Getting Settled In...

This morning we were originally told to be ready by 6:30 to head to an orphanage outside the city quite a distance to see some of the children there with Dr. Romero, the new Pediatrician, who actually just began working with Dr. Pena (our preceptor) yesterday.  I woke up at 5:00 am our time, 7:00 am your time, ready to jump in the shower and get to work.  I was able to grab a shower and enjoy our amazing apartment by eating breakfast on our balcony as the sun came up over San Salvador.  Minus the smog, which is a major problem here and causes some major lung diseases,  it was an amazing site.  We were quickly given our first taste of the laid back time schedule of Latin America when our driver didn't arrive at our building until almost 8:00 am our time.  It was really nice to get to know the other two students who are down here with Tenke and I during that time though.  We were acquainted with them from our time in Blacksburg, but definitely did not know them well so it was nice to have some time to goof off.  The countryside here is gorgeous and we got to see everything from sugarcane fields to shanty towns to a few volcanos which are actually still very  much active and have actually erupted in the past 30 years.  The orphanage was a great experience. Very humbling. We only saw around 12 patients this morning because Dr. Romero and I were the only people there who were bilingual and my spanish is definitely very rusty.  The children we saw today ranged from 2 months to 16 and all were abandoned by their parents and somehow managed to end up at this facility.  Most of them had experienced some sort of abuse by their parents during their early years which is a problem that runs rampant here.  The 2 month old we saw was an especially sad story.  He was actually dropped about 15 feet into a storm drain by his mother and left for dead at only a few weeks old.  He was found buried in the mud by police and was in cardiac arrest by the time he was gotten out.  The cardiac arrest caused blood to not be pumped to his brain leaving him with a great deal of brain damage and corneal ulcers that have left him blind.  He also has been treated with such strong antibiotics because of respiratory issues and has a fungal infection (thrush) of his mouth and throat that has made it difficult for him to swallow and he hasn't been gaining weight.  We basically saw him for  a well child check, and all things considered he is doing well.  It is truly a miracle that he is even alive and was a wonderful experience for me to get to examine this sweet, amazing baby and to get to show him some love once I was done.  

Once we finished at the orphanage Dr. Romero and Don Hernan, our driver, brought us back to the city to grab some groceries at El Salvador's version of Sam's Club or Costco.  We have had the afternoon free to truly get settled in and hopefully get ready to start seeing more patient's in the coming days.  We were pretty inefficient today so we are trying to work out a system amongst ourselves to streamline the process as we are responsible for getting vital signs, examining patients and dispensing the medicines that we have to treat the folks we see.  I am sure over the next few days we will get extremely good at this, we have a great group of very smart folks and everyone really want to do as much good as we can while we're here.

Just a few more details about our amazing apartment. We are situated in an area where several of the Embassies of other countries our located, making our street very safe.  There are armed guards who are on each block and apparently are stationed there not only to protect the homes in this neighborhood but also the pedestrians on the streets.  It is actually a really nice perk they are there because we have been given permission to explore this neighborhood during daylight hours.  We won't be pushing the envelope at all but we can at least walk to grab some dinner on nights like tonight when we just want to get out a bit.   

View from one of our balconies this morning.

Ryan holding the 2 month old boy that was abandoned in the storm drain.