Adequate at last.

Day 3 in the clinic was a success! I definitely felt more adequate today while working in pre-clinic testing. And Lety, the tech that I worked with today, was relieved that we could lighten her load a bit, especially because we are now able to run the pre-clinic by ourselves and she did not need to supervise us all the time. 


After doing pre-clinic testing for a few hours this morning, I went to see what work was like in the Archives where all of the patient records are kept. Ninosca, who works in the Archives everyday, and the girls from Team A, showed me how the files are organized and what the job entails. I missed the bulk of the busiest work there, but it included going between the front desk, pre-clinic, the doctors' offices, and the archive room to distribute patient folders and to keep them orderly filed. I liked the more relaxed and low-stress ambience of work in the Archives, but I realized that I much prefer interacting with the patients and doing more hands-on work in the pre-clinic. 


The techs who we have been working with (Mario, Lety, and Rolando) have really warmed up to us and we to them. When the flow of patients slows down, we enjoy joking with them and practicing our Spanish. One thing that Leah and I have really noticed is that sometimes it takes us a while to get accustomed to every new individual's accent. The Honduran accent was hard enough to conquer on its own (well, it's still a work in progress...), but it seems that some people have an even more unique accent and manner of speaking that takes some getting used to. 


Alex took us to the grocery store today, where we had another interesting "Honduran time" experience. After promising us for three days in a row that we could go, today it finally happened, but of course, it was not at the time we were expecting. And after dropping us off, he took forever to finally get back to us and pick us up. We were frustrated at first, but he apologized, he did have a valid excuse, and we were able to make a joke out of the situation. He was so funny today and so nice for driving us around that we forgave him almost instantly.


Tomorrow we get to change things up a bit! The five of us UFS volunteers are going out with Dr. Víctor on a one-day brigada tomorrow (beginning at 6am!) to another clinic location in the city. I'm excited to learn how brigadas are run and to see the patients that are the major focus of the UFS program (and the ones that benefit most from many of your generous contributions!). Thanks so much for reading! Looking forward to sharing my first brigada experience with you!

The clinic where we work; this clinic is also actually owned by the church
we went to last Sunday, Vida Abundante

The view from our apartment balcony - the clinic is the white building across the street!