What an amazing week! We came to Panama to learn about health care in a different country...and boy did we ever! We arrived at the Rancho Kevin on Sunday. "The Rancho" as it became known was quite an interesting place. I think we all appreciated the Villas in the Cuidad del Saber a whole lot more once we stepped foot in this place! We have lots of fun memories from the Rancho that I'm sure we will all look back at with a laugh. Clinicals started first Monday morning! We got to do a bunch of fun and new things like vaccinating infants and children, assessing the growth and development of children, learning about lactation, newborn assessments, pap smears, breast exams, and measuring height, weight, and cephalic circumfrence of children. My favorite part of the clinical experience was the women's health aspect. I have been considering getting my ARNP in women's health but did not have any real experience in that area. So I got to get my feet wet a little and really enjoyed it. We also made a presentation on HPV and the vaccine (known here as Cervarix) and got to present it to a waiting room full of patients who knew nothing about cervical cancer or the vaccine. It was very rewarding to be able to bring new information to this rural area of Panama. The time spent in the clinics was also a great time to work on our spanish! We struggled with the language barrier some but managed to be by =) The clinics in Chitre (and most of Panama) are nothing like what we have in the US. They lack a lot of supples and can not afford to do many of the things we take for granted in our American health care facilities (like cleaning the skin with an alcohol swab before giving an injection....here in the clinics we just used water). It was an eye opening experience. After a long week, we got to relax for a while in El Valle. What a beautiful place! We were up in the clouds! El Valle is a little "valley" in the middle of a beautiful mountain range. The views were absolutely breath taking! We spent the 4th of July there and watched a "home made" fireworks show put on by our bus driver Dario and the doctor with us, Arturo. It was like a little piece of home! We went zip-lining and visited the hot springs (we got to do mud facials too!!!). It was soo much fun! We are now back in Panama City...time to do some laundry and get ready for the busy week ahead!
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