Today is palm Sunday. We have a new interim priest at St. Paul's - and it is clear it is a new day. First we had a procession with palms aound the block that the church sits on - I have been there 10 years and this is the first for that. The block has the countrie's best public High School on one side but the rest of it is inner city. Many people participated including Daisy Letts who is 89 or 92 or so. That was not the only change. This is the first Sunday of the month and that means ENGLISH. But we had a bilingual service. The verses of the hymns alternated Spanish English, we did the Lord's prayer together in both languages and many other things that that would be in English were partially in Spanish. A woman priest who is not serving as an active priest now but who served at St. Paul's in the past was invited by our new Interim, Glenda, to come up as co (or con) celebrate with her at the alter. Diana did not have vestments and celebrated in regular clothes. Our Sr. Warden explained at the end of the service that it was not out of order for Diana to celebrate in regual clothes I think it is a good new start for St. Pauls. We have Glenda for 2 years by which time we are to call a rector. Although she is serving at St. Pauls, she is also the church development director for the entire diocese of Panama!
I am doing my weekend care of the 3 dogs and 4 cats at my friend Lizzy's house. She is in the states until the end of April. Olivia, who is about 7 moths old was by report mated with a number of times during the week, including by her father - who is a Huskey! Olivia has a skin infection inside her outer ear and also around the base of the ear. I bought some antibiotic cream for it and she was very cooperative while I washed it with agua oxiginada (which is something I can't remember ) and put on the cream. It has something in it to cut down on itching as I think she is scratching.
I think Olivia is pregnant because her nipples are more prominent. I can't tell with Natasha.
The young woman on Dialysis from Children's hospital has spent the weekend with us. On Saturday around noon when I left all of the tutors (from a couple of different high school doing their required 80 hours of social service) and all our girls were in a circle around our two kindergarten kids who were dancing. That must have been very different than life in the hospital for the last 3 years. Her mother at first was not going to be bothered to sign her out of the hospital to come live with us. Then we got a call that she was coming down to Panama City and Elba (the director) and I went to the Hospital to tak to her on Friday. She did agree to sign and also Elba asked her not to disapear from her daughters life. We took her out to the home with her daughter (who stayed for the weekend) We are going to try to get some help from church people in Bocas so that the young woman could go home a visit for a weekend. ( she can skip dialysis occasionally. She is on peritoneal dialysis and it is done at night while she sleeps - this will take place at the home.) Her home is in Finca 4 which Joellen (a nurse missionary who directs the medical mission program of the Episcopal Church here) says is near Changuinola. It turns out that the family are Ngobe! (One of the 7 different tribes of indiginas here. We have girls at the home from three of the tribes Our newest resident will move in right after Easter. That is because everyone at the home will visit someone for Maundy Thursday through the late afteroon of Easter day. I will be here in Gamboa with the animals from Thursday night.
Last week I went to classroom visit at the other primary school, Escuela Republica de India. We have four girls there and we got some hints one how to work with the 1st graders who are learning the vowels and are about to start to learn to put consonants with them.
Tia Sue
Showing posts with label Tia Sue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tia Sue. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
I am back from Machuca!
Well, here is my first report of the medical mission I accompanied to Machuca. I left last Monday about 3 and arrived back at the home on Friday about 3. I was there as a translator. This is something I have hoped to participate in for the last 9 years so I was thrilled to be asked. And, I'll say right up front that the entire experience was wonderful. I'll tell you some things now and hope to write more tomorrow, Sunday.
The team of Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Physical therapist, gofors, dental assistants etc. came from North Carolina. This is their second or third mission to PAnama with the Episcopal Church - and at least the second to Machuca. They brought two people wo could translate and all of them had taken a course in survival English and English for medical professionels - so they had some basis for communication as well. There were 4 or 5 translators from Panama.
I was assigned to translate for the Dentist team, so I will write about that first. There were two dentists and two assistants from the US and we started out about 9 AM on Tuesday morning using the creative dental chairs (made from weight lifting benches brought down by the team) to pull teeth. When we arrived there were people waiting. I gave out numbers, which is what is done in many health care situations here in Panama. Then each person filled out their basic data (or I did it using their cedula (identity card) as my guide. Some couldn't see well and I expect that there were some who were challenged to read and write. Then we started right in. The first woman had 4 teeth to come out and I don't remember about the second. Basically, the first day the Dentist asked a question, I asked it in Spanish, listened to the answer and translated it to the dentist. Both the dentists became more fluent in Spanish as the time went by, although one was saying "it is dead" muerte in stead of bite down "muerde". But we were all laughing about that including the patients.
About 10 AM two dentists from the Ministry of Health came with an assistant. They set up using school desks, the kind with a broad arm to write on, as dentist chairs. We spent the entire first day pulling teeth. I wish I knew how many teeth and broken off roots were pulled. Some of the patients were kids. We also gave the kids a flouride painting. Many people were asking for cleaning but we didn't have a set up for that. We did check the teeth of anyone who wanted it. I learned more about the programs that the Ministry of Health has. For children in primary school,during the school year - March to december, teeth are checked, cleaned (I think) and fillings are done free. If a primary school child goes to the health clinic for dental care the fillings are $1.25 - Maybe more for a resin filling in secondar front teeth.
I know this may seem inexpensive - but after paying for the bus to go to the clinic (about a 15 min. drive) (They could walk but it takes about an hour.) and paying to see the Dentist $.50 the amount is higher than most of these people can afford. Just about all of the people in Machuca are poor - although I belive that few are in severe poverty. For adolescents the fillings are 2.00 and for adults 4.00 (in the back teeth). For a bridge or false teeth they have to go to a private dentist. This involves a bus ride (which costs) and then they can probably make a payment arrangement with the dentist. We saw a few people who had partial bridges.
We closed down arond three. In the three days we saw over 150 dental patients. More about day 2 later!
The dental clinic was located in the school building along with a very successful children's program and the pharmacy. The medical clinic was up a long hill in a new building that has been a cooperative effort of the past teams from North CArolina and the people of Machuca - I believe.
The first day one woman was transferred to a hospital in (fairly nearby) Penonome after a house call was made. She has kidney failure and was feeling better after having been to the hospital and having fluid reduced.
More later, maybe even more tonight!
Tia Sue.
The team of Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Physical therapist, gofors, dental assistants etc. came from North Carolina. This is their second or third mission to PAnama with the Episcopal Church - and at least the second to Machuca. They brought two people wo could translate and all of them had taken a course in survival English and English for medical professionels - so they had some basis for communication as well. There were 4 or 5 translators from Panama.
I was assigned to translate for the Dentist team, so I will write about that first. There were two dentists and two assistants from the US and we started out about 9 AM on Tuesday morning using the creative dental chairs (made from weight lifting benches brought down by the team) to pull teeth. When we arrived there were people waiting. I gave out numbers, which is what is done in many health care situations here in Panama. Then each person filled out their basic data (or I did it using their cedula (identity card) as my guide. Some couldn't see well and I expect that there were some who were challenged to read and write. Then we started right in. The first woman had 4 teeth to come out and I don't remember about the second. Basically, the first day the Dentist asked a question, I asked it in Spanish, listened to the answer and translated it to the dentist. Both the dentists became more fluent in Spanish as the time went by, although one was saying "it is dead" muerte in stead of bite down "muerde". But we were all laughing about that including the patients.
About 10 AM two dentists from the Ministry of Health came with an assistant. They set up using school desks, the kind with a broad arm to write on, as dentist chairs. We spent the entire first day pulling teeth. I wish I knew how many teeth and broken off roots were pulled. Some of the patients were kids. We also gave the kids a flouride painting. Many people were asking for cleaning but we didn't have a set up for that. We did check the teeth of anyone who wanted it. I learned more about the programs that the Ministry of Health has. For children in primary school,during the school year - March to december, teeth are checked, cleaned (I think) and fillings are done free. If a primary school child goes to the health clinic for dental care the fillings are $1.25 - Maybe more for a resin filling in secondar front teeth.
I know this may seem inexpensive - but after paying for the bus to go to the clinic (about a 15 min. drive) (They could walk but it takes about an hour.) and paying to see the Dentist $.50 the amount is higher than most of these people can afford. Just about all of the people in Machuca are poor - although I belive that few are in severe poverty. For adolescents the fillings are 2.00 and for adults 4.00 (in the back teeth). For a bridge or false teeth they have to go to a private dentist. This involves a bus ride (which costs) and then they can probably make a payment arrangement with the dentist. We saw a few people who had partial bridges.
We closed down arond three. In the three days we saw over 150 dental patients. More about day 2 later!
The dental clinic was located in the school building along with a very successful children's program and the pharmacy. The medical clinic was up a long hill in a new building that has been a cooperative effort of the past teams from North CArolina and the people of Machuca - I believe.
The first day one woman was transferred to a hospital in (fairly nearby) Penonome after a house call was made. She has kidney failure and was feeling better after having been to the hospital and having fluid reduced.
More later, maybe even more tonight!
Tia Sue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)