Thursday, December 15, 2011

Last day!

I'm exhausted so I'm spitting out words that probably make little sense and sound like those annoying british kids in the gap year video, but here it goes anyway! These two weeks have gone by so quickly - I can hardly believe tomorrow is my last day. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I'm so happy that I've had this opportunity and have learned so much.

I told the people at Maximo Nivel about my make shift class and they're sending not 1, not 2, not 3, BUT 4 volunteers to teach two English classes starting in January. One of the nurses told me that her kids were asking about me yesterday, and I didn't realize until then how much I was going to miss working here.

I really need to expand on my entries, but to say I'm exhausted is not an understandment! Today there we were down one doctor and one nurse so I had to do all the pre-consults for both emergencies and vaccinations plus help out in the pharmacy and teach a class. I've gone to bed by 9:30 at the very latest every single night (and some nights 8:30). Its absurd. But I have to wake up at 6:50 to leave for San Lucas (and I've woken up about 7 or 8 on the weekends too) which is earlier than I've consisted woken up since high school.

Here's a picture of Lake Atitlan which I think is one of the most beautiful places I've been ever (where I visited yesterday):

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Mi Familia

My host parents here are Yolanda and Javier and they're wonderful. They have 3 kids but all of them are grown up and live on their own, so for the past nine years they've been taking in students and volunteers. Right now have 6 foreigners living with them (two Germans, one Danish person, another American and me and Haley). The other American is volunteering with Maximo as well in a clinic. The Europeans are all adults (like one is 30 and one is 50) and studying Spanish. When I first arrived there was also a women from England volunteering at a school here as well - her youngest just left for college so she decided to come here for 10 weeks! It's been interesting having meals with such a smorgasbord of people!!

Yolanda is wonderful and makes all of us breakfast every morning. She has two maids who do all the cooking and cleaning during the rest of the day. I was talking to one of the maids and she's only 15 and told me she stopped school at 11 because she didn't like it. I couldn't even imagine that. I'm going to miss having such wonderful, smiling people welcoming me home from work every day!!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Diabetic Clinic

45 type two diabetic patients this morning and tag teamed them with one of the nurses. Between the two of us, we checked all of their "azúcars" and blood pressures to get them ready to see the doctor by 10 am, but when I left for the day at 12:30, the two doctors hadn't even gotten through 25 of them (because there were also 10 emergency patients). The nurse helping me doubles as the pharmacist so she kept running back and forth and her 12 year old son Aaron (who is in my clase de ingles) w!

Cool things I need to expound on but don't want to forget:
no gloves
USAID posters everywhere (yeahhh amurrica)
all the meds I brought
me trying to learn salsa...
diabetics and sugar for tea (aka the nurses hide the sugar in the lounge in the oven)

AHH no time I will write later!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Monterrico

Haley and I went to Monterrico which is on the coast of Guatemala this weekend after we both finished work on Friday (Haley started at Las Obras and loved it!). Our trip was just supposed to be a relaxing weekend at the beach since we both didn't have work, which it was, but it wound up being productive as well! We did a lot of lounging at the beach and road horses, but I also met these two girls who work for an organization called MuJER and work alongside Tierra Viva, the organization I wrote about in November that I wanted to meet people at!

MuJER sounds like an amazing organization. Based in Guatemala City, the organization aims to promote women's rights through education and awareness and works to empower female sex workers through giving them classes. I want to visit them before I leave to see their work. At Dartmouth we do a V-Day fundraiser and I'm hoping we don't have an organization yet because I think this one would be perfect!


Thursday, December 8, 2011

"¿Quieres hablar con los jovenes?"

I'm helping out Rudy, one of the nurses, with vaccinations today when Carmelina comes in and asks me "¿Quieres hablar con los jovenes?" which means "Do you want to talk to the adolescents?" I think this means that she just wants me to say hello to the kids, but I'm wrong, again.

So I taught a class of 25 kids between the ages of ~7 and ~13 a 45 minute English lesson and loved it. My mom informed me that I just got another donation in the mail, so I think I'm going to use it to buy some supplies / work books for the kids. Carmelina told me that one of the girls lives in a really tiny village and needs to walk an hour to get the bus to come to the clinic for the computer classes. I wasn't planning on teaching a group lesson, but the kids really want one so I'm going to teach another one tomorrow. Its somewhat corny, but its so amazing to get to work with all of these kids. Katy, Carlos and Nesto remembered almost everything from yesterdays lesson.

Okay Haley's here (we visited Las Obras Sociales today, which I'll talk about in another entry) so I should stop writing!! But I'll post tomorrow or Sunday!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

El Día del Diablo

Today is El Día del Diablo, or Day of the Devil, in Guatemala. In Antigua everyone gathers in the street for Quema de Diablo. At 6 pm on the 7th of December they burn a piñata of the devil, which symbolizes getting rid of everything evil in preparation for Christmas. oh by the way, the burning of the devil takes place in between to gas stations. My friend asked why they didn't burn the devil in a safer location and was told "well we've been burning the devil here since way before there were gas stations.

I was at work until 5 (well, not working, but more on that in a minute) and went straight from there with the women who works the desk at the clinic and her 7 year old daughter Katy who is awesome. She's so smart and funny and adorable and my new best friend.

Here is a link to pics of what its like:

This morning there was only one doctor, Dr. Alverez, at the clinic because the two nurses needed to make a presentation to the municipalidad about the clinic for next year. There were only 5 patients there for the first hour so she didn't really need my help for more than 10 minutes so I started teaching English to her two sons, Carolos (8) and Nesto (6), as well as Katy. It was really fun. We went over basic greetings. It was really nice to have such a small group of kids because we got in a lot of practice speaking.

Dr. Alverez invited me to a surprise baby shower after work for a nurse at a nearby clinic that the entire staff was going to (note: a baby shower is still called a baby shower in Guatemala, they don't translate it.). I accepted and we closed the clinic at 1:30 to head over. The shower was for the head nurse of all the clinics. She works in Santiago, which is a very poor pueblo about 10 minutes from San Lucas. Santiago has a large indigenous population and many girls start having kids at 12 or 13.

I drove to the shower with Carmelina and another person from work whose name I can't remember in the clinic's ambulance and helped Carmelina make tortas for everyone (by "El baby shower comienza a las dos," Dr. Alverez meant we'll start making food at 2). I missed the memo that the shower wasn't lunch so by the time we finally had tortas at 4 I was ready to die. Everyone from nearby clinics came (~20 people) and the staff decorated one of the rooms at the Santiago clinic with balloons and baby posters. I went into town with two staff members to buy a gift and both staff members got baby wipes and suggested that I get a pack of diapers, unless they were too expensive (at Q37, or about $5). I got a pack of diapers and helped set up. Just an FYI baby showers are equally as awful in Guatemala as the US, meaning we played baby bingo and watched the blindfolded mother-to-be dress a baby doll.

Gahhh its only 8 pm and I'm exhausted. Last night gatos on my roof woke me up in the middle of the night. 4 TIMES!!! Also Haley arrives tomorrow. I'm stoked.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

San Lucas

Today was my first full day in the clinic and I don't exactly know how to describe it. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to help out after reading about all of volunteer abroad programs that only benefit the volunteer but do nothing for the community. Fortunately, thats not the case whatsoever.

I'm volunteering in a Centro de Salud in San Lucas. San Lucas is 30 minutes from Antigua off the main highway that goes to Guatemala City and is up in the mountains. To get to work I take a bus that looks like this:
They're called "chicken buses" because people actually take chickens on them (I haven't seen that yet though) and are packed to the point where this morning a teenage boy was literally holding onto the door and I was worried he was going to go flying off as we rounded bends up in the mountains. To get to San Lucas it costs Q5, which is less than a $1

El Centro de Salud is a free clinic run by the government. Its very different then any doctor's office I've ever seen. There are 3 patient rooms and everyone waits outside on benches. There are loads of kids running around and its very crowded. Multiple people will be in the room at once so privacy is pretty much non existant. There are no computers in the clinic and all records are on scrap paper.

Just about everyone I saw this morning was a woman or child and there were probably 50 patients for two doctors. For my first two hours I did triage work, which consisted of taking the height, weight, temperature and for patients over 3, blood pressure of every single patient. I also wrote down what symptoms brought them which made me realize how much Spanish I have still to learn (aka how many body parts I don't know!).

After I finished taking histories for all the morning patients, I went to work with another doctor across the hall doing vaccinations. There was a line of about a dozen women standing with theirbabies to be vaccinated. Each parent held a piece of paper, which contained her child's immunization history and came in and gave it to the doctor. I continued taking heights and weights, but was also responsable for dispensing oral vaccinations to speed the process (basically I was in charge of attempting to squirt polio vaccinations and vitamin A into crying babies' mouths).

What I'm really excited about is something I set up today. Its currently summer here and all of the kids are on summer vacation. In the back of the clinic, there's a woman who teaches a sex ed and reproductive health course to a bunch of neighborhood children in the mornings. She's from San Lucas and volunteers her time to teach the kids. She doesn't speak a word of English, but wants the kids to learn English. I'm going to teach an English class for the next two weeks to the kids when I finish at the clinic. There's 8 total and they're between the ages of 6 and 12. I'm going to do 45 minutes with the younger ones and 45 minutes with the older ones. Okay this is all I can write for now because I need to run and get supplies and a book since I've never taught English!!!

This is a picture of the big volcano to the south of Antigua!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Arrived!

Sorry I've been MIA on posting - these past two weeks have been very hectic, to say the least. But I've arrived in Guatemala and am staying with a very nice host family. My host mom is named Yolanda and my host dad is named Javier. They have three kids who are all grown and married already. I have my own room and bath room and will update more on the house soon (it was 10 pm when I arrived so I didn't really look around).

But bigger news: fundraising goal met! I raised $1600 plus whatever is sitting in my mailbox at school that didn't come before I left for Thanksgiving. I also got searched twice on my way down because of all the supplies in my bags (see photo below):
It's 11:15, I've been traveling since noon and start work at the clinic at 8 am tomorrow morning, so I'm going to post more tomorrow when I'm not totally beat!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

NH Women's Caucus

This entry doesn't have anything to do directly with my volunteer trip to Guatemala, but I was lucky enough to attend "What Women Want Now: the New Hampshire Women's Caucus" yesterday and learned a lot that is relevant to women in my community and abroad. The caucus was the first women's caucus in NH and took place at Colby Sawyer.

The conference aimed to identify the issues most critical to women and equip participants with resources that help them improve women's status locally and globally. Specifically we focused on educating women about the issues most important to them in the following areas: the economy, health and health care and global women's issues. What I took away from this conference is that there is still a long way for women to go in terms of achieving equality in America and even more so abroad, but that there is a lot we can do to make a difference.

The key note speaker was Sheryl WuDunn, co-author of New York Times best-selling book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" (which many of you can expect for Christmas!!). She gave an incredibly moving key note speech in which she discusses why sex trafficking, gender-based violence among other abuses make women's rights the greatest moral issue of the 21st century. Take 20 minutes to watch it - it's very empowering.



Expect entries about some of the big issues we discussed over the next few weeks.


Friday, November 4, 2011

Update!

My friend Haley booked a flight to come with me to Guatemala yesterday! She will be with me from the 8th to the 16th. While I'm at the clinic in the mornings, Haley will spend a week volunteering in Antigua too. One of my friends at at Dartmouth spent last summer volunteering at Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro, which is an orphanage for malnourished children with cerebral palsy. Haley's very involved in with Special Olympics and excited to work with children with special needs.

I'm excited to have company! We're already planning volcano hikes if we have spare time. Can't wait!!!

And fundraising note: already up to $570! That's over a third of my goal.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I've gotten my placement from Maximo Nivel and will be working at a local clinic in Antigua in the mornings. I will likely have my afternoons free, so I'm talking with local organizations to try to find a school interested in spearheading a sexual and reproductive health workshop. More than half of Guatemala's residents live in poverty and health care provisions in Guatemala are lacking, leading women and children to suffer. Many women want to use contraceptives, but don't have access to them and as a result, the average woman in Guatemala gives birth to more than 4 children in her lifetime. Of the poorest women, only 5% use modern contraceptives and as a result, the average number of children per woman jumps to nearly 8.

In 2005, the government of Guatemala passed a family planning law that required sex ed in school, but even in 2009 this measure was far from being implemented. This law allows for access to birth control, but in the rural and poverty stricken areas has not necessarily been implemented. I'm working with friends here to try to put together lesson plans to run an after school workshop focusing on hygiene and sexual health. One of my friends here spent 15 months in Guatemala and is talking to her friends in Guatemala City to see if any are interested in helping me teach or helping me find somewhere to host this workshop.

Something else I'm excited about is meeting with advocates of Tierra Viva. While in Guatemala, I'm hoping to meet with people working at Tierra Viva, the only feminist organization currently in Guatemala that is raising awareness about birth control as a public health and women's rights issue. They're based in Guatemala City, which is only an hour from Antigua. This organization is working with other feminist organizations across the country to build a support network to reduce the death and suffering women and their families face. I'm hoping to meet with supporters of Tierra Viva while in Guatemala and discuss what things I can do back at Dartmouth to support their organization.

I'm hoping it will be a busy, fulfilling and fun 18 days in Guatemala. Keep checking back for more posts as it gets closer to the departure time!

About me & my trip!

November Update:
While I'm still using this blog to chronicle my journey, I'm also going to take advantage of this blog as a means of sharing information about issues relevant to women today both here and abroad!


Original Entry:
I'm Erin Klein and a junior at Dartmouth College. I am spending September, October and November volunteering around Hanover, NH then traveling to Guatemala in December to volunteer in a medical clinic. I will be living with a host family in Antigua and spending two weeks working for Maximo Nivel. Clinics for low income families in La Antigua and the surrounding areas tend to be under-funded and under-staffed. During my time here I will be assisting the nurses, doctors and clinic managers who work to provide medical care to impoverished communities though outreach clinics. I will be helping patients and staff directly though preparing patients to meet with physicians, which will include conducting patient histories and taking vital signs. In addition, I will hopefully be facilitating sexual and reproductive health workshops or volunteering in an HIV/AIDS clinic during the afternoons.

During my time at Dartmouth I have worked as a clinic manager at a clinic in White River Junction, Vermont, which provides free healthcare and health education to uninsured adults. I also conduct research on global Tuberculosis and HIV with a Dartmouth professor. Through my time in Guatemala, I hope to learn more about rural medicine and how I can contribute to improving global health, which I hope to make my career focus.

Maximo Nivel is an organization that helps partner volunteers with local organizations in need of additional help throughout South America and Latin America. I hope to raise $1500 to use to purchase medical supplies prior to departing, to donate directly to the clinic and to make it possible for me to volunteer. If you have any interest in assisting in funding this effort email me at erin.e.klein.13@dartmouth.edu!