Mobile Clinics

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to ride with the clinical group of students on one of their "mobiles." We drove two hours down the same dusty, winding roads I described earlier to the village of Jalacte. Our vehicle was another Toyota Landcruiser; this time with bench seats lining the sides in the back so we could fit up to 12 people- with 4 medical students, a pharmacy student, a pharmacist, 2 physicians, a local nurse to check in patients and translate, the driver, the clinic director, and a large box of charts and medications, it was pretty much full. The clinic is a fairly nice building, but small. I conducted my patient interview next to the pharmacy table. The other room had a history-taking station in each corner, but there are no curtains or means for privacy making a detailed exam more difficult.

Since the Easter holiday began on Wednesday, our clinic was very light, only about 5 patients and nothing particularly unusual. However, I truly enjoyed the morning observing the village. The church was across the street, and you could hear their band practicing for the Easter service. We went over to check it out, and they had a pretty sweet set-up. Two electric guitars, a keyboard, and enough speakers to be heard in Texas if they so desired- not exactly traditional instruments, but a fun site to see.

As a member of the nutrition group, I was particularly interested in the beans spread out to dry down the road from the clinic. There was a yellow school bus parked on the side of the road with a tarp tied to the side and spread out onto the ground. The men were scooping the beans out of large bags and throwing them in handfulls across the road. The beans would land on the tarp while the chaff was blown away by the breeze, collecting on the road. I thought it was a fairly efficient method of separating out the beans while lying them out to dry.

Dr. Dick, a retired family medicine physician and our nutrition group mentor for the first two weeks headed home the next day. We were sad to see him go. He had incredible insight regarding the health care system, the day-to-day community activities, and was a strong advocate for our group and our project. In addition, he is an amazing person, and we had lots of laughs and a fantastic time hanging out with him! We miss you already, Dick!