Our adventure started early Saturday morning with a phone call from the airline at 5am. The voicemail went something like this, “Your flight to Belize from Miami has been cancelled. We have placed you on a different flight leaving out of Dallas. Your new departure time from Tampa International is 8:30am.” No big deal that our flight was changed, except that originally we were supposed to leave Tampa International at 9:45am. So instantly, panic sets in. I’m not sure if many of you have had the pleasure of seeing me in a full out hysterical panic but I imagine it is quite entertaining for a bystander to observe. Unfortunately, David doesn’t get to be an innocent bystander. Seeing as we are now leaving on a flight over an hour earlier than we thought, we need to leave NOW! Of course, I had waited to start packing for our month long trip until late the evening before we left. I finally laid down for a few winks at 3:30am and still had multiple little things to pack up. Basically we threw what we could into the bags and jumped in the car and off we went. Our friends, Ken and Kendra, drove us in our car so they could have access to it and were gracious enough to agree to care for our dogs and home while we are away. I finally started to calm down about half way to the airport as I realized whatever wasn’t packed wasn’t necessary and we can buy what we need when we get there. Ironically, when we arrived at the airport our flight was delayed a little over an hour, so we were back at the original departure time. The rest of the day of traveling went relatively smoothly. Since we were routed through Dallas, our arrival into Belize City was later than our original flight so we missed the 2pm flight to Punta Gorda. Thankfully, there was a 5pm flight with room that we were able to squeeze onto. Since I’ve never flown with any of my cousins/uncles that fly, this was officially the smallest plane I’ve ever been on. It took off from Belize City, landed briefly in Placencia to let the tourists off and then on to Punta Gorda to drop off David, me, and a pharmacist from Drake University. The folks from the clinic came to pick us up and eventually we arrived safely to the clinic and lodging site with all our luggage and donated medications (except that David left the laptop case in the small airplane. Luckily, it’s a small town and we were able to pick it up the next morning).
Tropic Air Flight from Belize City to Punta Gorda
View from the plane
Baggage claim in Punta Gorda
We arrived at the campus of Hillside Health Care International shortly after being picked up in Punta Gorda (PG). PG is about 6 miles away from Eldrigeville, where the clinic is located. They have a nice dorm style lodging for the rotating students and volunteers.
Hillside Clinic Campus
Hillside Dorm
We arrived about a day earlier than most of the other volunteers but there was a small handful already there for our first night and day. The next day after our arrival was Sunday. We decided to visit one of the local churches for a service. We ended up at a small catholic church and enjoyed a short mass there. The national language of Belize is English, so we didn’t have any problems understanding the sermon. Following along with a traditional catholic mass, however, proved to be a little bit of a challenge.
The Catholic Church
Later that afternoon, we decided to explore the local area on bicycle, as that was the only mode of transport readily available besides our feet. We rode into PG and went to a few stores, although most were closed. David managed to find a Coca Cola, a cheeseburger and some ice-cream. We made our way back to the dorm and spent the rest of the evening getting acquainted with the other volunteers.
Riding bicycles
There is a mixture of fourth year Pharmacy students, medical students and Physician Assistant students. I am actually the only person with a degree, besides the clinic staff. This first week was more of a week of orienting to how things work in Belize. Hillside has clinics on the campus daily from 8am-12pm. Usually there are two teams. One team mans the clinic and the other team goes out on Mobile Clinic to one of the surrounding villages. In clinic this week I saw a lot of similar problems to what I would normally see at my clinics in Florida; mostly ear infections, colds, skin infections, rashes, and gastroenteritis. They do have a lot more scabies here than at home (scabies is basically body lice- little mites that burrow under the skin and cause a very itchy rash). I went out on one Mobile Clinic to a small village called Cirque Sarco. It took nearly 2 hours by car, over very bumpy dirt roads to get to the pedestrian bridge. From there, we had to carry all of our equipment over the bridge and then on about ¼ mile to the village. Since we are in Belize and it’s the rainforest, it had recently rained and we all got quite muddy on our trip in and back out again. We set up clinic the village health center, a small concrete building with antiquated examining tables/equipment. It was quite hot that day and the building had very few windows and certainly no air conditioning. We saw more basic health care patients, although I am convinced that one of the little old ladies I treated had malaria. Yes, we are taking malaria prophylaxis. After clinic, one of the local villagers fed us Caldo, a traditional chicken stew with potatoes. Then we packed back up and headed back to Eldridgeville and the showers.
Bridge to Cirque Sarco
Local women doing laundry
Cirque Sarco Health Care Center
Exam Room
Lunch Stop
That was pretty much my week in a nutshell. David and I are realizing that we need to be taking way more pictures, especially of the projects he has been working on. In one short week, he has removed and fixed a toilet (including the concrete underneath), repaired the clothes drier and fixed one of the clinic’s only working trucks (a feat that NO ONE here could have accomplished. Everyone said it would have been in the shop for weeks!) He has also been very obliging in killing various bugs and other things for me and the other girls. One of the main jobs he’s helping out with is welding brackets onto the window bars for hurricane panels. He’s not a welder, but if you are even vaguely familiar with the concept, you are qualified.
We have both been surprised by how much and how little the people have around here. The clinic is decently equipped and stocked. While there are some much needed items, they also have just about they truly need to operate. Laboratory studies are still quite hard to come by. Besides the clinic, most people seem to have cell phones and are land owners. But with that said, they live in small, ramshackle houses and buildings and exist on much less than what we would consider poverty level. In our short week here, we have seen a lot. We can’t wait for more experiences. Thanks to everyone who helped us get here. Your contributions are going to good use. The clinic was ecstatic over the medicines I brought in. You are blessing many lives here in Belize. Here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy. More to come, we promise! We would love to hear from you. We are able to send and receive basic e-mails on most days, but we cannot download or upload attachments, photos etc… Feel free to e-mail us. Until next time,
Love, David and Sarah
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| The clinic entrance |
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| This is the bus stop in Eldridgeville |
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| Some of the local children that I've been blowing bubbles with and playing hide and go seek |
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| A typical Belizean Home |
What a exceptional and giving deed you guys are doing. Thanks for sharing it... Prayer for you guys and the work you are doing. Be safe, love The Ormsbys.
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