Mobile Clinic #2 : Bella Vista

Me with a patient


Zack with a captive audience


Part of the travel team en front of the school


The school

Rambuncious smiles of boys who begged me to take their foto on the walk home from clinic


Two of the Guatemalteca med students I work with: Eva and Dulce



The school's patio


Me with a patient


One of the cutest little ones had a big crush on this collegio estudiante


One of the sweetest families yet...the boy ran around the room the whole time, stopping only long enough to chat with each person, and the little girl spent the entire time in my lap :) FYI: the little boy is still running around the room and so did not make the pic!


The first school we visited was in Las Mojadas, where we completed heights, weights, physical exams, muestra sampling, and an educational preventative program with just over 400 niños! We also saw several walk-in patients on our last day. This next school, Bella Vista, has fewer students, about 160, and so we were able to zip right on through, finishing in just 2 days! Here are some pics:

View from my second story room in hostel Pasado Adreas

Yes, I have to get up at 5am most of the time...but this view and a cup of coffee in my hands certainly make the wee morning hours more bearable!

More Pics of Santa Maria

My friends and I, slowly making our way up



My good friend Zack, AKA el buenisimo poop specialist en todo de Xela



Religious ceremonies at the top of the volcano inside of a cloud



A view from a lookout



Another pretty site

The Guatemala Outside my Clinic

Obviously, the clinic is my primera passion aqui en Xela...however, I get home from the clinic around 2 everyday and always manage to pack a lot more into the day.

In the afternoons, I have a wonderful job in at Miguel Angel Austurias Spanish School, the same school where I learned Spanish in January. I am the student coordinator at MAA, which involves the grueling work of socializing with students from all over the world, taking students out salsa dancing, hiking up mountains and volcanoes with them, helping out with potlucks, answering phonecalls and emails, and much more...all things I can't believe I actually get paid for! Though the job does take quite a bit of my free time, I really enjoy meeting all the interesting students, making friends with all the Guatemalteca maestras, and helping out with the activities. It doesn't hurt that I make a whopping $1 per hour, which is actually just fine for me to live on!! I'd recommend this school to anyone.

Also, here's a little publicity for one of my good friends here. Karla is an intelligent, patient, university-certified teacher who would like to teach people Spanish over skype at the almost miniscuel rate of $10/hour. Karla is trying to put her daughter through collegia right now, which is fairly expensive, and so could use some extra financial support. Please email me (cstumpemory@yahoo.com) if you are interested or if you know anyone else who'se interested.

Apart from my school job and the clinic, I love to go hiking up the volcanoes that surround Xela. Each weekend a group of my friends and I set out for new and old climbs. No matter how many times I do the same mountain or volcano, I never get bored. Below are some pictures of my last climb up Santa Maria, from the top of which it is possible to see another volcano, Santa Agito, erupt. Que bueno ondo!




Other things I do include:
1.) cooking with the incredibly cheap fresh fruit and vegetables (I can buy a pound of blackberries or strawberries or a head of broccoli for 20 cents, and I can buy 4 red peppers for 50 cents...seriously, I'm in heaven!),
2.)salsa dancing,
3.)attending the various festivals, which are plentiful (it seems like there's something new to celebrate at least every week),
4.)watching pirated DVDs in español that haven't even come to theatre yet in the states,
5.)steam bathing,
6.)studying,
7.)playing soccer,
8.)taking crazy aerobics classes choreographed to loud Spanish hip-hop and pop music, that I can't get enough of, and
8.)participating in possibly the greatest game of all time, fuzball!

Everyday I can't help but be overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have this opportunity. Thanks to all my friends and family who've helped make this possible!

Semuc Champey

A few months ago, some friends of mine and I took a 13 hour bus ride to Semuc Champey from Xela. If you know me well, you know I can't sit still for longer than a few minutes, but I'm pleased to say that the incredibly long bus ride was completely worth it. Semuc Champey is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! Granted I was in great company :)

Here's a view from the lookout, just a short 30 minute hike


Waterfalls and rivers in between pools


One of the many crystal green pools we swam in




Our sweet hostel, complete with rope swing (see pic above), mariachi bands, treehouses, and delicious food (the cook caught the fish we had for dinner 2 hours before we ate it!

More Mobile Clinic

The hike to our first school/clinic...I know, rough life, huh?





Two cuties waiting to be seen

The Mobile Clinic Begins

Paper airplanes anyone?

On September 4, we began the mobile clinics. There are 3 teams. Each team includes doctors, nurse practitioners, health educators, Guatemalan med students, and perspective Guatemalan med students. Our dentist unfortunately does not come out on these trips. For the mobile clinics, we set up the clinics in a local school of a village muy lejos. These villages often can't be reached by bus or car. Our first mobile clinic is the furthest. I get to sleep in until the late hour of 5 am so that I can make it to Minerva terminal to meet up with the rest of the clinic volunteers. Then we take a bus as far as it'll go, hop off with mochilas full of medical supplies and then hike the rest of the way to the school where we set up clinic. The hiking is by far my favorite part of the travel because I get to see some of the most beautiful parts of Guate this way and because I need something to keep me going in those wee am horas. All in all, it take about 2 hours to get to the schools. We take all needed medicine and supplies in our backpacks. For the first few days, we examine and provide health education for all the school children. On the last two days, we open up the clinic for walk-ins.

...by the way, I absolutely LOVE this!!!

Medicamentos a La Clinica

Medicamentos y Abreviaciones

Acetaminofen – ACET
Aciclovir – ACL
Acido Folico – AF
Albendazol – ALB
Ambroxol – AMB
Amoxicilina – AMOX
+ Clavulanato – AMOC
Antiacido – ANC
ASA
Benzoato de Bencilo – BB
Betametasona + Gentamicina + Clotrimazol – BGC
Bromexina – BROM
Cefadroxilo – CEF
Ceftriaxona – CFT
Ciprofloxacina – CIP
Clonixinato de Lisina + Propinox – CLO – antiinflamatorios, analgesicos, migraine
Propinox-anti-spasmodic drug
Cloranfenicol – CLOR – abx (mas fuerte)
Clorfeniramina – CLF - antihistamine
Chloroquina – CRQ -
Clotrimazol @ 1 % - CLOT
Clotrimazol @ 2% - CLOT2
Complejo B – CB
Diclofenaco – DF
Dipirona (metamizol sodio) – DP - NSAID
Enalapril – EN
Eritromicina – ERI
Fluconazol – FLUC
Glibemclamida – GLI
Guayacolato de Glicerilo – GUAY
Hierro + Complejo B – HB
Ibuprofeno – IBU
Kalamina – KAL
Metformina – MFM
Metoclopramida – MTC -reglan
Metronidazol – MET
Nistatina – NIS
Pasta Lassar – PL
Penicilina Benzatinica – PB
Vitaminas Prenatales – VITP
Ranitidina – RAN
Salbutamol – SAL
Suero de Rehidratacion – SRO
Trimetropin Sulfametoxazol – TMP
Loperamida
Paracetamol – pain, loopy
Paradex – paracetamol 325mg, dextropropoxyphene napsylate 50mg, (opioid)

Information on Primeros Pasos

Location and Services

Primeros Pasos is a small clinic located in the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. The mission of the clinic involves providing primary healthcare to children through adults, health education programs, outreach mobile clinics, dental services, a woman{s health educator program, and a soon-to-come woman's health clinical program. All services are very low cost and medicine is free.

Our Patients

The clinic serves children and adults from from the 14 districts that make up the Palajunoj Valley. Patient's can be seen as walk-in patients most of the day except, when we are doing the physical exams for the school groups that come through the clinic. When the students come, each receives a complete check-up, a stool sample analaysis, a health education class, and a dentist visit. The school children come into the clinic by grade. We see one grade (or about 30-40 students) every day, except for Friday because Fridays are vaccine and wort removal days. Each grade in every school of the 14 districts comes through the clinic.

Laboratory

The lab is very basic. The clinic provides pregnancy tests, urine dipstick tests, glucose monitors, and microscopes for stool evalution via wet-preps with normal saline. If you want to learn more about what we find in the stools samples, check out the post entitled "A Whole New World"...there are some fun pictures there!

Pharmacy

Most of our pharmaceuticals are donated, but we also make weekly trips to a pharmacy to buy the basics, like acetaminophen. If you want to learn more about the specific medicines we use, look for a future post entitled "Pharmacia"

Common Diseases Here

1.) Skin (usually related to parasites)
-piojos (lice)
-sarcoptiosis (scabies and/or bedbugs...no distinction is made here)
-ongos (fungal infections, especially tinea corporis,tinea capitis, and tinea versicolor)
-candidiasis
-vericella
-herpes simplex
-warts
-impetigo
-acne
-Kawasaki Virus
2.) Gut Parasites (see "A Whole New World")
3.) Chronic Illnesses
-diabetes mellitus, type II
-conestive heart disease
-obesity
4.) HEENT
-foreign body (especially garapatas, a type of tick)
-acute otitis media and otitis externa
-upper and lower respiratory track infections (many people cook inside using open fire, and they so are constantly they are constantly exposed to the smoke. Pneumonia is very common)
-tuberculosis
-pharyngitis
5.) Other
-burns
-malnutrition (both kwashiorkor and marasmus)
-biliary stones
-UTIs
-STIs (syphilis is quite common)

Website for Primeros Pasos

http://www.primerospasos.org/