The fun continues!!

The last few days have been filled with assisting locals with their various health problems, mixed with what feels like a 5-star destination vacation. The mission base is beautiful. Our accommodations are nothing short of stunning. It’s so quiet and wonderful here. Yesterday, we set up a mobile health clinic in a village church near our base. We saw many patients that are indigenous to the town of San Martín. Attempting to understand and communicate is not always easy, but I already feel my confidence with Spanish in the medical context improving. At the clinic, we are able to provide physician assessments, write prescriptions, physical therapy recommendations and nutrition education, among other things. 

During the day, I helped determine the ailments of patients via interview questions and lab testing, the latter of which was a first-time experience for me. With the help of translators, I am able to utilize the skills I’ve learned while at Chico State Nursing School. Being here in Oaxaca gives a whole new meaning to healthcare, though. Witnessing the absolute generosity of the gente de Roca Blanca is inspiring. They are truly impacting these people who cannot necessarily afford the help they require. This clinic, and all the commodities, are free services provided by missionaries and others (like our team) who donate time and supplies for the villages. The pastors of the church fed us a delicious lunch of chicken soup in the afternoon. Once we left the village, we spent the end of the evening at a nice little restaurant close to the mission. It was a long but wonderful day.

… As I sit and think about this trip so far, I can’t help but feel immensely lucky. I never thought I would be able to afford a trip like this, much less while concurrently funding nursing school. But here we are in this wonderfully untouched part of Mexico and utilizing our education in a most humbling way.
I’m having experiences I never thought I could or would. Tonight I night-swam with my friends in waters that literally glowed all around us. Tomorrow I will be working in a rural Mexican hospital. We’ve visited museums that depict Chatino legends and history, and explored the plaza of a town called Tututepec while figuring out what to do when your van breaks down in Mexico. I’m getting to practice a lot with my camera, depicting the happiness and culture I am witnessing all around me. I’m furthering my Spanish language skills in a much more immersive and applicable sense than I ever did in a classroom. I’m watching my classmates shine in their respective areas such as translating and patient care and compassion and fellowship. School and “la vida diária” can be so challenging, boring even and exhausting. But here in Oaxaca I feel anew.