Better Late Than Never

So I meant to update my blog a week ago when I finished translating with my friend Dan and his Medical Campaign. Basically what I have to say about it is WOW! Dan works for a Lutheran organization here in El Salvador and he helps organize trips of various Lutheran church groups to do public service trips here and then he acts as their translator. Occasionally, like last week he needs help translating because one person is just not enough.

The first thing I need to say is that the group in general was an interesting mix and, being mid-westerners, were amused by almost everything. The kind of amusement that can get old in a matter of minutes, especially when they are constantly pointing out what have become common, everyday sights to me. I have gotten a little used to being the entertainment while people let their Peace Corps curiosity run wild, but this took the cake.

After finally getting used to their personalities I started to translate for one of them that was testing for reading glasses. That is a thankless and boring job because its basically endlessly asking the same question and guessing at which glasses they need. Plus its not exactly medical, I mean they were just reading glasses. I got fed up after about 30 people came back telling me their vision was blurred and I had to repeat for the millionth time to take off the glasses, they are only for reading. Then I discovered that the guy I was translating for was an electrician. I gave up and moved over to an actual medical area.

That is where all the madness started. I moved to help a nurse take triage type info before sending the patients to one of the doctors. Well I basically helped figure out what was going on with some of the people that were a bit more embarrassed or less forthcoming. I heard more about lots of body parts than I ever really cared to, but I credit a medical family for not even batting an eye when I was being told all that stuff. I esencially diagnosed what we believe to be a case of chlymidia when the guy was telling me he had UTI like symptoms. I knew something was up then and just took over for the nurse. The doctor had to do a private exam and then we had to convince him to bring in his girlfriend. It turns out she had a nursing child and didn´t want to take the drug coctail. We finally convinced them both to take it by explaining that she probably had it and was giving it back to him after every treatment and that was why it wasn´t going away, additionally it could cause her to be infertile. That did it.

Later on the second day right as we were cleaning up a girl came in with a huge absess on her leg and the doctors decided to immediately cut it open, drain it and bandate it. All sounds routine, but we had no sterile water, no drainage kits and only dental syringes and lidocaine. So they numbed it with the dental lidocaine and flushed it with the same and then used a sterile glove finger as a McGyver drain. Meanwhile Dan and I are translating what is going on to the poor girl and her Aunt who was with her. The amount of crying, consoling and medical jargon flying around was nuts and I was sort of running around helping out. I felt a little like a scrub-tech. All went well though and the girl is better for it.

Afterwards I spent a few days relaxing and getting some personal time in. I promised Alana, who is leaving, that we would hang out and I would get a salon haircut before she left. So I did that and now I am sporting a bit of a feauxhawk. I also hung out with Mirna and her family, who Samuel met, for their daughter´s second birthday. That was all so necessary between the hectic translating and this last week because work is seriously picking up in my site. I am riding all over the place on bikes with my counterpart setting up school environmental committees and planning activities with the kids. It will be a packed last few months.