Farewell, Phlebotomy, X-Ray Clinic, Walkabout, and Dutch Blitz

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Julie (RN, former missionary), Kelly, Cindy, Mike, Heather, Tyler, Ali, Matt, and Jacob left this morning. They had been here for one week working at the new seminary construction site. Since I work at the clinic, I didn't get to see much of them during the day, but it was fun hanging out with them, especially over the weekend and in the evenings. It was sad to see them go. I forgot to get their email addresses, but thank God for Facebook, we'll probably find each other soon enough.

Julie Briggs (Irish physio) gave a talk about cerebral palsy to the medical staff this morning. She spoke in English, and Dr. Rodney translated into Creole. When someone spoke in Creole, Gavin translated into English. It's great that we can communicate so effectively even with the language barrier.

I decided I wanted to try learning some lab work today. I needed to refresh myself on how to draw blood, so Beth let me practice on her. I failed miserably and gave her a little hematoma (bruise), but she was very encouraging and said I was doing well. Then I tried to draw on a patient, who was anemic. He almost fainted because I bruised him as well... Ms. Leonice, a Haitian nurse and phlebotomist, helped me out and taught me how to do it properly. By the third patient I was pretty comfortable drawing blood. I ended up phlebotomizing about 10 to 15 patients, and most of the time it went really smoothly. I drew Julie's blood (she just wanted to test her blood), and I didn't bruise her (much) even though she says she bruises easily. Ms. Leonice taught me well, and thanks to Beth for being my guinea pig.

One of our security guard Jacquelaine injured his left thumb, so we took him to the X-ray clinic. Ever since our X-ray broke, we've been taking people there when necessary. Just to show the place, Gavin took Nadine, Vicki, and I with him. They have a couple big X-ray machines in a fairly small building. Fortunately Jacquelaine's thumb wasn't broken. X-ray at this place is very expensive, but sometimes the owner gives discounts or does it for free. In any case, it's been more difficult to get X-ray because of the cost. We used to be able to do X-rays for every patient who tested positive for TB skin test, but now we diagnose by symptoms most of the time, and send them for X-ray if it's uncertain. I hope we can get a new machine soon.

After we came back from the X-ray clinic, Gavin lead a group us on a walk around the back of the compound. We don't get to go out of the compound much, so it was refreshing. We climbed up a hill where we could see the entire compound, but since the place is full of trees, we couldn't see much. Still, it was a nice view of the neighborhood. On our way back it started to rain, and a couple feet behind where I was walking a transformer on top of an electric pole exploded with sparks and loud noise. Good thing it was on the other side of the street. It started to pour, so I ran back to my house.

Nadine brought a card game called Dutch Blitz with her, so we played it after dinner. It was a lot of fun even though Laura and Jen won by many more points than any of us. We'll have to play it again soon.

On the way back to our place, Nadine, Laura, Evan, and I saw an interesting bug that looked like a grasshopper with wings shaped like a green leaf. Nadine touched it, but it barely moved. So I tried to pick it up, then it flew right towards Laura, and she screamed and used me as a shield, even though the bug wasn't doing anything. Anyway it was a really cool bug.