Midwives and Site Visit

We finished FBT a week ago to come back to Santa Lucía for our final two weeks of training. It was really hard to leave Yarumela because I had gotten really close to my family and since we were the first group of volunteers there I think we really all got attached to each other. The bus came to pick us up in the morning and all the families were out on the corner waving and crying and I really hope I’ll be able to visit more than once in the two years I’ll be here. The end of FBT was really interesting as we learned about the Men´s health initiative, gave a men´s health charla to a technical school, and learned about obstetric emergencies. After learning about obstetric emergencies we went to a town about an hour away from La Paz to give a talk to local midwives and health volunteers who had come in from neighboring towns. Most of the midwives were elderly women no taller than my shoulder and were really fun to work with. We focused on hemorrhaging during pregnancy, delivery, and post-partum and taught them how to use bimanual compression to stop the bleeding until they can get the woman to a hospital. The Ministry of Health here in Honduras is really pushing institutional deliveries but for some of these women it just isn’t feasible because they live several hours away from the nearest hospital and can’t leave right when their contractions start because there would be no one else to take care of their children. Because of this, midwives are still widely used in the rural areas so it is really important to train them how to recognize obstetric emergencies so they know when to get the woman to a hospital. I really enjoyed the talk we gave and can’t wait to work with midwives when I get to my site.

And as for my site…

I´m going to Ocotepeque! Sites were announced last Monday, we met our counterparts on Tuesday, and left to go visit on Wednesday for a couple days. Ocotepeque is in the far west right next to the borders with El Salvador and Guatemala and I´m going to the city of Nueva Ocotepeque in the department of Ocotepeque. It’s the first stop in Honduras coming from both El Salvador and Guatemala which is going to make my work really interesting. I’ll be working with the Centro de Salud (health center) in Antigua Ocotepeque which is just outside of where I’ll be living mainly with maternal and child health. When I was visiting I went with the doctor and nurses of the clinic to vaccinate in one of the neighboring aldeas. We’re in the national vaccination month right now and since a lot of people don’t go to the clinics frequently if at all most health centers have to go out to the surrounding areas and take the vaccines with them to ensure that the children are vaccinated. It was really fun to go with them and a great way to start to get to know the area. When I go back in a week they will still be vaccinating so I’ll get to go with them a few days a week all around the municipality. My first week there we will also be going to El Poy which is the border crossing with El Salvador to give out HIV information. There is a lot of commerce going in and out of El Poy so we’ll be talking to a lot of truck drivers in addition to people just traveling between the two countries. Ocotepeque and the border crossing at El Poy is a big stop on the way to El Norte which gives us great access to migrants on their way up to educate them more about HIV and AIDS. Being in a border town is going to give me a lot of great opportunities to do a wide variety of work since I will do a lot with maternal and child health with the centro de salud and will also get to do HIV/AIDS work at the border and in town. I´m really looking forward to heading back in a week, integrating into my community and getting started with my work.

We have a lot going on this last week in Santa Lucía as well. We´re having a going away party for our families on Wednesday and then the swearing-in ceremony is on Friday. It’s going to be at the US embassy in Tegus and then we get to go celebrate afterwards at the ambassador´s house. I´ll be getting a new mailing address in a week and will post it as soon as I know since I won’t be going back to Tegus very often. For some reason the 11 hour bus ride isn’t much motivation for me to head back. It´s going to be a busy week before heading off to my site and I´ll have a lot to do once I get there which is a great way to start off my two years.