8/14

this mornings clinical was optional, but we all ended up going. Will said he made it optional because he didnt want to wear us out, as we are all getting tired now that the week is coming to a close. However, we all know the reasons why we are here. and we are all dedicated to that. I was paired with Eric, who they call chico. and also victoria. Our translator was Elmer, the sweetest man in the world I am convinced. He was the one who told us the story about Samosa and about the massacre when in Leon. I got to know him much better today as we talked between patients. He was trying to squeeze in his own little doctor visist between patients, telling us he is so tired after a full nights sleep and didnt know why....i joked with him and told him maybe he should try caffeine....haha. Mostly we saw UTI's again...it seems like thats the main complaint. The saddest thing is that you ask the people "sangre de orino?" blood in urine? and they say no but then they tell you that their pee is red....which is blood...they dont make the connection. Today has definitely been the hottest day, especially since we were indoors and without electricity so we had no fan...we brought the generator later and then had a fan so that made it a bit better...but we were still hott. We were in an OB clinic that had insane amounts of breastfeeding posters all over the place...some were kind of creepy looking andwe laughed at them but i guess they dont really understand the importance there.

I had the opportunity today to work with the OBGYN and do 4 pap smears on my own. It was a challenge because the OBGYN could not speak english so she had to show me with her hands how to do a pap smear...one hand she clenched to imitate a cervix and the other with the instruments showed me what to do....i had to choke back giggles from my immature sense of humor at that...and be professional. But i did place the thingy in the vaginas and saw the cervix. i never thought id ever get that close to another woman's vagina before....not even when i did my OB rotation did I get that close. It was obvious to me which woman had STD or maybe even cervical cancer as her cervix was extremely large and swollen. They dont use lube on the separater instrument...which i know now, every woman reading this is cringing in pain. There were flies all around and about to fly into the vagina's, I had to swat them away...that was just so disgusting i cant even imagine being those woman.

We also had the chance to go to the landfill today. The dump rather. Where people drop off trash. Tons of people actually live on this hill around the landfill and look for food here everyday. There was a local church group brining a sermon and food to these people and we got in on it and brought hott meals to them as well. At first we would only let children come get meals and then it was a number system in order of arrival and if anything was left we went to those who didnt get a number.....we still ran out and had to turn people away. The biggest thing that got me wasnt the children, but the pregnant woman who I am sure have the worst of prenatal care, no nutrition, and are bringing babies into a world that they definitely dont deserve. Heather told me that many of them dont realize that sex and babies go together...they cant make the coorelation, they dont have preventative education, or any education for that matter.

(the dump)(me and the group handing out juice)

I handed out juice while Laura waved a stick to keep flies away, which really didnt matter becasue they just kept landing all over us and the food....the kids and people had them crawling all over them and the food as they ate and just didnt care. I was sobbing behind my glasses while watching this scene. I just cant believe the living conditions. I cant even imagine that being my life.

(people, children, and dogs that live at the landfill)

Up on the top of the hill was an old prison that kept POW's. We climbed up on top of it and could see an amazing view of the city. It was beautiful when you kept your back to the garbage.

The bus ride back was quite, after we left. It took awhile to get all the flies out of the bus, but i fell asleep as we drove to the beach. After an hour drive we arrived to find the beach and rain of course. But that didnt stop us from jumping into the vast ocean. I can now saw i have been in the pacific and the atlantic ocean. The water was sooooo warm and it felt so good. We had to be careful of smaller sharks that are known for killing people there, but we didnt see anything. There was one dead stingray that Jose told me was the kind that killed steve irwan. But ive never been one to be afraid of the water, I am a pisces afterall! We played footbal, guys against girls and later 2 guys got sick of us being so good adn switched over to our team...that lasted a while but the waves were so ferrocious we got so exaughsted so we got out and went to walk the beaches and rocks...there were so many beautiful and coloful shells. so many pink ones, clear ones, and even sanddollars! The sunset was stunning over the ocean. We ate dinner at El Espigome . I ordered chicken fajitas but ended up with chicken fingers which i guess is a fajita to them. They gave me FRENCH FRIES which is my favorite food in the whole world,....the ketchup was unsatifactory though, being so sweet. A anorexic dog kept bothering us all through dinner so we kept giving him our scraps...he was so skinny after all. and actually kind of cute unlike most of the dogs ive seen here.

(the football group in the ocean)

Laura, Heather, and I spent a lot of time together today and are making plans to reunite in Cali which is where Heather has gotten a job and moving to as soon as we get back.

I already can tell i have been changed by this experience. Especially after today, I am so lucky in my life and really take it for granted. I honestly cant even express how grateful I am, I always thought I was but now I know. My life is definitely so blessed