Surgery and Forest Fires

Forest fire on the ranch from a short distance away.

Baking a cake with three sisters and another volunteer.

Enjoying a weekend in Tegucigalpa for the going away party of three volunteers who finished their year(s) of service this month.

This week I began my first official work week on my own, without my fellow volunteer nurse, Tiffany, by my side. All went well, and with each day I gain more confidence in my Spanish and nursing care, and pleasure out of my work. Each Wednesday is spent at the school completing the yearly Well-Child checks on all the children, or as many as we can get though in the morning. I help assess the height, weight, vital signs, and test the vision of each child before they see the doctor. I think it is wonderful that NPH offers such good preventative healthcare in addition to caring for many chronically ill children. Tiffany and I have also been planning and presenting lectures to the medical staff each week on different nursing care topics, such as how to administer medications, start IVs, what is Hypertension?, and Diabetes, knowledge of medications that we are dispensing in the clinic, etc. The majority of the nurses who work here have only a high school nursing licensure with a very basic healthcare education. Therefore, I am glad to put my bachelor's degree to use to help provide continuing education for these nurses since many of them carry great responsibility in their healthcare roles.

This weekend was also my first weekend being on-call for the clinic and any medical emergency that might arise. We have a Doctor on-call, whom we can contact with any questions and there is a Honduran nurse who is in the clinic day and night with the kids. However, I still feel a lot of responsibility and a little nervous being the only licensed healthcare employee here for over 400 people. I get to walk around with a pretty official looking radio, I come into the clinic to assess new patients, and am available for questions or to help out with whatever is needed. Last night, for example, one of the children had to go to the hospital, so I stayed to manage the clinic while the other nurse accompanied the child to Tegucigalpa.

Another new addition to my last few weeks has been getting to know my Hogar of 22 girls, ages 10-14 years old. All the children here are divided up into groups of 20-30 kids, based on their age and developmental level and they live with that group in individual buildings called Hogars. The volunteers here have essentially two jobs. We all work our day jobs during the week, as teacher, nurse, office personnel, etc. and then we have an evening and weekend job, spending time in Hogar with our assigned group of kids and supporting their caregivers. The two hours that I am with them each night is spent finishing up chores, eating dinner, brushing teeth, and changing into pajamas. In the little time that is left before lights out, they love it when I bring stories to read or a new board game to play. I am really excited to have this age group of kids because they still love to play and have fun. They can be very loud and crazy at times. They love attention and hugs, and are great to practice Spanish with. Over this year, my patience will be tested as well, as I try to earn their respect and work with the attitude that comes with this age. I look forward to getting to know each one of them individually and trying to be a good positive role model in their lives.

Maybe one of the most interesting memories of the past two weeks was getting to assist with surgery and fight a forest fire all in the same day. Here at the ranch we have one of the most advanced surgery centers in the whole country of Honduras donated by an Orthopedic surgeon and his family from Minnesota. They come down about 4 times a year for about 10 days at a time to perform surgery for the people here. While the medical teams aren't here, the center mostly goes unused. However occasionally we have a retired surgeon from Tegucigalpa who comes once every couple weeks to perform some basic topical surgeries and cyst removals. Being one of only 2 RNs here, I had the fun pleasure of assisting in the surgeries, such as holding the retractors or cutting the stitches.

Meanwhile… we are in the very dry season here in Honduras and forest fires are not uncommon. Many Saturdays, the boys at the Ranch are out early in the morning working to clear a 6-10 foot area of brush along the entire perimeter of the Ranch.  However, despite their prevention efforts, the most recent fire did enter onto Ranch property. One night when I was leaving Hogar, there was a crowd standing along the sidewalk, watching the ridge of the hillside blazing. Some of the younger girls were crying because many of the older boys, their brothers, had already been sent up to the fire to start trying to put it out. I returned to the volunteer house to grab my camera and headlamp, and ventured out with two other volunteers to get in on the action and see what a forest fire looks like up-close and personal. About a mile up the hill we got to the scene. For those of you who have never had the adventure of fighting a forest fire with limited training and resources, here is what you do… you try to find a big, preferably still leafy branch, and beat the fire until it mostly goes out. If that doesn't work, you holler at the kid running around with a hose and water tank on his back. By the time we got there the flames had died down, and it was mostly just a vast area of charred ground on all sides, with isolated bushes and tree trunks still burning. I was trying not to melt my tennis shoes on the smoldering ground. The ash and smoke was thick in the air. It was quite an adrenaline rush, especially to be the only woman there working alongside all the other male Pequenos and employees.

One last funny little cultural idiom… pertaining to teeth brushing. Contrary to the majority of Latin America, there is a fervent passion for brushing teeth here. The kids must brush their teeth 3-4 times a day. It is not uncommon to see a child walking around with their toothbrush in their back pocket, or an employee walking around the office brushing their teeth after lunch, as if it is nothing strange at all. I'm not sure how this trend began, but I must say, I think our kids as a whole have the healthiest teeth in all of Honduras.