Medical Students, Community Health Workers, and Green Hills and Music -- April, 2013 -- Month 22 in the D.R.

April, has come around again -- a time of flowers, humming birds, medical students, patient home visits, and preparing for the field clinics we'll be doing in 4 communities during the 1st week of May.

I've had 2 medical students here working with me and with the 19 Community Health Workers for the past 2 weeks.  They're here for a month total and we've been walking house to house to see patients.  It's been fun for me to get out of the office and back out into the communities more frequently this month. I've been stuck in the office more and more lately with administrative tasks and grant-writing. But in the past two week's I've enjoyed being back in the communities where we've helped the Community Health Workers bandage injuries, check in on patients who have been having trouble with side effects to meds, etc.  I've been glad to see how quickly the medical students have come to understand the sense of community that exists in each of our villages. They've made fast friends with many Community Health Workers and neighbors already!

                             Here the medical students Brad and Meg sort charts with Community Health Worker Dorka, in front of her home in Severet, before heading off with her on visits to her patients.

This month has also been the month of preparing for the May 2013 mobile Field Clinics.  We have 3 MDs and one more medical student from the States coming to see patients with us during those field clinics. 

In the photo above, I and my colleage Tracy and the 19 Community Health Worker from 4 communities all came together to plan and divide up appointments to give out to sick residents in the four communities. 




 Here, Community Health Worker Catherine in the rural community of Severet, heads out of her door, with patient medical charts in hand, to go visit her patients and to give out appointment cards to sick neighbors, inviting them to next week's field clinics.



Below (in a scene that made me accidentally start singing ..."The hills are alive with the sound of music...") Community Health Workers Fones and Yajaira and Yajaira's toddler aged son, take Medical Student Brad and I around to check in on their patients.

The hills are alive.... la la la...  la la ....la... :)

They paused to pick some fruit along the way to share it with Brad, and to teach him about local trees. 

Below Fones and Brad are checking pulse on my friend Sipuen (in Severet).

Brad and Meg, the medical students, also helped us do a refresher course on first aid (Wound Care and Burn Care) for the Community Health Worker Class. 

Here Meg is drawing our different types of "wounds" on our hands with a red marker...

We had great fun (and learned great skills) bandaging fake wounds and burns all over each others heads and appendages! : )

 Nice bandage job, there, Yudi!

Here I am (yes, I'm the one pasty one with no tan,) with friends during our day in Severet. My friends are (right to left): Community Health Worker Catherine, Our two motorcycle taxi drivers Alex and Chubadu who brought me up the mountain, and Pastro Pedro of the Evangelical church of Severet, in the back yard of Pastor Pedro, CHWs' Dorka and CHW Catherine's home.

As you can see, Severet is Beautiful.

It's been a beautiful, very busy, but also fun month at HHI.

One a separate note, I want to leave you with one more thing this month:

I wanted to share with you one of the sounds of the D.R. that I hear every day. Here is a Batchata song called El Golpe Aviso! By a singer named El Chavel. This song was apparently released in 2012 but over the past month has become one of the most popular songs that I hear playing in public transportation vehicles and in homes and business here in our part of the D.R. I spend half of my days singing "Sigue, Sigue, Sigue Caminando" Which means -- keep going, keep walking. :)

So, I'm sharing this with you so you can "hear" some of my daily life. : ) Enjoy.