Clinic and choosing my section

I was a little lazy this weekend so I didn't get to chat about how the clinic went. All in all things were really great. The nursing supervisor Rosa is phenomenal. She's serious about getting crap done but also really easy going and funny. She keeps calling me George for some reason. She tries to say Shawn even though I told her Esteban is totally fine, then she told me she didn't like Esteban because it's too long. I should've waited to make up a name for myself because a lot of the kids here have pretty awesome names: Wilmer, Axel, Otto. I totally would've loved to be called Otto.

The doctor in the clinic seems great too. Her name is Karla, she's also from Guatemala and just started working here six weeks ago. She knows her stuff but has a really relaxed attitude with the kids and staff which is nice. Generally speaking, the clinic staff seem great! Once I can speak enough Spanish for them to actually get to know me, I think we'll be in good shape :D

Now that I'm out of the super touristy Antigua and spending more time with real Guatemalans, I'm learning a lot more about our cultural differences too. For example, passing someone on the street without saying hello is considered very rude, as is seeing someone eating and not saying "Buen provecho!" (similar to 'bon appetite'). That can mean that you say good afternoon to thirty people while you walk to the store and another thirty on the way back. The Germans tell me that its the same at home, they need to say "Guten Appetit" every time they see someone eating, even if its in a restaurant. I guess we're just rude in America, we don't have anything like that at all.

Another really big difference is that it's very rude here to be direct with someone. This is the most non-confrontational place I've even been. If someone says something you don't agree with you need to praise them on everything else they said and then hope that they need between the lines and discover that maybe you don't agree with the last thing. It's so passive-agressive. It also makes it next to impossible to get anything accomplished. We were trying to get room assignments done and what could have been decided in less than five minutes took two days because we had to tip-toe around anything that could possibly be thought of as too direct. I seriously felt like my face was melting off, it caused me physical pain to have to sit through that. I might have been somewhat obnoxious with my interjections ("Let's take a vote!" "What if we each give you an answer in private?" I was so close to suggesting that everyone close their eyes and then raise their hands for the choice they wanted, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to say that out loud without a cinderblock of sarcasm plopping out of my mouth and onto the floor) Obviously this is already infuriating me, I can only imagine how it's going to be when I actually need to get stuff done for the clinic.

There are some very cool differences here too (well, depending on how you look at it.) There are no rules at the clinic about needing to be a nurse to work there. They've had "nurses" here in the past who have never even gone to school, they just give them on the job training for what they need to know and let em rip. The amount of evaluation necessary here is a lot less than in a hospital, plus they have a doctor to check up on things if needed, but it's still a little scary to think about. The vaccinations here are given by a dude from the United States who majored in economics, no medical background. Great experience for him, scary for anyone on the other end of the needle :/ But of course I get to benefit from the system too because here I'm allowed to do things I normally couldn't, like give stitches. I've never done that before (because doctor's do that in the states) but the doctor here said she'd teach me. Great skill to have for my backpacking adventures, good thing my malpractice insurance is up-to-date :) Side note: did you know that in Germany nurses aren't allowed to give injections or any medicines via IV? Only doctor's can do that. Cray cray.

So as you can tell by all my German references, I've been learning a lot from the other volunteers too! Out of the 12 of us who are just starting now, one is from guatemala, one is from italy, two are from Austria, five are from the US and three are from Germany. Since we all speak different languages we have no choice but to communicate in Spanish which has been good. I do cheat at times when I'm in my room because Holger speaks fluent English, but otherwise I've been really good about it. And I'm picking up a few words in German too, woohoo!

This week is the last week of orientation, then we start working for real. Aside from my regular 8-5:30p job in the clinic, I also need to work two nights a week in a section with the kids. Today we took a tour to see all the different sections. They're sectioned off by age, babies in one house, girls broken up by age in another house and then the same thing for boys in another. The babies were by far my favorites (and by babies I mean 2-8 year olds, there aren't actually any babies here right now.) I totally got my baby fix when a three year old girl jumped into my arms and starting playing with my beard (beards are really uncommon in Guatemala, I've seen maybe three or four other people with them in the last seven weeks). I also really liked the kids with special needs. They have about 15 kids with CP, autism, Downs and Rett syndrome. It'd be easy work for me, really similar to being in a group home, plus my friend Stephanie works there, so it'd be fun. They're really pushing me to go to the older boys though, kids who are 14-18. I have ZERO interest in this. They don't let girls go there though, and with only two male volunteers here, if one of us don't choose to go in this section, the guys wont have a volunteer with them. They have other staff, its not like they'll be alone, they just wont have the benefit of having a foreign person there. I told the staff that I'm not a benefit to them anyway since I have absolutely nothing to offer these guys; I HATE sports and unless they like baking and cross-stitching, we're probably not going to get along. They asked me sit and have dinner with them tonight just to feel it out, and of course I happened to sit next to the kid who also hates sports and is in art club. He won me over, but not quite enough to counter-balance my loathing for all the jock kids. I have until tomorrow to decide, so we'll see.

I chatted with Mom today. She offered to ship me out a care package which totally got me excited. (I've been secretly compiling a list of requests just waiting for someone to offer...) Sadly though, I mentioned it to a friend and she said that her parents had offered as well but then changed their minds when they saw the shipping charges. I went onto the post office website to see what she was talking about, and sure enough it looks like a care package would probably cost close to $60 to ship. Noooooo! So no more raspberry jelly and crackers for me :( I'll just have to wait until I come to the US to visit in June, then I can smuggle things back with me.

Tomorrow another one of the old volunteers leaves. They've been trickling out the last few days, though the big waves will start this weekend. It's hard to know where we fit in right now because a lot of the older volunteers are mourning the loss of their friends who are leaving and not really interesting in mentoring new folks. I'll be glad when I get settled into my new (and FINAL) house on Sunday and can wait for all of this to blow over. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I fear my tourist days are over for the moment...