6.29.2010

Today was the breaking point. There have been no tears, no real fights or hissy fits so far. They're in the near future. There are 80 natives staying at the compound with us, which makes for over 100 people in this place. Room wise, it's not bad. There's a huge room that houses all the girls from our group only and we all have enough space to be away from each other a little bit. The guys, unfortunately there's only 3 of them, have to share their giant room with whatever men are staying here at the time. This is the second different group. The poor guys room smells awful, and the men are very disrespectful and rude to Eli, Robert, and Josh. They keep the lights on and talk and carryon when the guys are trying to sleep - and there's plenty of space for them outside the room to do as such. And the guys bathroom is absolutely disgusting. For people with no running water, they don't try and keep things clean and nice when they do.
So, tonight the guys are sleep on the extra bunks we have. And, honestly, I feel safer having them here. These Panamanian men are no different from other Spanish men - they stare and openly admire/whistle/act disgusting towards us. So, tonight all 19 students are in the same room. Haha.
As I said, fuses are running short. Everyone, when we get home from clinicals, finds their iPods and books and goes to separate ends of the compound to be by ourselves. Often we can't find our own space, but there's unspoken agreements that it's quiet time and you leave people alone for a little while.
The reason tonight was so awful? The water situation is getting worse. When the first group of natives came to stay at the compound the water ran low, but it got better as soon as they left. Then the next group came, and they'll be here for 5 days - so it's not going to get better. The bathrooms are the only real problem (other than the guys rooming situation, which we solved for the short term), but it's an awful problem. Yes, the showers are cold, but at least before there was water pressure. Now, you'll get in and the water won't even turn on, or it turns off after you've put soap all over yourself - or even better: when you've only shaved one leg.
Then, let us top it all off with the giant spider we found in our room. It was literally as big as my hand. Ew. The girls screamed, Josh killed it. The end.
I feel like maybe I should explain some of what the compound is used for - so you know why there are tons of Panamanian people staying here. This Jesuit Priests compound serves the local community in many ways. It's completely self-sufficient that employs local people to do certain jobs, and then they offer classes and housing for people taking the classes. It's very cheap to stay here, basically just paying for food. And since they don't feed us much, I can't imagine it costing much. The group that is staying here currently is learning how to build houses and how to better farm. They also mentioned something about salud (health), but I'm not sure what exactly they're teaching them. There's also a woman's center sort of, where pregnant women can come and stay when they are close to delivering - because the hospital is just up the street. So, they don't have to travel 10 hours+ to get to the hospital from their houses when they're in labor. That's basically it.
My day today? It was fun... I guess. Today we were back in the clinics and I was at Soloy again. Another hour bus ride - and I got motion sick on the way up and on the way back. We all manned different rooms and did what little we could. I opted out of my immunizations rotation - no HIV por me, gracias. Robert and I were in a room with Dr. Guerra. He was extremely nice and explained everything fabulously. Even without interpretation we tag-teamed and totally knew what he was saying. We saw lots of children - and the exams they do on all the children is very thorough (and the same as we do in the states). Dr. Guerra said when he sees adults, he only examines and treats what they come in for - there's no physicals for adults.
We saw twins, which I had never seen before. There was a down's syndrome child as well. We saw a pregnant lady and some adolescence. Most of the stories I have to tell are not blog appropriate. The only interesting stuff is gross.
That was pretty much the day. Then we took some pictures with the Canadian medical students that are staying there. They were just beyond nice. There were unlike any medical students I've ever met. Haha. They were encouraging, and explained everything very well. They did a lot of interpreting and everything they did (exam wise) they wanted us to do as well. They were just fun. And Jon Felipe was extremely handsome! :) He was the only guy. Then there was Audrey, Claudia, and Anna. All from Montreal. I never expected to find them here. Very neat.
When we got home I went up to the internet cafe and used the internet for a few minutes. It hasn't been working, but it did today - and it was fast. I tried to upload some pictures, but I'll have to try again tomorrow because it didn't work. Then I tried to call my parents and none of the calls would go through - so I called Gram. She seemed a little shocked that I did. :) And at one point I was telling her a story and I was using Spanish terms because I couldn't remember how to say them in English. It was sooo weird - and funny!
I tried to run today (yes, in a group of 7 people with all three guys present), and I just can't do the heat here. I almost passed out and we got a ride back to the compound. I think I'll just wait until I get back to my gym. :) No more scares with the heat.
We're all fighting the dehydration - and it's a losing battle. Especially now with this water situation, we're worried we won't have enough water to fill up our water bottles. I filled mine up tonight so I would have some. It's just hard to drink hot water all the time - it's not very pleasant, so you don't even try. I've been putting my propel packets in so it's at least better than just water. But, there's definitely no way we can drink enough to replenish what we're sweating out each day. No way.
Tomorrow is our health fair - where 4,000 people are expected to show up. Yes, 4,000. We're not really sure how we're going to accomodate them, but we sure will try.
I'm ready to come home. My breaking point was earlier when I was lathered in soap and couldn't even rinse off with the freezing water. I'm kinda done. July 10th needs to come pretty fast!