Punta Gorda, BELIZE: Overnight

Hillside takes the Toyota land cruiser twice a month and spends the night in remote villages so we can provide health care to underserved people. My first overnight experience was last week and I’m proud to say, I survived!

We drove 2 ½ hours to a village close to the border of Guatemala called San Vicente. Once we arrived, we quickly unpacked our medical supplies and waited for any people needing medical attention. We ended up seeing 40 patients that were split between 2 physician assistant (PA) students, a doctor in residency, and myself. The most interesting patient I had was a young boy who had a large abscess. We ended up doing an I&D (incision and drainage) and started him on some antibiotics. I’ve been practicing diagnosing and prescribing meds with the doctor’s supervision. Sometimes, I’m falling out of the nursing role and feel more like a PA student, which I really enjoy.

At 4 pm, we started to pack things up and ate dinner at a local’s house in the village. We ate inside a small thatched hut while watching Mayan women make tortillas on the open stove. Our dinner was “caldo,” which is Spanish for soup. You eat the chicken and broth with tortillas and drink the leftovers from the bowl. I think it’s a tasty meal, especially when I don’t find a chicken foot in my soup.

After dinner, the PA students gave a short presentation about scabies and lice to men, women, and children who gathered in the community center. Many people attend because they know we raffle out prizes at the end. We always hope people go home learning a few new facts so they can start to prevent these issues.

As soon as the presentation ended, we drove to a near by village called Jalacte. This is where we spent the night…in the town’s community center building. I called first dibs on one of the exam room tables for my bed. I quickly covered the table with piece of foam, hung my bug net up and laid out my sheets. I was all settled. Then a few of us walked to the river running through town to bathe. It was completely dark and all we had were our headlamps and flashlights. That was my first time bathing in a river at night with just a headlamp on. The cold water felt refreshing after a long day of working. After we were all done getting clean, we headed back to get some sleep. Most of us fell asleep around 9 pm. At around 3 am the roosters starting crowing and did not stop all morning. We were also next door to the mill, where the villagers get their corn grounded for them to make tortillas and such.

We were exhausted when we woke up at 6 am. We had to clear out all of our beds and backpacks because the patients would be coming soon. Slowly, but surely, patients started trickling in. That day we ended up seeing 54 patients, who were mostly all women and children. Unfortunately, most of the men were gone out in the fields working. I referred two of my patients to our physical therapist Annette who came with us this trip. I enjoyed watching her assess my patient’s muscular skeletal issues. I’ve realized that “back pain” can be much more than just tight or strained muscles. When seeing our last patient, we packed up all of our supplies and started our journey back to the clinic. Our long drive consisted of many potholes and windy dirt roads. We made it home safely. I was drained and ready for bed.