cool experience.

So besides all the patient care we have been involved in a couple of projects that we want to complete in our time here at Santa Cruz. Christina and I are working on a Recycling Trash Project. In Santa Cruz, there aren´t really things such as trash cans or even like a landfill area where all the trash gets put. Instead - it just gets thrown into the streets and accumulates there. So even with all the beauty that you guys can see in our pictures...there are some pretty disgusting things as well. In an effort to combat this - we´ve come up with a recycling program where we give a presentation on trash to the elementary school kids here on why trash is bad and what ways we can help clean up Santa Cruz. Then at the end of the presentation we give each student 3 large 1.5L bottles and tell them to fill them up with inorganic trash until the bottle is COMPLETELY full. Then they can return the bottles to us in return for a pair of colorful crocs! The kids love the shoes so they´re very motivated to participate in this. We then take the bottles and use them in construction projects to make walls and things of the sort as a sort of eco-construction project. It´s pretty neat stuff and I´ll keep you all posted if we have any more developments on the things we´re building and participation and such.

The other project that other students are working on is the nutrition project. Malnutrition is a big problem here in Santa Cruz and its even more so for the mothers of recently born children or even those that are pregnant and about to deliver. We always see babies that are way under the curve as far as weight and length are concerned and so in order to improve this situation some of the students have started a nutrition class for these mothers. Shannon, Pai, Nick and Kristen are the ones that are working on this and I´ll let them explain it more in detail but the jist of it is that these guys are making recipes and teaching a cooking class every week for these ladies so that they can get an idea of what is good to feed their babies and to make sure they are getting enough calories to grow. It´s a very involved project and I don´t know half the details that they do but I´m sure they´ll be glad to tell you all.

Okay - so there, I proved that we don´t just roam around all day playing games haha. It´s pretty cool working up here and it´s kind of a bummer that the summer is coming to an end and for most of us this is our last weekend up here. But we´ll make the most of our time up here and hopefully make a good impact on the community before we leave. That´s it for now - I´ll write back in a few about our awesome adventures in El Salvador and this past weekend.

Hasta Luego!
Neil