Boots on the Ground: Community Health

This week we went to a more rural part of the state of Puebla to experience community health and traditional healing methods.  While each day was full of something new, Tuesday was the highlight of my week, and one of the highlights of the semester so far. We got split up into groups, and my group went with a young doctor and nurse to a clinic even further out in the country from the small town where we were staying, Xalacapa. It was in what I think qualifies as a town, although it was so small it’s hard to be sure.  We had to take a taxi down dirt roads to get there. 

We saw patients all morning. The first week of the month is chronic patients, so mostly people with diabetes and high blood pressure.  I sat in on consults for a while, and then took vital signs for patients before they went in to see the doctor.  They were almost all women, middle aged or elderly.  A lot of them couldn’t read or write well, and could barely sign their names.  The clinic was a lobby, a room for the nurse, a consult room for the doctor, and a bathroom.  They all had concrete floors.  The woman next-door was a patient and also had a restaurant, so we had lunch with her (tamales and gorditas.)  She also brought us bread and coffee for a mid-morning break.  The third person who works at the clinic does home visits, and the rest of my group got to go with her on a couple.  There were dogs, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and goats everywhere.

In the afternoon we went to a different clinic with the same doctor in another one street town.  She mostly had to do paperwork, since nearly everyone she serves is on public health insurance (why isn’t this a thing, America?!?), but she sent one of the nurses and another lady up to give a vaccine to a baby on the outskirts of town.  We went with her.  It was a half-hour hike through the mud, up dirt paths to a house on top of a hill. (Did I mention I was wearing my all-white uniform?)  They had cows and dogs and a pig, and they were extremely hospitable and brought us all chairs and offered us drinks. We went back and caught a bus to the main town where we are staying.

It was an amazing day and really inspired me to keep thinking about what I want to do, because that was some seriously important work.  Stay tuned for more about the rest of my week!