Mayo trienta (May 30th)

Hola!!
Well today started off well, with a good breakfast and off to work. The dentists of the group were pretty upset that they had to get up at 6:30 to be at the clinic for 7:30 - they were even more shocked that I normally get up at 5 am for work. We headed off on our 10 min walk to the clinic which comprised mostly of beach walk ( which is also the road btw) then a straight uphill climb to the clinic - whew!!! It was some feat to accomplish this in the blistering 28 degree morning sun! I learned one thing about uniforms and extreme temperatures though . . . . . They SUCK, by the time I made it to the clinic I was sweating like Kim in a great call at the hospital - I really didn't know my brow dripped!!! In 10 quick minutes I went from fresh showered prepared Andrea to some sorta greasy sweaty mongrel off the street. The only thing worse than uniforms in this heat is rubber duty shoes ( damn crocs) screw them I am wearing sandals tomorrow.
Once at the clinic we were quickly swept into our duties, and I realized that yes, just as I had feared - I am totally inept at speaking with these people, I realized that I could memorize all the medical phrases in the world like "tienne doler" etc but that does not help me when they try to answer me and I have no bloody clue what they are saying. Picture this, I am all ready to tackle one of my first patients took a deep breath and entered the room, my task was to explain to this lady how to take birth control - it was particularly stressful because she had two young children both breastfeeding at this exact time, so already I'm thinking I have to do a really good job because she obviously missed the message the first time around. So away I go with half assed Spanish spoken with a combination French Italian accent and flamboyant arm gestures trying to get my point across. The lady is looking at me like with a smile saying ci, ci, ci, and I am thinking "I am doing pretty good - excellent, this lady obviously gets me, and my accent isn't even throwing this teaching moment off"! I then finish my speech and walk away the lady is still smiling and I figure this is a time to celebrate my success until I hear the same lady asking one of the Spanish speaking volunteers who I was, what I was trying to tell her, and how long I was going to be at the clinic!!!! So tonight we are learning Spanish at our little apartment - we started with counting to ten!!! Meanwhile at the clinic Ash and Dan embarked on there first root canal in Spanish! Quite a lot to accomplish before 2pm.
After clinic our mission was groceries which took a good hour to accomplish, we carefully made our way down each isle, phrase book in hand and ended up with a cart full of carefully decided upon items!! I am not sure where I thought I was going but i had visions of these lavish fruit and vegetable markets with plenty of the most wonderful fruit and veggies one could imagine - instead we found our selves with plugged noses and a little green around the gills trying to make it through the produce section. I honestly can not tell you what the smell was - but it was a cross between rotting meat and rotting sewage - at first we thought it was the meat department which was located quite close to the produce until we entered the meat department and realized the smell was much improved. (I am sick just thinking about that smell). After getting thoroughly ripped off on our cab ride home we decided to celebrate with beer on the dock, we topped the afternoon off with hotdogs and arrow chilaxing with our Spanish dictionaries close at hand.

Buenos Noches!



Off to work!!!





The root canal!


Uploading donated meds into the pharmacy inventory


Trying to choose dish soap!


The all important tequila - decisions decisions !


Guards with machine guns at the gas station!





Chilaxing on the deck learning to count to ten!



This ones a little gross but yes it's the sweat marks on my bra from getting off the plane and getting settled in our apartment on Saturday - ewwwww! Gives the term "swits" a whole new meaning!!!!


Andrea
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