Is there a Doctor in the house?

No not that one! and ACTUAL doctor!! 

I woke up yesterday with the first signs of a cold, sore throat runny nose and sneezing :( - dont think I will ever get used to feeling this way in tropical heat!! 

Last week we had an abundance of medics and a team of them came down from the states to do a week worth of medical outreaches in the city. Wednesday was our turn to host them, so Monday and Tuesday we opened our doors to all the people of Loma Fresca and surrounding areas to register for an appointment to see a GP or one of several specialists including, gynecologists, pediatrics, plastic surgeon (with facilities at a local hosp to do cleft pallet operations) cardiologists etc.

The patients start queuing to be seen

Then on Wednesday we headed to the local secondary school, which had closed for the day to let us use it, and we received over 500 patients, 400 of whom went away with free medicines to treat their ailments. Many of these patients were our children and their families, it was great seeing some of the children receiving the medical care they need. For example Santiago, 11, who I hadn't seen since I returned and he is now half the size due to having had sickness and diarrhoea for several weeks. 

Putting Eye Drops, not laxatives, in Xiomara's eye

Thanks to a group of translators missing the bus, I was given the job of translating for the Pharmacy. This basically consisted of telling the patients how to take their medicine, mostly anti-parasite and vitamins. I think I managed to carry out these duties pretty well, apart from telling one woman to put laxative drops in her eyes!! this was due to the bottle being mislabeled rather than my Spanish! from then on I was extra careful to read the actual bottle not just their stick on label! Twice during the morning I was also called on to translate for a Doctor which was scary, but rewarding. It is a great feeling to help people communicate and this is definitely a skill I would like to develop further. All in all the day was long but very rewarding, now it remains to be seen how many of the kids actually take their medicine!!!

Jesus David gets a check up by a GP

 Apart from the health outreach, my first week back was mostly trying to get everything organised. Since my work at the moment is largely administrative I have set up my office in the corner of the kitchen with calenders post-its and notebooks galore!! I have also been putting the finishing touches to my "mission possible" plan for the youth. This is an initiative to get them to be proactive and serve more. Basically they will receive a card with 20 challenges in 4 categories - Service, Education, Skills and Co-operation in the group. They have this semester to complete as many of these challenges as possible, the youth who completes the most will win a prize. Some are easy, such as babysit for a mother so she can come the the parents school, others more complicated, such as produce a video documenting a need in your community. 

Larissa paints a "Rhine Vally" outside the lounge

In other news, I have had this idea for a while of painting a "view" on the plain white wall that our bedroom and the other bedroom, which is now a lounge, look out onto. So, having discovered Larissa has quite a talent for painting, I shared the idea with her, and we got permission to go ahead from Martin. So this weekend, we found some pictures online and got the paint, I cleaned the walls and Larissa has painted a lovely mountain-scape on the wall outside the lounge. Later we will paint a beach scene outside our bedroom window. 

I have also been very good this week doing my Davina workout DVD 3 times and eating more fruit! Having been looking at hotels and apartments for my sister and mum's visit in May I have begun to think about the time I will be spending by the pool or on the beach in a bikini!!! quite an incentive!!

thats all from me for this week, feel free to leave comments.

God Bless

Petra