7.6.2010

Last day in San Felix!! We're all so glad to be leaving. No more trickling showers. No more creepy men standing outside our bathroom trying to look inside. No more wearing shoes every waking moment of every day. No applying bugspray immediately following a shower. No more sharing a room with 15 other people. No mas! No mas! No mas!
We leave for Panama City - and the city of knowledge - tomorrow morning, hopefully by 9am. We're always a little late (due primarily to our faculty), so we'll see if that actually happens. ;)
Today was another sort of boring day. Our final presentations were due at 9am - when we had to present to the health staff here in La Comarca. The nurses and some of the doctors we had been working with at the clinics in Alto Caballero, Soloy, and Hato Juli were present. My group was the environment and health portion of our trip. We basically talked about the different things we saw. We pointed out positive things we saw (like health promotion for TB and malaria) and negative things too (like biohazardous waste being dumped into holes in the ground). For our particular topics, it was hard not to be negative because most of what we saw were not good, healthy practices. Thankfully, none of this was news to these health officials. We made sure to point out issues that America shared with them. For instance, we discussed litter and trash here. No matter where you go, litter is everywhere. In the urban areas, in the rural areas... It doesn't matter. We shared with them that litter is a problem in the states too - and if you're caught littering - you have to pay a fine.
The other groups were 'the nurses role in the community,' 'school visits,' and 'Survey statistics.' The other groups summarized those very things. Because one of the main reasons for our visit was to conduct the domestic violence surveys, the health officials were interested primarily in the prelimenary statistics that were presented. They were very thankful that we came and for all our efforts. We're hopeful that the next trip will be more organized, and the students will be more prepared and they are too.
The presentations took about 3 hours - so it was lunch time after that. The health officials and our translators (that we worked with the first week) stayed for lunch and were presented with certificates of thanks from USF Health. It was a nice gesture, I thought. Lunch was.... Drum roll please.... Chicken and rice!!! A big thing here is to serve white rice, chicken and baked beans. It sounds a little gross, but I've grown accustomed to it. It makes the rice go down a little easier. Haha.
After lunch we left for the UNACHI (the university of Chiriqui) for a formal welcome from their faculty and a tour of the campus. The school was part of the university of Panama for years, but they've since become their own entity - completely independent. The college of nursing is only about 12 years old - total they've had 340 graduates. One of the faculty told us that there are only 60 students admitted each year. They have two classrooms for nursing classes, and a very small lab. The lab consisted of a table, some books, and maybe some sample NG tubes and such to practice with. There were no mannequins, or dummys like we have at USF. Profesora Lordes told the faculty about our simulation lab - and they were just in awe of what she was saying. Our dummies can birth babies... it's pretty neat!
This was the first time USF and Profesora Lordes (who works with the university of Panama) had any type of formal meeting with UNACHI - so it was cool to be a part of it. They are very receptive to accomodating more students next summer and it being more of a partnership with their school. We didn't really know about them until this last week. So, we didn't work with their students at all. They started discussing how our trips would benefit them, and I hope there will be opportunity and funds to support some of their students coming to USF to study. They would be amazed!
Because Dr. Cadena is good with money and budgeting, we had enough money for us all to go to dinner tonight. We chose TGIF, which was one of the only American restuarants that we saw in David. It was fantastic. I had real diet coke (I have pictures of the experience), and pasta. It was lovely. They even had wifi, so I was able to get online for a bit.
Katie and I made some coffee when we finally got back to the compound - and we spent some time talking about how the trip has affected us and how we think it will change (or has changed) who we are...
Amanda brought up earlier that we get to leave... we get to leave the poverty and sickness behind. We get to leave the dirty water and lack of electricty behind. We leave the domestic violence behind. These people stay. Their children stay. What did we really do to help them?
Unfortunately, with how politics plays such a role in health care - though it really shouldn't be that way - there will be no immediate change. The soap we handed out will be gone by next week... so will the toothpaste. The shoes and clothes and shampoo we're leaving will hopefully be useful... for a while. And the research we did? If it results in some policy changes, we won't see it for another 7-10 years. And that's just the policy changes... that doesn't include the actual implementation of the new policies.
It's a little bit sobering to realize those things. I hope USF has more opportunities in the future to be apart of improving health care here in Panama - especially in the Comarca among the Ngobe Bugle.
I would come again in a heartbeat. Even with cold showers, constant shoe and bugspray wearing, and even with sharing a room and bathroom with 15 other girls for 3 weeks. God brought me here for a reason - and one of the biggest reasons, I think, was to show me my own sinful and selfish heart. I hope I don't forget...