Source of Wonder

What is extraordinary?  The ordinary.

Closing in on nearly 2 months of living in Panama and working with Floating Doctors I am finding that this place feels kind of ordinary now.  Of course it is not, but I am not shocked by things as much any more.  Which as led to my joking around for the past few days about how Ngobe I am becoming.  For example, walking home with groceries on my head - how Ngobe of me;  caring a little bit less about having a bug crawling on me - how Ngobe of me; not being upset about having to walking around the city barefoot because my sandal broke- that's my Ngobe side just coming out to say hello. 

But adaption has its draw backs.  (I am hoping that worms is not one of them).  Including that I see less details or at least they are not as striking and as crisp as they were when I was just starting here.  The culture becomes a backdrop and less of a source of wonder.  

Cabin Fever

It is the rainy season here in Panama so of course it will rain.  However, some days it  pours.  When that happens it is nearly impossible to hold mobile clinics since our mobile clinics are held outside under shelters with thatched roofing.

So it ends up that most of our days off are rainy days.  So instead of getting some time at the beach we end up with cabin fever.  This particular day we found some duct tape and ended up (of course) taping each other on to chairs.

Resident Floating Doctor

Every little bit counts!

Sometimes Public health is glamorous.  Other times you end up in a warehouse, with an Excel spreadsheet, counting toothbrushes to Adele.

 Does this sound familiar?  Inventory.

I have never done inventory in my life so naturally I decided to lead this project. My ambition is due perhaps to a few reasons. First, I love organization. Second, it really needed to be done.  Third, it gave me the opportunity to geek out and make a really cool spreadsheet.  (I am now secretly hoping no one reads this blog).

I didn't really think I was a researcher until I realized how much I liked data.  But it is actually not the data that is interesting - it is the story that it tells.  For example the inventory of medications and supplies for Floating Doctors currently tells us what we have in stock.  My new spreadsheet elaborates on this data and will tell a bit more.  Once all the data is entered, we can track how much medication is used every month, which will tell us about the types of diseases are being encountered.  The new inventory spreadsheet will have targets amounts of each medication so we can quickly see which medications we are running short on and order more.  This information will help prioritize our requests for donated medications.  Later, I envision that we can use the inventory spreadsheet  to help locate items in the warehouse.  Which will help speed up future inventory counts, locate medication that is kept in small supply and will help new volunteers locate medication quickly.

Inventory!

What do Boxers and Midwives have in common? Public Health!

This week we have been rolling out more public health in Panama.  First with a youth boxing club and then with the partera of Valle Escondido.


For the boxers, we did a short EMT/Sex Education course.

Captive Audience at the Boxing Training

Practicing the Heimlich

Condom Demonstration

 We covered the following topics with the boxers:

Choking/ Heimlich Maneuver
Wound Care
Burns
Sprains

Sex Education

For the parteras we focused on nutrition.  First, we interviewed them to see what kinds of foods they were eating and how often.  Jenny has been a volunteer for the past few months and she did an excellent job with explaining the best food choices.

One topic that was discussed was the nutritional difference between a potato and a bag of potato chips.  To my surprise, the women were shocked at the discovery that a bag of potato chips would be less healthy than the potato.  They had no idea that there was so much salt and sugar and preservatives.  The women were so excited to learn it was fantastic. 

In addition to our discussion, the parteras demonstrated how and what they cooked.  They made a delicious, traditional soup called "rondon" with plantains, acorn squash, bread fruit, fish and coconut milk.  We also ate the leaves of yuca, a mashed banana and coconut milk, and some hot chocolate.  It was so delicious and I cannot wait to try making variations of these dishes when I get back home to my kitchen in North Carolina.

 Talking about nutrition with the Parteras (photo by Cybill Esguerra)