Busy busy first few weeks in Sandy Bay!

Well its been quite the adventure these past two weeks.. each evening I come home, I say to myself “I’ll write my blog tonight..’ but the time gets away from me and suddenly its late and I need to get to bed and I just didn’t get it done. So here is my attempt to describe nearly 2 weeks of my busy life in a single blog post and not bore anyone to death..

So we arrived mid-week and jumped into work at the clinic right away.  Things at the clinic are really different than last year, yet really similar too.. its hard to explain even. The atmosphere is different this year and there are a ton of volunteers in right now, so things are always busy and hectic.. but it’s a bit more of a disorganized chaos this year. I think it will just take some getting used to and I’m getting onto it. Katelyn went to work in triage and I was put to work doing ‘extra’ tasks.. since I had been here last year, I was able to organized and sort a lot of donations and things. Many of the organizational systems on the shelves etc was what I had put in place last year or was exactly the same so I was super familiar with it already.. so I jumped head first into all of that. So thus far, I have really been functioning as a ‘jack of all trades’ at the clinic.. sorting and organizing in the back room mostly, but being pulled in other direction when more urgent tasks come up.. like testing/fitting a patient for eyeglasses, passing meds, dressing wounds, etc..

So I’ll going to be really honest and admit it was a bit of a humbling experience at first to be in such a behind the scenes role. I was used to last year when there were only 2 nurses including myself and I was desperately needed out front to keep things rolling.. doing all the typical ‘nursing’ tasks like triage and med administration etc. So when I found myself behind the scenes and going almost a whole day without seeing a single patient, I began to get frustrated.. wondering what good I was if I wasn’t even seeing patients. I’m a RN after all, was my initial selfish/prideful thoughts.. but God soon fixed my attitude. He swiftly reminded me that I’m here to serve. If they need someone sorting donations, pulling meds & packing for outreach, stocking the pharmacy etc.. then that’s what I’ll do. I came here willing to help with whatever is needed, and right now this is my role. God has given me lots of gifts and skills, and organization is definitely one of them, and its where He has me for now, so I sucked up my pride and gave it 110%! J I found it was actually really rewarding because I had some spare moments to talk with other volunteers and to invest in others.. it was really great! Plus I got done a lot of things that have been on the ‘to do list’ for ages! And the storage room has never looked this good! ;)

Oh, and I also did a special assignment for the clinic last week! The clinic promised a school to provide judges for their science fair. So apparently being a RN qualifies me to be a science fair judge! Lol! Who knew, eh? So a few lucky volunteers were chosen and we travelled 45mins or so to a neighbouring town to judge the local bilingual school’s science fair. I judged grade 3-4 pairs. The kids were so cute! And the projects were cute too! Mainly just cool topics that they researched, like “The Sun” or “The Human Brain” and it was cute to see their nervousness etc and this was doubled because many of them don’t speak English as their first language and it was nerve wracking to know that I’d be evaluating them in English! But all of them did such a great job! I may have marked too generously! But I remember all to well how scary it is to be in the science fair! Overall a really great day!

Other than clinic, I’ve been tutoring again.. my student from last year Mycol, already has a tutor so I took on someone else. I’m currently tutoring Emmy, who is in Gr 6 and she is one of the girls I got to know last year (and who I brought down some clothes and things for). She can be a bit tricky to tutor because she is in the preteen phase, but we are pretty tight, so for now we are getting along… hopefully it continues! I’ll let you know how it goes.. After tutoring last Tuesday, Mycol took us up to his house in the Colonia to see his crabs (that he caught and is keeping for his science fair project) and it was quite a little adventure! His mother is super sweet and she remembered me from last year! Then on Thursday after tutoring, Mycol, Vanessa and Oscar (our oldest tutoring kids.. minus Emmy who had to take her younger siblings home) took us for a hike up through the whole Colonia to the top of the mountain. It gives the best view of the island and you can see both sides, it was a spectacular view and totally worth the climb.. but man, it was a really tough climb and it was raining on and off! It was super convenient thought because right as it began to pour, we were really close to Vanessa’s house so we all piled in, nearly taking up the entire house (it’s a small single room with a porch) to keep dry.

( I would be uploading pics but the internet won’t let me right now.. so you’ll just have to imagine the beauty of the island at sunset from the top of a mountain, looking down on the Colonia)

Saturday a group of five of us went into Coxen Hole and volunteered to paint the lobby/hallways of the public hospital. A group of locals have been trying to brighten/clean the hospital up some and the bought the paint & supplies but they couldn’t seem to find volunteers to actually paint. So we agreed to help. We showed up at 8:30 and in typical Island style, we didn’t really get to the painting til 10 or so.. lol but we got a nice tour of the hospital! And with the 5 of us going pretty solid we had it all painted by noon! The locals were so excited and it did actually freshen it up quite a bit! It was a really great way to spend our Saturday and I felt like we actually made a bit of a difference! It was very rewarding! Although I think I may have been a little overly happy due to the ridiculous amount of fumes I inhaled! Lol

Sundays are our day of rest and fun here! We go to RChurch (contemporary Expatriate church) in West Bay in the morning, then hit the beach for the afternoon. Our first Sunday, the water was super rough and a storm blew in, so it wasn’t exactly a beach day. But this Sunday, it made up for it! It was beautiful!! Thirty something degrees Celsius and sunny! We snorkled for half the afternoon then relaxed and read for the other half! It is such a great way to unwind from a busy week! And I got a chance to see my host family from last year, Bob & Debi Cowan. It was super nice to see them and connect with them again!

I think that is the brief highlights of my last two weeks here in Roatan! I’m going to try to be a bit more prompt about my blog in the next weeks!