Thursday and Friday (by EDF)

Thursdays are actually Dr. M's day of the week to go out into the community, so we were excited to spend the morning with her and see her interact with patients- when we got to the clinic, though, plans changed a bit, because it turns out it was ¨D¨day (¨d¨for Dengue). D days happen with some frequency, whenever there are a few cases of dengue fever reported in the area. Apparently there have been 3 cases reported recently. So there was a lot of organizing (and waiting around for people!)- we had many of the staff from our clinic, staff from a nearby clinic, and others from the public health office all split up into outreach teams. Basically we went from house to house and asked to inspect the large sinks that people had in back (and any other items with standing water), and we looked for mosquito larvae- my and KRF's team each saw one. We distributed handouts about the mosquito lifecycle and dengue, and gave the families packets of mosquito poison to put in the water (not drinking water). Most people seemed pretty on board with this, as they had probably had several of these visits in the past. Once we finished our area, we went and checked in on some of Dr. M's patients, and then it was back to our favorite lunch spot (traditional food, in this case, chicken breast, for $1.75).

That afternoon we went out with our public health educator, Lic. V, to a few homes. Our last visit was to a couple who own a roasted chicken restaurant on the corner of one of the streets in our area, and they were very excited to host us- we discussed many things, including whether or not I should be frightened of the volcano that we are to climb in a week or so! They kindly made coffee and served cookies (KRF and I started thinking that the job of public educator here is not too bad!).

Back home, as promised, KRF and I made baked macaroni and cheese for the family (I tried to more or less use Pop-Pop's recipe, but alas, did not add bacon, and it turned out the oven wasn't working! but we had a toaster oven, so we used that, and baked the mac and cheese in two batches). The girls said it was better than the Kraft box kind, so I call that success!

FRIDAY:

Dr. M doesn't see patients until about 8am on Fridays, and since we arrive at the clinic around 630am, the three of us went out to a nice leisurely breakfast of casamiento (our favorite!), and eggs.

For the morning, KRF and I went out into the community again with Lic. V, doing risk assessments. Lunch was with her, the psychologist, and a few of the residents- I feel like we are starting to get to know them pretty well! We are now able to make jokes a bit, I just learned that here they classify jokes as ´blanco´or ´rojo´. Lic. V says that rojo jokes are not necessarily dirty! They just have to have a double meaning apparently.

We are also getting fairly familiar with the neighborhood! We often see people in the street that we have now visited- it is quite lovely. Lic. V of course knows everyone very well at this point (she has been working at the clinic for a year and a half). In the afternoon we worked on data collection, going through the family folders- not a bad activity for a Friday afternoon.

Back at home, KRF and I attempted a jog- ugh, but good for us after all this rather fattening food. And then we got ready for a fiesta! There was a family reunion of sorts at Dr. M's aunt's house- it was a nice time- lots of cousins running around, and a traditional meal with yucca as the main entre- yum!