Week three is finished in Roatan, and I’m feeling more and more adjusted to how to live and work here. Jens and I have got our routine down (more or less) and figured out what we can and can’t eat, where to spend the afternoons, and how much the taxi drivers should really be charging us from place to place. It’s not uncommon for a taxista to see two touristy-looking gringos and go for the higher price tag, but fortunately we’ve learned to haggle it down a little. Also, one of the doctors at Global Healing was generous enough to let me borrow a camera for the remainder of the trip, so I can share a few now.
On Wednesday, we made a change of pace by spending the day at an independent, not-for-profit clinic on the island, “Clinica Esperanza,” with esperanza translating as “hope.” The public hospital in Coxen Hole is government operated, the only one here, but there are a handful of other smaller, private clinics, some for-profit and others non-profit. Through a contact at Coxen Hole, we arranged to spend the day with them, spending most of the day working with some sphygmomanometers and infant incubators. With these incubators, we ran into the same problem as most of those in Coxen Hole—completely functional(sometimes after a minor repair) but simply too loud. The heating element and fan continue to work, but with age the fan motor slowly becomes louder and louder, and the low hum can do some long-term damage to the baby’s ears. While we lubbed up the motors, it doesn’t do much for the sound issue. At any rate, it was refreshing to have a change of location. In traditional island style, work wrapped up for the clinic and for us around 3PM in the afternoon ;-)
During lunch on this day, we walked down the street to a little restaurant known as Tortilla Heaven, home of the “Tortizza,” a small pizza baked on a torilla shell. For 30 lempiras ($1.62) we get a little piece of heaven—a small pizza about the size of a personal pizza from any of the major chains, but this definitely had a more home-cooked taste, and an unusually low price for the island. However, when we ordered smoothies to go with the drinks, the blender, probably twice my age, didn’t budge.
So….after work we came back, tools in hand, and went straight to taking it apart. It was simple to fix, a little corrosion blocking a contact, but fixing it got us not only a free smoothie but another free tortizza each. I’ll admit it is not nearly so valuable as a piece of medical equipment, but none of the medical equipment repairs we’ve made have felt quite this rewarding ;-)
At Coxen Hole, we’ve made a few notable repairs. So many times, the machine just needs to be taken out of the box in storage, cleaned a bit, and set back into action, but we’ve come across a few things a bit more challenging. One was an ultrasound probe, the only one in the hospital, which required some ultra-fine soldering. Jens and I have both done some soldering, and practiced a little more last month in Costa Rica, but I have never worked with wires so fine. Even though it’s back to working order, the accuracy is still a little questionable. So, I looked up the price of a new one online, and through the manufacturer this comes with a price tag of $695.00 US. So, if we’ve saved that for them, then I’ll feel pretty good.
Here’s a picture of us working an ESU machine, used in place of a scalpel to cauterize blood vessels during a surgery, leading to less bleeding and faster healing time for the patient. The testing unit we’re using is one of a few EWH inventions groups have taken along for the trip.
What we have encountered more than a few times is a lack of parts. Of course, being on an island makes shipping a much longer process, and the advice I’ve received from others on top of that is to not bother even shipping replacement medical supplies because the chances of seeing it reach the final destination are slim to none. It is more likely to wind up on a shelf or be sold somewhere along the way. So this is a challenge, but we may be able to purchase parts with some of the money allotted to us from EWH that doctors at Global Healing can bring with them in their luggage on subsequent trips. I feel like I’m constantly discovering more and more devices at the hospital now that arrived here this way.
At the end of next week, we’ll head to Managua, Nicaragua, to meet up with the others for the concluding conference. Some teams will present a traditional PowerPoint presentation and others, like us, will be presenting posters in the traditional conference style—with the final product setup for onlookers to roam around freely and ask us for the spiel. There’s only one week left before heading home, and I think by that time I’ll be ready for it. I’ll hope this final week wraps up well.
Hasta luego!
