Severet

Tuesday morning we woke up and drove to Severet. Again we picked up our translators, Dr. José, Laura, Nicole and Meg along the way. The church in Severet was up a small hill, which our driver decided to climb. Nothing had really been done in anticipation of our arrival (the local health workers are supposed to hang rope for us to use to divide the space into private consultation rooms.

The guys turned church pews on their sides and hung the strings and curtains. The pharmacy team (Rob and Dr. José) got their meds in order and set up. When we opened for business, there weren’t that many people there. I helped Meg do triage. The only thing I could not do was take patients’ blood pressure. I asked their name, age, contact information, medical history and chief complaint. Then I weighed them. The morning was fairly slow, but we wound up seeing more patients than Monday morning.

After lunch, the pace picked up steadily. I continued to work triage. It seemed like every other person I helped was actually a family (usually a mom with a bunch of kids). They go in together to see the doctor, although one woman (really I think she was younger than I) tried to leave her baby in my arms while she went to see the doctor. I stopped periodically to take photos of what was going on in the clinic.

We closed up shortly after 5:30. Dorka, one of the two cooperadoras de salud (local health workers) had prepared dinner for us. I, along with some of the other volunteers, walked to her house, which was about 10-15 minutes from the church. She made a stew of chicken and root vegetables, which we ate with rice and avocados from a tree in her yard. I used the bathroom at her house, which was an outhouse with two cement holes in the ground. Even under those conditions, I thought I was much cleaner than its Bolivian and Moroccan counterparts. Dinner was delicious and filling. Afterwards, we drove back to Tubagua with a red sunset in the background, followed by lightening out at sea.