One of the many beautiful pictures on the walls of the hospital and its caption (above)

More pictures around the hospital from today.

Sheep! (and some goats)

Wednesday--June 13

Hola Amigos!

Hoy es nuestro tercer dia en Honduras...Reminded again of what the first week of med school was like, my brain is full. Instead of the language of anatomy we are immersed in the everyday conventions of "!buenos dias!" (good day/morning) and "mucho gusto" to trying to grasp the gist of conversations in patient interviews.

We had Monday off and settled in after we arrived here around 1pm Honduras time. We explored a little bit and walked around, took naps after a mostly sleepless night on the plane, and took a look at the lay of the land.

After worship and breakfast Tuesday morning we were each assigned to a patient. One patient sent was sent from another hospital for us to figure out what was going on. Dr. L wanted one of us to figure it out and present her case on Thurs morning (and we would be busy all day Weds), not to mention her chart was in Spanish and I was guessing the presentation needed to be in Spanish...a little overwhelming for first day on job non-Spanish speaking, barely 2nd year meds. K bravely tackled it, and I was assigned another patient who was very nice, and I ended up talking to him because his doctor had to step out in the middle of the interview. After some awkward silence, he asked if I spoke Spanish, and I introduced myself and we chatted a little bit. I was exciting to have something of even a minimalist conversation in Spanish. He was very kind and patient (as everyone has been). Otherwise, Tuesday was very chill and uneventful other than realizing how little Spanish we all knew and needed to work on that, and I was really wishing I had brought my other Spanish grammar book and dictionary, which I had sacrificed in an attempt to not be too ambitious in the book packing department. I was surprised to be able to gather the gist of conversations in contextualized settings on Tuesday and more so even on Wednesday, but speaking is an entirely different matter.

Wednesday was a lot of fun...We went into the big city for clinic. We left early, (well I got up really early and showered at 5am and woke up K at 5:45am and told her we needed to go and she informed me that is was only 5:45 and not 6:45 thanks to a time change technology snafu.) Before we went to clinic Dr. L had an spot on the radio station, and fortuitously we had to buy something at the store to be able to park there and get close parking for the radio station. They had inexpensive English/Spanish dictionaries for B and I. Then we proceeded to the radio station, where everyone seemed very friendly, jovial, and happy to meet us. After the radio program there weren't any patients yet at the clinic so we went to the Honduran Costco though it is called Pricesmart (I think). And then we went to this cafe...and I ordered a latte. It was a significant moment because this was my first time ordering in Spanish as well as exchanging my first limperas for dollars. Plus it made me really happy to have coffee in Honduras.

Finally, back at the clinic somewhere along Dr. L said to the three of us "Can you interview the patient in the waiting room, while I interview this patient?"--like it was the most natural thing for us to do. Being good medical students that we are, we choked down any looming fears, smiled, and confidently said, "Of course." Once we had the patient's chart we gathered phrases from our medical Spanish books, and gathered ourselves and went to find our little patient and her mom. Though mom and daughter did not speak any English, it went surprisingly and in fact beautifully well. One of us would think of interview questions to ask while trying to come up with the Spanish from one of the books or otherwise, while somebody else was asking their question, and we all fielded and translated answers. Mom and daughter were very congenial and helpful. It was a post-op visit and thus fairly straightforward. We asked our quiet little patient about school and siblings and her mom chatted to us about being really passionate that her daughter going to school and learn English to open up more opportunities. After Dr. L took over for us there, we next interviewed a young college student. The three of us took the same strategy again, but her case was less straightforward...so after launching into a couple questions in halting Spanish, she volunteered, "I speak English," which was funny that none of us had thought to ask. Then we interviewed a family--two parents bringing their two year old for a post op checkup. The mom spoke a little English so we had a delightful exchange of Spanish and English lessons. Our last patient of the day was the most difficult, she spoke fairly quickly and had a bit of a complicated story, and I was a little worried she was not appreciative of being stuck in an interview with a bunch of non-Spanish speaking medical students, but even when thanking her for her patience, she was exceedingly gracious. Altogether, the interviews went really well and everyone was very kind, congenial, encouraging and seemed happy to meet the estudiantes de medicos from California.

For lodging we are staying in the hospital in patient rooms and eating food from the hospital cafe. The fruit--mango, pineapple, papaya-- is amazing, and we also get to eat lots of beans. Yesterday, they sent us to the city w/ bagged lunches and it was a big treat to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches. They make real tortillas in house, which are also excellent.