Fruit Bat Soup and Sunburns: Watch Out For Snakes

someone headed down to the boats from town

After my second week at the clinic I am starting to get the hang of things. Most people have either a cold, an intestinal parasite, arthritis, diabetes, or nigua ( an insect that get inside your skin and lives there. I'm always impressed by how calm people are when we tell them it's an insect causing the bumps. I'm not sure if they just don't get that the insect is INSIDE their skin or they just aren't worried about it). It's amazing how different their concept of health is. On one hand they will come in with a cough they've has for one day with no other symptoms and want medicine. Then on the other hand they'll come in with a bad case of nigua with itchy bumps covering their entire body including inside their mouth and throat and when you ask them how long they've been like that they will casually say "oh on and off for two years." They do to seem to have a good understanding of what is and isn't a health concern.

my room

the town of Santa Cruz from above

The meds are free though, and we give them out generously, so people come from all over the area. There are other clinics around but they either cost money or have no meds, so we are a local favorite. We start seeing patients each day at 9 and are usually done by 1 or 2. People line up from 730 on to get a number and we try and cut people off at 40 patients a day. We had one lady last week who got there late and they told her we were out of numbers for the day and she did not like that answer so she sat there all day giving us the dirty eye, determined to be seen. Unfortunately for her the lady in charge is just a stubborn and took great joy in sending her home at 2 when we closed without letting her see the doctor. There is definitely some bias towards people from our village versus other villages. This lady was from San Pedro, a town know for its pushy citizens so she didn't have much of a shot at getting an exception. Gringos on the other hand get bumped up in line, but they pay a hefty fee, just under 30 bucks for a consult and whatever meds they need.

growing some veggies

the fields on the side of the hill

I have been trying to exercise and went for a hike up the hill behind town last week. Mostly I just got lost trying to find the trail up the hill and ended up walking around in people's fields. They grow corn and squash and a few other things on the side of the hill which has to be at least at a 45 degree angle. After my fail hike we had a guy come in whose dad had been bitten by a coral snake (incredibly poisonous) and was trying to find anti-venom. I had no idea that there were poisonous snakes here. The ladies at the clinic assured me if I stuck to trails I would be fine and of course all I could think about was my hour spent bush whacking around the hill. I think I might be done hiking here? The doctor tried to tell this guy to take his dad to the hospital but the guy went on some rant about how the hospital wanted too much money for the anti-venom and how he wanted to find it cheaper. As a very cheap person myself I understood where he was coming from but thought maybe this wasn't the time for saving 20 bucks because as he said "my father will be dead by 6 pm if i don't get the venom." It was 130 when we saw him.

Besides now being afraid to go in the forest because of the snakes (we don't carry the anti venom at the clinic in case your wondering), I have also treated enough cases of nigua that I am trying to avoid plants as well (the insects live on the plants and transfer to you when you touch the plants). There is also apparently a big algae bloom in the lake that has caused a spike in cyanobacteria and is making people sick, so I have yet to swim. It seems medical knowledge is putting an end my fun! The good news is whatever I get I have a free supply of meds!

Well that's all the exciting things I can think to tell you about. I am in the city of Antigua for the weekends, photos below. I found a tortilla thing stuffed with cheese for breakfast and topped with guacamole which was pretty exciting. I have my heart set on a big Juice smoothly for lunch.