Sunday- Health Fair in San Benito and Yes Mom another story about peeing in the woods.

Sunday:
We left Hillside by 7am for our 2 hour drive to San Benito to have a health fair for the community.  So here's the entertaining part of the journey for me: Well it was a rainy long bumpy trip and I had to pee. At one point, we stopped before deciding if we were going to cross over the river that flooded. So Stacy and myself decided we were going to go for the experience of peeing in the jungle. It was pouring outside, literally pouring, but desperate times call for really desperate measures. We ran up the side of a mountain/ hill and into the bushes enough that you couldn't see us pop a squat  from the road. On the way back down the mountain, Stacy was almost down and fell on her bottom, muddy spot on her bottom and all! And then there was the 2nd mobile watching us... they got a nice laugh.  We were soaked getting back into the mobile and then we crossed over the two flooded rivers, drove up a hill and wa la- we were basically at the village...... reallyyyy, we were soaking wet for nothing BUT everything was fine- it's all about the experiences!

We got the the building where we were holding the health fair, we did bring a tent to set up in case of rain, but since it was already raining, we had the fair inside. We hung up posters and made different stations: face painting, nutrition, teeth brushing, blood pressure and blood glucose checking and the PT's station on exercise.  Our station was basically trying to get the kids to play anything- soccer/ futbol was the only attraction for a while and only with the little boys, who were not the nicest, even to us girls! We had first attempted to jump rope inside, but no one would participate with us, so then the futbol came out.  We finally were able to get the little girls to join in some jump roping, when the boys were not attacking each other at the front of the line! It was quite the experience with the children. I LOVE playing games with kids, but this was not the same at all.  The younger boys, well the majority, were rude to everyone, pushing to get in front, demanding that they get things like stickers, toothbrushes or for you to take a picture of them. I was amazed at how timid the younger girls were. The first hour was all of us having our faces painted, and the children and older adults just staring from the outside. We were trying to encourage participation the best we could!

The cutest little boy ever!

Spiderman!

Getting the young girls involved in jump rope!

When we finally got the younger girls jump roping, some of them were really enjoying it. Caroline had asked some of the girls what they do for fun and the answer was work. Yet, some of the younger girls did tell me that had jump roped before, they definitely looked like they had practiced!  It is a sad reality in these poorer communities that everyone in the family is relied on for work and feeding the family. We were trying to encourage play and exercise, but it's hard to break through that cultural barrier, and the questions is, do we even want to break through this? We can't change how a culture looks at play vs. work.  This is the struggle we are having with PT participation, especially with the women.  Perhaps they look at what we are doing as play, and since they must do work before play, they are more unwilling to participate in something that will help make their work more efficient and pain free.  Maybe that is the approach we need to take more often when speaking to these women about PT? It's also so hard to go in a change their mindset about pain and how they need to take breaks while working. This will still be a continuing topic of discussion for us!

We arrived back to Abby's house later Sunday afternoon and a few of us when for a bike ride to go swimming in the sea. This afternoon was the best weather day since I've been here. We biked to the sea and it was breezy, low humidity and I didn't even sweat! So it was even more relaxing not being drenched with sweat while riding and being able to enjoy the ride and the views.

 

I get daily quotes in my inbox and this one seamed the most appropriate for this journey.  I need to be better about thinking before I speak and not jumping to conclusions.... all in all making this a more fulfilling and happier experience for all involved! It's a constant adjustment. 

Carol, my CI for the first 4 weeks, flies back to St. Louis tomorrow, and Monica, who is the Rehab Director at Hillside, is back from her vacation. So this week will be one of adjustments again. Good thing I've had 4 weeks to practice being more flexible and going with the flow!

Saturday- Zip Lining and Tubing and Church Time

This weekend, we stayed around Punta Gorda because we had a health fair to go to on Sunday.  We went zip lining and tubing at Big Falls, which was only a 25 min bus ride away. We were on the bus shortly after 8 on Saturday morn and on our way! Once at Big Falls, our group of 16 was too large to all go zip lining together so we split into smaller groups and began the 6 zip line course.  It was much smaller and less extravagant than the one I went to in Costa Rica. I was anticipating something equally as cool as zip lining through the canopy of the rainforest, looking at waterfalls as you zoom by them. This course did have a river to cross over twice, I will give it that. And one of the beginning points was on top of a large unsteady tree! 

For some reason I thought this face was appropriate.... someone should have told me it wasn't

view from the end of the 1st zip line

The climb up into the trees for the highest zip line

After the Zip Lines, and both groups going, we piled into the back of 2 pickup trunks and went for a little drive into the country side to the start of the River Tubing part.  Where we started the tubing, there were women and their children there, doing wash and bathing. It was neat to see their uses for the river, as we were jumping on tubes and going for a relaxing ride.

Saturday was a perfect weather day for sure! A great breeze, not too humid at all, especially on the cool water.  We floated down the river to the "hot springs" they were luke warm, just warmer than the cold water, I guess that's how the name came about. We stayed there for a bit and then floated the rest of the ways down the river, our group didn't see any cool animals, like snakes.  Just some river ducks and tree frogs jumping on us. I was proud of myself, I laid in the tube and closed my eyes and just enjoyed the coolness of the river and the breeze and RELAXED! I didn't say I was bored once :) When the river ride was over, we went back to the main building and lunch was served.  A traditional Belizian meal, stewed chicken, rice and beans, small salad and a plantain.
We arrived back at Abby's house about 1:30- so not a long day at all! Time for a quick power nap and a run before church.  Since the weather was great and the breeze was picking up, I decided I could go for a quick run up the gravel road.  The 15 mins down the road were great, until the wind starting picking up and it began to sprinkle.  I knew prior the run that it might rain, but thought I could beat it.... may be not...... I haven't run in the rain ever, I don't think. It was refreshing and made me run farther for sure :)

Carol, Carley and myself went to a local Catholic Church.  Carol goes every weekend, but we have not been here on the weekends until this one.  Carol warned me about the singing in the church (everyone NOT seeing on key and loudly) and the priest's enthusiasm at random points. I was glad I was warned, because I might have started laughing at the unexpected. The church is beautiful, lots of air circulation as it overlooks the sea! What an amazing view :) The mass was a bit long, and I still am not used to the new changes in the mass wording, I got " And with your spirit" but that was it. I missed my booklet to follow along in.

The front of the church.

Inside the church

who doesn't like a church that is overlooking the sea?

The rest of the night I hung around Abby's house, as Sunday morning we had to be leaving by 7 am to get to the health fair, 2 hours away!

Friday- CPI and Mid-term Complete- Time to Relax and Reflect

It's been 4 weeks of clinical! We survived! Today we got the morning off to finish all the paperwork we have to complete for midterms. It was nice to have that out of the way before the weekend and be able to relax that rest of the time! We had lunch with all the students, the doctors, PTs and a new doctor and her son just arrived for the next two weeks.  After lunch we went to try to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, we missed the very beginning, but were able to watch the majority of the opening ceremony.  It was a neat  experience to watch it with the students from Great Britain and Ireland. They had to explain all the pop culture references. I didn't make it long through the introductions of the countries, I think I got to J before I got bored and walked back. We went out to Sea Side Heights for dinner. I have been pushing this group to go- they have the best fry jacks! It just takes a while for service, but the food is delish! I had garlic shrimp and calaloo.  We tried to sing karaoke, but the computer they play it off of was broken. So we all hung around, chatting with some locals. then some of us headed back to Hillside in the MOST INTERESTING/SKETCHY taxi ride ever. I will not elaborate any further, but this story will resurface when I'm home for sure!

I can't believe it has already been 1 month already! I have gotten into the groove of things and am really enjoying all the experiences. I have said before both of my clinicals so far- I can do anything for two months, and it's the truth.  No matter how anxious I was before getting on my flight in Greensboro, or how many tears I shed when saying bye to my parents, It has all worked out better than I could have anticipated. I have met so many great people here, had so many experiences so far and lots of laughs. I miss everyone back at home! It's been tough only having contact via iMessages, Facebook and Facetime. I know that sounds like more than enough media outlets, but there are just times when I want to just hear my best friends' voices and have my mom tell me it's going to be okay. (okay i'm done with my sappy reflections)

 As I look back on this past year, well specifically since I began PT school, I am so glad I am where I am. I've learned to laugh at myself, be more accepting of new situations, and of course, how to be a PT. I wouldn't change any of my experiences- well..... there might be a few....

1 month to go in Belize, means 1 month until my birthday! I can't repeatedly remind everyone at home- BUT my golden birthday is August 24, which so happens to mark our last day in Belize. For some reason I am very excited it's my golden birthday, I mean I have been waiting 24 years for this!

Wednesday--> Thursday: Wrapped up in a mosquito net cocoon

Overnight trip to Delores and Otoxha:

We began our overnight journey with 2 packed cars, the mobile and the Rehab Nissan truck and a 2 hour drive, through Blue Creek, past Crique Sarco- basically into the dense forest near the Guatemala border (in which Niamh’s (one of the Irish Med students) travel adviser told her to avoid). But that was our final destination! The roads were outrageous- it had rained a lot the night before, so there were puddles everywhere- Carol did a great job getting us through the uneven terrain. When we arrived at Delores- we set up the clinic at their health post, in which Mr. Rudy (one of the drivers- and like a Dad for the group) broke the lock on the door to get in. We set up the clinic and began seeing patients around 11 am.  

Clinic in Delores

The overnight experience was difficult for the PTs. In this village, the patients who had back pain only wanted Tylenol, they wanted little to do with us trying to get them to do exercises and stretches to help decrease their pain.  I would attempt to perform an eval on a patient, and be unable to get her to stand up and bend over and backwards to see how her pain reacts.  It was a struggle for me.  I want to help these women, but they were uncomfortable with the PTs and I’m assuming how we were asking them to move their bodies? At the end of educating a woman on posture and what she should do when she stands up from sitting or working, I asked if she had any questions for me. Her reply was can I have Tylenol. I said I cannot give you that; did you talk to the doctor that you saw before me about it? No she replied. This happened to me multiple times.  It was quite defeating because I did not know how else to approach the situation. I want to provide the best care I can for all patients, but it is difficult when we could not figure out what cultural barrier we were hitting.  We brainstormed with the doctor that was with us, multiple times throughout the 2 days on mobile to try to discern the hesitation with PT. 

Needless to say, Caroline and myself did not see many patients during the day on Wednesday. When it was time for dinner, we went across the street to a local family’s home and were served caldo (which is chicken in broth and corn tortillas, and some interesting chocolate water, not many people were too keen on the chocolate water, so James(one of the Med students), who enjoyed the juice/water, drank 5 extra cups. After dinner, we hung around outside, chatted and watch some people messing around with a volleyball, waiting for the nightly discussion to begin.

In order to have lights for the night session, Mr. Rudy runs lights from the mobile vehicle’s engine.  One of the purposes of the overnights to provide a community education session on any specific topic, the topic for the night was nutrition and then the PTs did a blip about exercise. Well we attempted to/ had a lot of fun acting silly on the stage.  The audience was similar to our patients we had tried to communicate with in the clinic, not much audience interaction or participation, but they were laughing at us. We determined it was a nervous laughter, but we were still begging people to participate with us.  Caroline and I led a little exercise/ stretching bit- back leans, shoulder and neck rolls, marching in place and then of course jumping jacks! It was entertaining for all the students, as we had the med students on stage with us and then Carol in the audience trying to fire up the crowd! We had few participants. At the end we did a raffle drawing for all those who came out, for prizes that we brought with us.  

Then we all sat around and played games, looked at the stars, this has been the first night I felt like we could see the stars well, and then attempted to go to bed at 9pm! Wayyy too early, but there really wasn’t much to do in the dark.

Setting up our beds and mosquito nets was quite the task! We were sleeping on the floor of the clinic, so we brought along with us foam pads to use as beds and extra camping air mattress/ harder foam pads.  For some reason there were not enough foam pads, so I slept on my blow up air mattress and then the harder camping pad underneath it. good thing I practiced blowing it up in the living room dad! It was quite the experience of awful sleep. I have never used a mosquito net in my life- once we got them all tied up on a string, I climbed inside and wrapped the net around me, like a cocoon.  I'm not even sure that was the correct way to do it? anyways, I'm lying there with my feet holding down the bottom of it, with my hand straight by my side because my mat wasn't really big enough to be comfortably laying there- and then I coudln't move or I would shift the net. Then I began sweating profusely - But I can't shift positions without messing up the net unless I did a shift to my side then onto my stomach but THEN my legs were touching or my arms were stuck to my body because I was too sweaty. I had put ear plugs in since once everyone fell asleep the snoring began, and I'm laying there staring into the darkness, hoping I haven't trapped too many mosquitoes inside my net. and then I look at my watch- bad idea- 10 pm urghhhhh haha I had to stop checking my watch because it was always only an hour later. Needless to say, it was a long night

Caroline inside her mosquito net- My set up is to the right- the blow up air pad

Since it gets light here around 5am, Mr. Rudy and the two boys that came with us for intake and interpreting, were up early, chatting away. I held out until 5:30 and was able to step outside for a cool breeze since the door was closed for the clinic there was not a breeze at all. 

Mr. Rudy packed us breakfast, PB with bread and a yummy cereal. and of course, coffee! Then we packed up all of our stuff and drove to the next town where were we were setting up the clinic on Thursday.

Taking a morning stroll

On the way to the clinic, Carol, myself, Dave, Niamh and Michael were in the Nissan truck behind the mobile, and we noticed one of the tires getting flat. Then we went over a bridge and it was to the ground! Detour! we loaded up the Nissan with all the Pharmacy and intake supplies and then we walked about 3/4 of a mile to the clinic.

View from the top of the hill where the clinic was located.

We set up at the clinic and the women and children come pouring in to be seen by the doctors, not the PTs.  Today was more challenging than Wednesday. We only saw 2 patients. And that was a stretch.  I spoke with the Community Health Worker, someone in the community that refers patients to come to the clinic when we have mobiles. But this community health worker was very different than the typical ones we have interacted with in the other villages.  This woman, would have benefited from PT, and even after explaining to her what PT can do for so many people and how we treat patients and make their pain go away with exercise rather than Tylenol, she still wasn't buying it. I need to work on my convincing skills.
Then we had lunch at the clinic, and a lot of the kids and even older women and men stuck around to watch us through the windows at the clinic, It was odd to feel like people are watching you eat, am I really that interesting? I didn't think so.  It was difficult because we didn't know if we were to acknowledge the people or ignore them..... After lunch we packed up and headed back to Hillside! We were all drained, dirty, smelly, sweating and gross when we got home.

It was worth it for the experience; that's what this trip is all about. But I have never been so glad to sleep in my bed in Abby's house!

Tuesday=Cultural day!

Cultural day: We began this morning with a lecture on the different cultures in Belize. There are East Indians, Garifuna,  Mopan Mayan, Kekchi Mayan and Chinese. Each of the cultures have different dialects and foods. The majority speak some English, which makes it easier for us practicing healthcare here to communicate.  Then we hopped in the mobile and went to Nim Li Punit, which was only a 25 min drive from Hillside. I am not a history person , so I was slightly bored when the tour guide was going on and on……… but then we got to walk around the site and see all the stone laying and carving into pillars of stone: Stellas. There were pictures depicted on the stones of the gods.

 After the tour, there were families selling odds and ends, nice souvenirs, I bought a dish that had a nice little serving knife, I was excited to use it for hummus :) (see the rest of the story below) 

View from the top of the Mayan ruins- I would make my village up here as well!

the dish that I bought for hummus or a canoe.... I like my use for it better

Then we drove to a local women’s group and our guide, Santiago, was telling us about local crops and how the culture practices organic farming.  We got to try cocao straight from the plant- not what I thought chocolate beans would taste like at all- slightly bitter when you bit into the center. We learned how to make baskets, the process of how to dry and grind corn to make tortillas, and then actually making a tortilla.  We had jippi-jappa, a cabbage made from dried palm leaves, it had a slightly slimy consistency, more chicken- what would a meal be without it?, corn tortillas, and of course- 3 different juices! Then we were able to purchase things from a store. They had beautiful bread baskets made out of the palm leaves, and then I saw canoes, with seats in them, which looked exactly like the dip and knife that I had bought earlier. Then it hit me, I bought a canoe with an oar and I didn’t know it!  Yes, my naive sense strikes again- funny stories…..

Next stop was Blue Creek- where we were going caving.  The hike up to the cave was more intense than I was expecting. I was literally rock climbing at times, slipping all over the place, falling on the 5^th point of contact (my butt) a lot more than I anticipated. But it was a gorgeous river hike, to the mouth of the cave.  Getting prepared to enter the cave was interesting, the guide (who was wearing an UNC hat!) awkwardly was putting on all of our life jackets so that they were basically sideways around the waist- a reach around at its finest, for sure! 

The  mouth of the cave

This caving experience was much different than the ATM caves.  The guide was not as vocal and wasn’t as concerned with our safety as Oscar, our guide at the ATM caves was. BUT the guide was the one who discovered the cave in 1986 (or at some point). We had life jackets on, so maybe he felt like we would be okay? The water was still freezing, but there was quite a current the majority of the trek into the cave. It took a lot of upper arm strength to navigate around some of the walls.  We were not able to go as far into the cave because the water levels were up. So we turned around at one point, and were able to go with the strong flow of the current and float towards the exit! Then we hiked back down to a spot where there were rope swings and a diving platform. We spent a lot of time there, relaxing in the river and playing on the swings! 

We headed back down the path and were on our way to Anaconda Bar for dinner! Allison, a woman from the US, who moved down to Belize, owns Anaconda Bar, and she makes delicious chicken, burgers, key lime pie and doughnuts! This night her new menu item was a chicken burger- basically a chicken sandwich- which was amazing. She also makes yummy lime juices, which go well with rum. We had dinner and hung around there until it was time to return to Abby's house after a long day.

Monday- Week 4 begins!

Monday- Back in the Out Patient clinic-
Today I spend the morning with Stacy, half of our patients showed up. I was able to follow up with one of my patients that I had worked with the first week I was here, so that was nice!

In the afternoon, we had cake celebrating a birthday for one of the ladies that works in the office, Polly, a delicious strawberry cake with marshmellowy icing= Very yummy! Then the rehab team piled in the Nissan Truck and drove to San Pedro Columbia to meet with Nurse Kevin again and then make a few pit stops on the way back to see patients. One of the patients we went a saw is experiencing Bilateral weakness, distal greater than proximal (for all those of my fellow SPTs reading this), decreased sensation up to her knees, and then atrophy of LEs but not really feet. (But it doesn't really present like Gillian Barre) She has pain in her hips and ankles, which we were attributing to her change of gait pattern- she hyperextends her knees with each step (similar to Dr. Andrew's snapping knee pattern). This patient has been steadily declining over the past 6 months, I believe that was the conclusion reached by the end of the translation with the community health worker. We brought this patient a walker to use to help her walk instead of the walking sticks she was using.  She really appreciated that!  Carley was working with this challenging patient. Due to limited resources in Belize, it would be very difficult to have this woman get an MRI- which is exactly what she needs to determine what is going on, presumably in her spine.

This is the hardest thing to accept regarding health care in Belize- People need medical imaging that is not available, and it is hard to treat something, such as what this woman has, without knowing what is really going on. It is a 6 hour bus ride to Belize City, that is if the patient can get on a bus to go there, and then they need to have money to pay some fee for it, which is also hard to sacrifice for.

Lime Caye: Our own private island for the weekend!

Saturday and Sunday:

We hopped on a bus into Punta Gorda Saturday about 7:15 am to begin our weekend journey.
Michael, one of the Pharmacy Students from Drake, had worked out a sweet deal with Dennis, a local man whose family owns Lime Caye, and brings groups of people out to the Caye for trips.
We had an 1 1/2 hour boat ride to the Caye, the water was much smoother than it was on our trip to Guatemala, there wasn't much bouncing, just splashing, and getting wet.
When we arrived to the Caye, a storm was just rolling in and we had to jump off the boat and find shelter quickly. Lunch wasn't for a couple hours, so we all went around the island and claimed beds to sleep in for the night. Stacey (the new PT) and I ended up in a nice 1 room hut literally on the water. There was a balcony on the front side.

Our Room

 

Storms coming in....

The View from our room

Holding some fish- Barracuda for every meal all weekend :)- note: I did not catch these

We went snorkeling Saturday afternoon for an hour and then went trolling for more fish for dinner, the boat captain/driver Mikkal- caught two fish. Snorkeling for 30+ minutes was interesting, my feet were tired from kicking with the fins that I was using, and then I kept swallowing water through my oddly working snorkel. Needless to say, there is only so much salt water you want to drink before calling it quits!
 When we got back to the island, we all hung out, waiting for dinner, and enjoying the clear water and the views.We had a delicious meal for dinner; fried barracuda, chicken, rice and beans.Then we all hung out under the pavilion where the food was served and on the beach, playing card games and talking.
When we headed to bed, it was already storming in the distance- I even watched the lightening come in- the lightning is not scary if there is not thunder following it I decided. But when it came time to sleep, our little hut had air circulation if there was a breeze outside, especially when it was storming, but then the rain was coming in through the windows, so there had to be compromises made. I didn't sleep much that night, but that's okay because I had the majority of the day Sunday to take naps on the beach!

Thank goodness Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day.  We had breakfast at 7am, fry jacks, eggs, and fruit. Then it was nap time on the beach.  We went the coast guard reserves island to have a educational talk about the reef- but that lasted about 5 minutes. Then Mikkal brought us to a ship wreck site to do more snorkeling. When we returned to the beach, there was lots of relaxing to be done!
I finished a whole book this weekend, got a nice sun burn and took lots of fun pictures on the beach! I even tried relaxing a bit :)

The gorgeous beach

If you look closely you can see the change in the color of water. All the water was very clear!

We never wanted to leave

Tropical Paradise!

What a great first weekend with this new group of people!

Fabulous Friday!

Friday:

We spent the morning planning the community class, as we only have 1 more week of planning before it begins! Then we went into town for a bit to get pricing on items for snacks and a drawing that we want to hold at the end of the 4 week class.
Fridays are always good lunch days because Hillside always prepares us something ymmy. This week was rice and beans, chicken and  Belizian Potato salad.  Then the rehab team had individual therapists- student evals/ assessments/ wrap ups and we were able to have a relaxing friday afternoon!

For dinner friday night, all the students, Carol and Stacey (the PTs), Celia (the Nurse) and then a couple that was visiting for the week, Erin, an OBGYN and her husband,  a pharmacist. We went to Bel Campo for drinks and dinner. We decided to walk there...... 30 mins later we arrived at the bottom of their road where a shuttle took us to the top!

The View from the top of the mountain that Bel Campo is on

pretty flower

Ginger Cake- fo' free!

Since I went to Bel Campo a few weeks ago for the Belizian style meal, I skipped out on dinner and was convinced to have a piece of cake (that the waiter, who was the same one from last week, convinced me to get).  But the drinks were even 22 american dollars for 2, because there is a service fee and tax here that we don't have at home- it's usually 22.5%  extra for the majority of meals..... But the view from Bel Campo is beautiful and the service is great, so we all enjoyed it.  We got a ride back to Hillside in the Bel Campo shuttle and then went to bed, since we had to be rolling saturday morning by 7 AM for the Cayes (how they spell Keys)!

Thursday- if PT doesn't work out- I could be a grass cutter with a machette

Thursday-
Today Carol and I went out around to 2 areas, Forest Home and Eldridge, around Hillside and worked with 3 patients.  2 of the patient are going to be part of the restorative program and we needed to re-evaluate them. And the 3rd patient is a new patient for home health, he has had a recent below the knee amputation and we are working with him at his home.  It is always neat to see the patient and family interactions and how different families are in the same villages. I am excited to be developing relationships with these patients, especially when I will potentially be coming to their homes on a weekly basis to work with them.

In the afternoon we had a lab day with Mr. James, who is responsible for the grounds care at Hillside.  We began our journey by carrying our bleach babies in the traditional Mayan way: in a Lapob!

The 3 PT students carrying our bleach babies with the Lapob

the back of me, in mid swing with the machette

side view of the bleach baby (its not correctly positioned yet!)

We walked to another one of the Hillside employee's land, a good 10-15 minute walk on rocky roads,then we were able to rest our babies on a tree branch while we learned to use a machette.
I found my second calling, it was quite fun cutting through blades of grass and little trees! I was already planning on bringing one home for Ethan, my brother, but it might be a shared gift :) After 15 mins of chopping away at things- I developed a blister and had to stop- I just needed some gloves!

My CI- don't mess with this

After everyone had their turn with the machette, we began the trek back and stopped at one of the weekend security guards houses for some coconuts.The coconut milk is amazing deliciousness!

Minus the clothes line through the middle, this is cute

Then Thursday night  the American girls, Caroline, Myself and Carley made breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, scrambled eggs and sauteed plantains- a huge hit!

Monday- we're finally oriented--> Wednesday

Today we finally went through orientation- all day long......
The past 2 weeks  we have just been asking questions as they come along, so by the end of it, i felt like i had already been through orientation, but it was nice to get the overview of the Healthcare system in Belize.  The healthcare system is very interesting, In order to get to the large hospital in Belize City, one has to go to a local satellite clinic or polyclinic, then be referred to the hospital 2 1/2 hours away in Dangriga and then can be sent to the hospital in Belize City. So by the time you would make it there, your condition would be progressively worsened. In the afternoon, we went into Punta Gorda and had a tour of the hospital and poly clinic.  The hospital was not what i was expecting at all. Very small, bright walls and not a lot of staff.  The maternity ward had 1 room where the mothers stayed right after birth, with the birthing room a door away.  The polyclinic was much larger than I expected, lots of people waiting there to see the doctors. There is a pharmacy there that one of the pharm students here go to each week. 

Tuesday : Mobile to Midway Village.....
 Today we went on a mobile. I rode in the mobile vehicle with the other students instead of in the therapy truck.  It was nice to socialize with the other students, and I didn't even get car sick!  PT did not have many patients at the mobile. We had one house visit to make, and we were backing the truck out of a road, and got stuck in the mud. The doctor and the male med students came out to try to rock the truck of the ditch. that only ended up with one of the students covered in mud! We ended up having to get the community health worker to get a rope from his home and we used the mobile vehicle to pull us out. After that ordeal, we went to the patient's home, and she wasn't even home! So much for that. But we had 1 patient referral from the med students and then Carol gave a quick education session for a women with knee pain who just received injections in her knees. 

When we returned from mobile, Stacy, the new PT here, was working out so I joined her in the education center for a circuit session- she planned the workout and i just followed along :) it was great, then we went for a power walk. It's nice to have a work-out buddy, since i'm missing my DPT workout buddies and Jillian Michaels.

Then it was time for a group dinner. We've been making community dinners this week. Tonight was chicken wraps, with delicious homemade tortillas from a neighbor. 

Wednesday:

Today we finished up restorative lectures with Florecita. I lectured on body mechanics and assistive devices and gait training. Then Carley and I did a lab on transfers. Bringing it back to PT science 2 and 3! Next we went out into town and saw 2 patients before lunch, then took a long lunch break at the "Snack Shack" in town. We finished up the afternoon with 2 more house visits.  The house visits are part of the restorative program that we are re-vamping for Hillside.  We are going to all the patients that are in the restorative book and re-evaluating them, since their previous evaluations were at least 5 months ago.  
It was a great day seeing patients in their homes. It's much more challenging to come up with exercises and what functional things we can help them perform better. These patients have adapted well to their injuries and it is neat to see how they perform their daily tasks.  One of the men who had a stroke, has a grab rope from his ceiling, that is in the middle of his room and helps him get to and from the bed.  Another patient was using a yard stick as a grabber/reacher to get his clothes.  All the patients welcome us with open arms into their homes, and are great! 

Sunday: we’re going to the zoo, we're going to the zoo!

So Saturday night we made the decision to definitely go to the Belize Zoo- “the best tiny zoo.”

We took the local bus from San Ignacio to the zoo- it took longer than we thought especially since we waited nearly 45 mins for the bus to arrive. When the bus dropped us off, we were literally in the middle of nowhere on the road.

 But the zoo was just a quick walk from the road.  The zoo was 15$ American for admission and the first thing we come to is  Charles, one of the workers, holding a snake that we could hold! Well since I’m about the experiences down here- I was the first to hold the snake! Ekk!

We walked around the zoo, taking pics of the tigers, jaguars, eagles, birds, Mountain cows (ugly animal), and other animals that are wild in Belize! Here are more pictures!

The Tapir/ mountain cow

This is one of the many Jaguars they have rescued

a pretty pathway- i love it when trees make a canopy/ tunnel

a massive bird that we watch for at least 5 minutes - it gave us a show of flapping its wings

the Harpy Eagle

the back of the 2 Macaws- so colorful!

Then we waited for the bus to go back to Belmopan to then catch the connector bus to head back home! We got to the bus station- said bye to Joe and then Raphael waited with us to get on the bus. And it was an adventure getting on the bus- caroline held onto my backpack and we pushed through the line to make sure we got on! And we did- I was fortunate and got a seat next to a woman who lives in PG, and she was very helpful with questions I had along the way 

Finally at 7:30 we arrived home- we both had never been so excited to be back to Hillside! We ran up to where Carol is staying to let her know we survived our weekend and then went to Abby’s house to meet all the new students: 3 pharm students from Drake, 1 PT student from St. Louis university , 1 med student from New Zealand and 6 med students from the UK and then a new PT preceptor, Stacey.