A Toast: April 16, 2016
Phew. We are almost done with Spanish school. Two weeks left. Subjunctive, preterite, conditional perfect, slang...they'restarting to come together. We had some neighbors over the other night who didn't talk the slowest, and you know what, we didn't do that bad in communicating! Sometimes (sometimes), we're starting to feel like we can be ourselves, talk like ourselves in Spanish. But it can still be very hard to understand people depending on the context, ya know?
Anyway, the even better news about that is that Alaina has started working in the health clinic ministry just once a week until we finish school. The clinic is called "Corazon de Amor" (Heart of Love), and is located within what is known as "the garbage dump communities," where 10,000 or so folks live in cement, tin, and/or plastic shacks and survive mostly off recyclable materials scavenged from the garbage dump nearby. Right now it's open Monday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, caring for 40-ish people on a normal day, but 150-200 when there is extra help there from groups of volunteers that come down. Dr. Layla runs the clinic and sees every patient after their initial assessment, and there's a couple other nurses who help with the pharmacy and initial assessments.
That's what Alaina does. After the patients have waited in line, she's taking weights and blood pressures, blood sugars, asking them about their chief complaint, and getting them ready to see Dr. Layla. Alaina's also gotten really excited about improving the organization of records and medicines, because she gets geeked about that, and it could really help the clinic. What else?
Following a number of conversations within the community and with Dr. Layla, there's a desire and a need for health education within the community. So in the next month(s), Alaina and Amie (accompanied by trusted community leaders for security) will be preparing informative sessions on Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika (3 easily confused viruses that pop up in the community during the rainy season). The plan is to have the sessions in small community centers or peoples' houses with 20-30 people at a time, to teach, answer questions, and use picture-heavy take-home materials so they can be healthier at home. After round 1 is done, they can tackle another health concern!
According to Alaina, "I'm really excited to be back doing nursing. It feels right and I feel like one of the best versions of myself when I get to do this. So that's a breath of fresh air for sure. We hope that the health prevention lessons will increase the awareness and knowledge of the community so that they can live healthier in their communities and avoid the suffering that diseases too often bring them."
Shall we raise a glass? To a healthier zone 3 community in spirit and body. To being nearly done with Spanish school. To April.
*clink*
Thanks for your love and prayers and for toasting with us.
-AJ and Alaina
p.s. Things We're Into Lately
1. Age: 25. AJ celebrated his 25th last week, joining Alaina in the ranks.
2. Activity: Mountain Biking - we went way too fast and way too furious in a cloud of dust to celebrate said birthday.
3. Food: Gringas - predictably, Alaina (a "gringa" (white girl)) quite fancies these meat/veggie stuffed quesadilla-like food truck/taco stand staples.
4. Topic: Racism, History, and Discrimination in Guatemala. Which also leads to revisiting the same topics in America. And my own biasedness and okay-ness with not-okay systems. The sad ways that humans and power and prejudice work. See latest blog post. See latest Liturgists podcast.
5. Missing: It's Da Hood softball season again, and AJ won't be in left center field, nor will Alaina be in the bleachers. We missed Easter at Grandma's and Easter at Aunt Jen's simultaneously. We missed the April-birthday cake-bake-off at Jake's. Track meets are starting and AJ can't motivate his runners! Among many more things. Like you.
Anyway, the even better news about that is that Alaina has started working in the health clinic ministry just once a week until we finish school. The clinic is called "Corazon de Amor" (Heart of Love), and is located within what is known as "the garbage dump communities," where 10,000 or so folks live in cement, tin, and/or plastic shacks and survive mostly off recyclable materials scavenged from the garbage dump nearby. Right now it's open Monday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, caring for 40-ish people on a normal day, but 150-200 when there is extra help there from groups of volunteers that come down. Dr. Layla runs the clinic and sees every patient after their initial assessment, and there's a couple other nurses who help with the pharmacy and initial assessments.
That's what Alaina does. After the patients have waited in line, she's taking weights and blood pressures, blood sugars, asking them about their chief complaint, and getting them ready to see Dr. Layla. Alaina's also gotten really excited about improving the organization of records and medicines, because she gets geeked about that, and it could really help the clinic. What else?
Following a number of conversations within the community and with Dr. Layla, there's a desire and a need for health education within the community. So in the next month(s), Alaina and Amie (accompanied by trusted community leaders for security) will be preparing informative sessions on Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika (3 easily confused viruses that pop up in the community during the rainy season). The plan is to have the sessions in small community centers or peoples' houses with 20-30 people at a time, to teach, answer questions, and use picture-heavy take-home materials so they can be healthier at home. After round 1 is done, they can tackle another health concern!
According to Alaina, "I'm really excited to be back doing nursing. It feels right and I feel like one of the best versions of myself when I get to do this. So that's a breath of fresh air for sure. We hope that the health prevention lessons will increase the awareness and knowledge of the community so that they can live healthier in their communities and avoid the suffering that diseases too often bring them."
Shall we raise a glass? To a healthier zone 3 community in spirit and body. To being nearly done with Spanish school. To April.
*clink*
Thanks for your love and prayers and for toasting with us.
-AJ and Alaina
p.s. Things We're Into Lately
1. Age: 25. AJ celebrated his 25th last week, joining Alaina in the ranks.
2. Activity: Mountain Biking - we went way too fast and way too furious in a cloud of dust to celebrate said birthday.
3. Food: Gringas - predictably, Alaina (a "gringa" (white girl)) quite fancies these meat/veggie stuffed quesadilla-like food truck/taco stand staples.
4. Topic: Racism, History, and Discrimination in Guatemala. Which also leads to revisiting the same topics in America. And my own biasedness and okay-ness with not-okay systems. The sad ways that humans and power and prejudice work. See latest blog post. See latest Liturgists podcast.
5. Missing: It's Da Hood softball season again, and AJ won't be in left center field, nor will Alaina be in the bleachers. We missed Easter at Grandma's and Easter at Aunt Jen's simultaneously. We missed the April-birthday cake-bake-off at Jake's. Track meets are starting and AJ can't motivate his runners! Among many more things. Like you.