First day in Clinic began slower than I expected. Lots of people waiting for us. 

It took a little while to set up shop. Mostly about where to put all the clinicians. 

Medical was in one building. Eye clinic was outside under a large portico. Dental and peds clinic were in the building up the road 50 yards. We had three areas in our room blocked off with sheets hanging down. A table and a few chairs. 

A large beetle scurried across the floor. There were several dogs in the area all a little skiddish. One was skinny and obviously just had puppies. One VERY skinny dog- I'm not sure how he was still alive actually. These are not pets here.  The only time anyone pays attention to them is to kick them out of the way. Sometimes a bit too forcefully for my liking. 

We had an interpreter issue. There were four English to Spanish interpreters who didn't show up. Since I only speak a few non helpful words in Spanish.. I was very ineffective. 

There was a group of medical students here and one of them named Karen helped me bumble through a few patients. I felt all thumbs- and wanted so badly to be helpful..but it was a tough morning. Thankfully lunch came quicker than I expected. - I didn't quite feel like I earned a break but I'm not going to lie . It was good. 

One peanut butter and jelly sandwich- heavy on the pb.. tasted like a delicacy. An apple and a bottle of water was enough to give me the push to go figure this out. 

And then one of our veterans who speaks fluent Spanish came over to help- I had the second interpreter to get us from Spanish to Mayan.. and we were off.

Things were smoother right away. I saw several pregnant women. Many stomach aches- menstrual cramps, intestinal parasites, and ulcers -From coffee. Lots. Of. Coffee. Several were dehydrated. Water for many of the people needs to be carried from a ways away. So it is in short supply and therefore many are not drinking enough. 

I was teaching. And helping. And I felt better. 

It was around 4pm before I realized I needed some water myself... sticky and sweaty we took a quick break for some water. Then two more patients to round out the day. 

A young 19 yo man who worked long days in the field with a machete bent over swinging and chopping. His complaints were a sore toe and back, neck and shoulder pain. The sore toe was actually an infected toenail, but you can guess why he had the back pains.. we all did exercises in the exam room, and laughed a bit.

The last patient was a young mother of 3 who was 6 months pregnant. Her legs and back hurt her. I felt her belly and the baby moved. Beautiful. Then we listened to the baby's heartbeat. And that baby's mother smiled and so did we.

After clinic we cleaned up a bit then I went to go sit with the kids. I let them listen to their heart with my stethoscope. The older ones tried first and LOVED IT! Then the younger ones became brave enough to try. Very fun. 

Then we learned "head shoulders knees and toes.. "

They laughed as Marilyn and I went through the motions of the song. Priceless. 

Dinner was chicken rice and corn tortillas. Bed at 8:15. On the ground in the room we saw patients in. Someone lent me a blow up pool float as an air mattress.. good idea! 

It was a very good day.

Languages spoken in this village were ke chi and pok em chi.