Do the Best with what You Have

The last two days we have been working with the brigade.  It has been a very eye opening experience in many aspects.  Yesterday we were at a Tsachila village called Los Naranjos.  Our pharmacy was set up on a couple of benches in someone’s porch, and our compounding/label preparation area was on an old pool table.  It wasn’t exactly a clean, four-walled pharmacy; but Monday, it was a pharmacy (a well-functioning one I might add).  Today was much easier to set up because we were in the nursing area at Centro Medico Hombro a Hombo.  So we had a table and countertops. It was much more like a normal pharmacy ;) 

I have really enjoyed setting up the pharmacy each day.  The first couple of days it took a few minutes for us to decide how we wanted to set up the pharmacy, but we seem to be thinking along the same lines and getting things done faster each day.  It’s a lot of fun seeing us come together as a team.  Without any one leader, we all took initiation and all worked very hard each day setting up, dispensing medications, counseling patients and packing things up.  Today definitely challenged our flexibility and our team working skills.  We had about 45 patients the first 5-6 hours, and then the tidal wave hit.  We had about the same amount of patients or more in the last hour.  We definitely felt swamped at certain points during this, but the four of us, Stella, Laura, Jesse, and myself, handled everything very well.  Our flow together has been really great!

I am very impressed by the flexibility of everyone involved in the clinic.  Many times there isn’t anything “ideal” available for particular needs, but there is always something that we can make work in its place.  Today there were several different types of tables used for exams by physicians, toothpaste as a vehicle for topical lidocaine, using pocket knives for pill spliters, and many more I’m sure I’m not aware of.  I believe this is a great opportunity because it is forcing all of us to think outside the box and use our best creativity for whatever obstacle gets in our way.

On the upside, I counseled a lot of patients in Spanish today; and apparently I have been using Stella as a crutch and I do a lot better when she isn’t around for me to ask for help…this is good and bad.  Something tells me she might be a little harder on me, but at least I will be learning J 

On an even better upside…After the rush of patients this afternoon, Stella and I felt like we deserved some ice cream to celebrate our success with the monsoon of patients.  Unfortunately the store near Santa Rosa that sells desserts was closed, so we didn’t get any sweets.  Needless to say, we were a little disappointed.  However, Dr. Carrion went out of his way and stopped by Santa Rosa to drop off some ice cream that he had bought without us knowing!  It was even our favorite flavor…Mora!!!  He is such a kind man!

Tomorrow is the last day of the health part of the brigade and then Thursday we will be doing some sort of community service activity.  We are planning another highly eventful weekend so I am sure there will be much to tell about it!