Last Mobile to San Jose- and the rest of the week

Week 7!

Monday: 

All the other students had orientation, which we had a month ago, so Caroline and I worked on the restorative program, read books, took a nap etc. and then went into town with part of the group to swim in the sea when orientation was over and everyone else got ice cream.  

Tuesday: Mobile

You better Belize it- this is where I treated patients on mobile! Best spot yet, who wouldn't want a river in the back of their clinic?

We all piled into the mobile vehicle, 4 med students, 3 PT students, 1 pharm student, 2 members of the hillside staff, Carmelita and Jenny, Dr. Thomas, a pharmacy preceptor and her mother and aunt, and Mr. Rudy driving us! Team PT was in the back of the clinic, so we had a nice shady spot with some benches and the cool breeze from the river. What a day.  PT saw 4 patients total, which is a little slow for a mobile, especially since there were 3 PT students and Monica. So I read a book most of the day, saw a patient, spoke with the community health worker and with other members of the community..... nice start to the week!

Behind the clinic there was nice pretty river

tables for washing clothes

Steps down to the riverbed!

up the road from the clinic

Health Post where the Mobile Clinic took place

Wednesday: Out-patient clinic.
One of my favorite patients came in after missing his last 2 appointments due to the weather, aka the hurricane that actually affected parts of Belize City, where he lives.  It was nice to see a familiar face in clinic and to know he was going to be a great patient :) He is the most consistent patient we have at Hillside, and for him to miss sessions was a surprise, nonetheless he came ready to work hard!

We had the afternoon off since the 3rd community class was tonight, so Caroline and I decided to ride the bus into town. This was the first successful bus ride into town we had! We've waited for it at night to get dinner before, but it never comes on schedule so we usually end up hitching a ride from someone or jumping on a random bus. But today the bus came, and it's only 1 Belizean dollar or 50 cents in US. so it's worth it.  We went to town to just walk around and talk to Roberto to plan the weekend excursion.  

Thursday: Restorative Program
We all rode into town and supervised Florecita work with patients for the restorative program. I had not had a chance to see Flor in action. It was neat to see how much she has grown as an aide over the past 7 weeks since we began training her the first week we were here.
Thursday night we went to Sea Side Heights, might have to be considered my favorite restaurant here! I love their fry jacks! They know me know since I've been almost every week and bring new crowds of people..... if only I was here longer it'd be another Cinco de Mayo for me...... which reminds me- less than 1 week and I'll be eating there :) Then we hit up Beyonce's on the way home to do some dancing. I finally learned the Tornado dance that all the locals have been talking about but won't teach us for real, since we've been here. So I took the initiative and got a 10 year old girl to teach us- too cute!

Friday: Out-Patient
We only had 1 patient today.  I worked on my CPI and got some new Belizean music from Florecita.... watch out everyone at home, I'm gonna have a new obsession...... One by One!
In the afternoon, we had our usual Friday lunch from Ms Janice next door, which is always delicious and then "discussion" time.  We biked/ took the bus to the sea to swim this afternoon, something fun and relaxing to do on a Friday!