Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Ando sin Pisto

Wow how things have changed since I´ve come to Honduras. At home I never had a lot of cash on me, but the amount I used to carry around would be a fortune here. I also knew that I always had access to an ATM as well and could take out money anytime I needed. Here I am fortunate enough to have a bank in my site (as several volunteers do not) and I even discovered the other day that there is a person in one of the hardware shops in town who you can go to if you want to take out money as well. Last Friday I realized I should have gone to the bank because I only had 50 lempiras to get me through the weekend, which is roughly equivalent to $2.50, but as it isn´t open on the weekends I needed to wait until this week. By the time I got to the bank yesterday, with a grand total of 2 lempiras (ten cents), the system was down and no one could take out any money. I had gone to the bank with my sitemate who had slightly more money than I did, 40 lempiras, so not being able to take out any money we went to the agent in the hardware store. We didn´t have any more luck there as I couldn´t remember my pin number (because I have never used an ATM) and when my sitemate swiped her card it said it wasn´t a valid account. So now we are stuck with barely over two dollars between us until the system is fixed at the bank but at least people here understand the situation and will let me pay them back. Before coming here I never would have imagined myself walking around with so little money so we´ll see how long it lasts me...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Icy Hot and Expired Zythromax

At the health center in Antigua Ocotepeque we get shipments of medicine only four times every year. If we run out of anything before then, well, the people who have walked all the way to see the doctor are just out of luck. That’s how it was when I first got here but we just got a shipment of medicine a couple weeks ago. Before getting the shipment the doctor and nurses go through the pharmacy to see what they need and how much of it to request. They always have to request more than they actually need because they never get as much as they request. When the shipment came in we didn’t get a lot of the medicine we had requested and we also got a lot of medicine we hadn’t requested and didn’t need. In addition to the medicine on the list, our health center also received various donations from the US and while this seems like a great idea, it probably didn’t work out as well as was hoped. One of the extra items we got was Zythromax. It is a great antibiotic and we received cases and cases of it. Once we opened the boxes, however, we discovered that it expired in just one week. All of it. During that week we took it up to the aldeas to people who were sick and the doctor prescribed it to anyone who needed it and came into the clinic, but we barely made a dent in all that we had. It’s really unfortunate that it expired so quickly because it’s a drug we would never otherwise have access to.

We also got several boxes of Icy Hot patches. While they also have the potential to be helpful, the patches we received have no way of being attached to the skin because they are meant to be placed in leg, arm, or back braces so they can be applied to the area in pain at the same time that the area is being supported by the brace. Not only do we not have access to any braces, but the instructions to use and apply the patch are in English. I was able to explain how to use it, but health centers where no one speaks English may not be explaining correctly. You have to make sure you put a certain side against the skin and unless you read English, you would have no way of knowing.
We have a lot of people coming into the health center right now because word has gotten around that we got in a new shipment of medicine, but we’ll see how long it lasts and how health care continues in the next couple of months until we get the next one.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Border Work and the Rainy Season

I’ve been in site for a month now and am starting to really get to know Ocotepeque. I’m meeting more people as well and rarely leave the house without running into someone I know. The rainy season has started and, aside from making laundry difficult, so far I love the rain. It has taken away the heat and has also made the mountains and entire valley very green, but it doesn’t seem like June because it’s warm and rainy while I’m sure it’s blazing hot at home.

About a week ago I went to visit my friend from the health center in her aldea, which is a small town of about 250 people 20 minutes outside of the town where I work. I met several of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as her grandparents and had a great time. On my way home I had to cross a bridge that went over a small gorge and a river. I have no idea how old it was, but it was made of pieces of wood tied together (not very securely) with wire and there were several holes and gaps in the bridge. There was a wire handrail that was also extremely wobbly and did not help much to balance as I was crossing. After already having crossed it once, and not much braver for it, as we were getting ready to cross to head back to the highway it started pouring! When it rains here you have hardly any warning until the sky just opens up and lets loose. So not only did I have to cross the bridge again, but I had to cross when it was slippery and as I was getting drenched. Cynthia was walking me back and we were laughing the entire way trying not to slip between the pieces of wood. Going home in the rain, across the bridge, just completed my afternoon.

My work has been really interesting so far. I go into the health center every morning so I can become more familiar with the doctor, nurses, and the people from the surrounding communities. I haven’t started any of my own projects yet because I’m waiting until I understand the needs of the community better, so I have just been participating in the activities the health center already has planned. I have gone a couple times to El Poy, which is where customs is to pass between El Salvador and Honduras, to talk about HIV to the people passing through. There are a lot of trucks that pass though on the way to San Salvador or San Pedro Sula and these drivers are a high-risk population for HIV since they spend so much time away from home. Each time we went we were able to talk to a lot of men about HIV and the methods of transmission. Many of them are really interested in learning more because it’s spoken about so much but there are a lot of people who don’t know the difference between HIV and AIDS or that it can be passed from mother to child during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. We are also trying to encourage people to get tested and other times the health center has gone they have taken rapid tests and tested people while they were waiting for their papers, but right now we are short on tests and need to save them for pregnant women. It is extremely important that pregnant women get tested because they can take anti-retroviral drugs to prevent transmission of the virus to their child during pregnancy. They can also have a C-section and learn about alternatives to breast-feeding in order to have a healthy child. While we were at El Poy we distributed condoms, showed people how to use them correctly, and educated them about the nature and transmission of HIV. It was a little intimidating at first, just walking up to groups of men and asking them what they know about HIV, but I really enjoyed the activity. I even got to board a couple tourist buses that were passing through to talk to all the passengers about HIV. These activities have been really fun and have given me more of an idea of the health situation in my site and the surrounding areas. I’m starting to think of some projects I can do during my two years here and it’s exciting to actually be able to begin to implement them soon.

I have been having trouble uploading pictures here, but hopefully some will be coming soon!