Picto-post/blog #3: back to Guadeloupe and home with Rosco!

Betcha thought I was done. NOPE! We had a little more time back in Guadeloupe after the trip, and then there was a week or so back on Dominica before classes started up. So here goes.

Last blog ended with a dumb face by me, so why not start this one the same? Back in Guadeloupe, we went to the beach to relax and recuperate. Medical stuff is hard work. Trust me, I'm basically a pharm tech now.

It was nice to be at a sandy beach, since a lot of beaches (not all, mind you) in Dominica are kinda rocky. Although there did seem to be a trend of general cloudiness whenever we went to the beach. Maybe France imports their weather. 

While I was swimming, Melissa saw some gnarly iguanas chilling in the tree above her! Too cool!

Me swimming and not seeing the iguanas.

Here's me pointing at Dominica. Or maybe Les Saintes. The island directly above my head is Marie Galante, though. I know that for sure. 

Here's the front gate of the "hotel" we stayed at on the way back. It was more like a bed and breakfast, though. Pretty nice, except the owner hardly spoke English.

More of our hotel. Quite a nice little place.

Here is where the aforementioned breakfast happened. I dug the blue/white vibe it was dishing out.

After a couple days to relax, it was back to Dominica on the ferry! Here we are still in the port, I believe.

Our vessel. No wait, that's the ship behind us. Ours looked like this, except with more blue and less red.

More boats in the dock. Not sure what was going on in that boat there.

Stealth picture of Melissa. I like candid pictures of people, because it shows them in their "natural state", and not making a face or standing in a contrived position. Plus, it usually makes the pictures better anyway.

Once we were back in Picard, we picked up our little fella, Rosco! I think he grew a little...he needs to stop that.

We decided to try hiking one of the national trails during our week off before classes. It starts by crossing this pretty cool bridge over a river. 

The sign reassuring us that we are going the right way. The name Waitukubuli is the native name of the island, and Dominica is what the European settlers called it, because they landed on a Sunday. Very creative, those guys.

Awesome view from the trail of Portsmouth and Cabrits. At this point in the hike we were both a little tired, but still optimistic.

Around here, we were losing steam. And it only got tougher. A lot of the hills gave you very few footholds, so we both relied pretty heavily on trees to hang onto as we pulled ourselves up and then slowly slid down on the other side. This was basically how the whole hike went. My face says it all.

Oh, and there was mud halfway up my calf at one point. That was wonderful. Overall, it was an exciting hike in retrospect, but I did not enjoy it terribly in the moment.

Here's just a shot of Rosco sleeping. It's a good thing he didn't go hiking with us, because it would have been a trainwreck. But he still got tired regardless.

So that's our break, in three nutshells. Next week I'll get you up to date on Melissa and 3rd semester. Hope you're all doing well!

-Eric

Picto-Post Part Deux: Helping Heal in Haiti!

Wow, check out that alliteration. Certain days, I can't comprehend how crafty the computer in my cranium can be (boom, check it).  So anyway, today's chunk of blog will show y'all some snippets from our time in Haiti, helping Project Compassion and Friends & Family Community Connection, 2 groups working together on the medical mission trip we joined. Let's get to the pictures!

This is what we'd drive up to each morning: scores of Haitians waiting outside our clinic on folding chairs. We ran the clinic from around 8 to 4 or 5 most days, and there would be people sitting out there for 4 or 5 hours waiting to be seen. Luckily the huge tree provided some nice shade most of the day.The brown building just off the left edge of the picture is where we held the clinic, and the white building in the back was where we had lunch and took breaks if we needed some rest.

Behind said huge tree was where my group was stationed. By ourselves, we were Eric, Dapheny, Leley, Grace and Paullette (from left to right, me not pictured). But together, we were VISION. In other words, we fitted older patients with reading glasses and gave out eye drops and sunglasses as we could. As it turns out, a lot of Haitians have eye problems from car exhaust in the cities and from burning their trash, so we ran out of eye drops a little quicker than we expected. Dapheny and Leley served as excellent translators, and along with Paullette they were completely running the show by Wednesday. They tried to teach me some Creyol during the week, so I know know how to say "How old are you?" (Qui la jou?) and "Can you read this?" (Esso co le sa?). We were a very successful team.

 

This is just to show how we stream-lined our table on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Notice the different strengths of glasses organized from +1.00 to +3.50, as well as our reading sample (a French Bible). We were geeking out at our efficiency and logistical improvements. It was good times.

This is the dog that lives at the house, and in whom's yard we were set up. We called him "Dog", and he was sort of crazy. Well, once it got hot, he would calm down and sleep. Kinda smelly fellow.

 

Meanwhile, inside the clinic proper... Melissa got to float between the different stations throughout the week, but one part that stood out was on Tuesday, when she almost got to give a shot! Dr. Mata on the left is an Anesthesiologist who specializes in Chronic Pain, so when 2 women came with knee pain, he thought it would be a good chance for Melissa to "see one, do one". 

So Melissa watched the first procedure, and learned how to keep a sterile field, but as it turns out, the pain in the second woman's leg was in a different spot, so Dr. Mata and Melissa decided it would be best to let him handle it, since she didn't see how to inject if it would have to be below her kneecap. Oh well. She still knows how she would have done it, if she had had the chance.

Another of Melissa's 'jobs' was sticker distribution. As you saw above, there were always a lot of children at our clinic, many simply waiting for their parents to be finished picking up their prescriptions. So we sort of always made sure there was one person who could go play with the kids or at least give them a sticker or two. They also really like to play that hand slap game, especially the boy in yellow here. Everyone was full of smiles!

Don't worry, this boy is not prematurely going gray. There's this stuff called "magic cream" that we'd give to people with itchy, dry scalps, and for the kids we'd help them put it on for the first time. As you can see, Melissa was having a great time!

About midway through the week, after the vision station got clicking, I decided to roam a little to see  if I could help out anywhere else. As it turns out, the Pharmacy was a little overwhelmed, so I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively) and hopped into the fray. I quickly learned where the different drugs were located, how to split and crush pills, and generally how to keep the line moving. It felt like working in a kitchen at a diner where orders are constantly flying in and you have to keep moving at all time to keep up. But it was a ton of fun; I really enjoyed the hecticness of it. Bonnie, standing next to me, was basically running the show back there, and she was phenomenal.

This gives you a better idea of what the Pharmacy felt like. We took the charts on right side of that high table, lined  them up as we finished finding the correct drugs, and handed them down to a nurse-translator pair to explain to the patients how to take each medication. It was noisy, but we always kept it together and got people through quickly.

Melissa expressing her gratitude and words of encouragement to the Haitian medical and nursing students with us. I should have video-taped it, because she did great : ).

Me and Roberto, one of the drivers who took us down to the clinic each day. He helped me with my Creyol during the week too. Pretty cool dude.

 

Makin' faces.

Oh goodness. As you can see, I forgot to bring a razor on our trip. Eww.

Next up: Guadeloupe again, and back home with Rosco!!