Each day here has been a growth experience and each day has been different. Today we followed our morning routine, and then were taken to the clinic in Patanatic where a dozen residents were already in the waiting room. The public health members of our team stepped into action, and Jorge explained to the Ad Astra team how we were to help with the community outreach around the clinic. Brian, Stephanie and Theresa saw nearly 20 patients today and started to treat them for their various needs.
Today was all about preparation, which meant the dreaded paperwork monster reared its head. First, we spent a good deal of the morning bundling shampoo samples for distribution to the community. This was highly manual, and we immediately fell into teams to repack a dozen cases of shampoo packets. The resulting neatly packed boxes of shampoo bundles ready for distribution was a satisfying sight. We passed the time sharing embarrassing childhood stories…did anyone else know that Jay fell on stage twice in the same performance as a kid? That’s probably the only one we’re allowed to announce via the blog.
After the bundling, we were shown how the people at the clinic were attempting to track the medical care of the families in the community. The residents who have visited the clinic previously provided some basic family information, and we were to transcribe that information onto cards that can be given to the residents to show the next time they visit. We had to create these cards for each family, and there were hundreds of families in the clinic’s records. Once we sorted through the sheets of paper with the family’s information, tables were provided in the clinic’s driveway, and we divided the sheets up and began the transcription. After the physically exhausting activities of the previous two days, we thought this would be a pleasant diversion. However, we vastly underestimated the difficulty of legibly transcribing dozens of physical sheets of information onto cards that can be used for identification and tracking. It turned out to be a surprisingly grueling effort, and we got a little loopy in the process. I’m pretty sure we were singing the theme song to Green Acres at one point. (low point…)
We all agreed that that phase of work was one of the most difficult we had undertaken. Of course, we’re more accustomed to keyboards then pen and paper, and we were all thinking about how much easier this would be with Excel and a laser printer, but one of the things we are learning is that in the developing world you have to produce with what you have. After what seemed days but was really only hours, we finished the cards. To our credit, without even discussing it amongst ourselves, we fell into a QA phase where we looked over each other’s work to make sure we hadn’t missed any of the families. Jenn Schmidt would’ve been proud.
The amazing thing about this process was knowing that we were making history. This community has never had any type of medical records, and this is the first time that the local residents have had any kind of identification for their families. Jorge explained the interesting fact that, often, larger medical organizations claim that all residents in the area have vaccines, but there is no data anywhere to be found that backs it up. These ID cards will change the game for this community.
After completing the cards, we helped organize buckets used for assembling the water filters. The physical activity was a welcome change from the paper mill. We effortlessly shifted into assembly line mode and quickly prepared hundreds of water filters for construction. The way we worked together without direction would have made Henry Ford proud, and we finished all of the buckets in a timeframe that surprised Jorge. Who would have guessed that Jackie knows how to handle a pair of pliers so well?
One highlight of the day was hearing about Sue and Jason’s journey to see the 15 year old boy that Sue sponsors through Compassionate International. She recapped her trip with pictures of the family and stories of her experience. It was an extremely touching story and there was barely a dry eye in the house as she was describing her experience meeting his family. She read letters to the family that her oldest daughter had translated into Spanish for her. She noted that the experience exceeded her every expectation and she left feeling like she had made a true connection with the family.
We’re only three days into the process, but we all constantly discuss the differences between this “world” and the world we know. Seeing how these people live and the graciousness with which they live really puts into perspective our own lives back home. We start to re-evaluate what we “need” and how much we can all help one another with a bit of caring and effort. Our journey is still just beginning, and we can’t wait to see what the following days bring.
