Welcome to Roatan y la Clinica Esperanza

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So I have arrived back in paradise for the second time. The last time I was here was March 2009 on vacation. While I was here I heard about "Miss Peggy's Clinic" and decided to e-mail her about volunteering at her clinic.

After briefly stopping in San Salvador I arrived at the small one room Roatan airport. I was greeted by Dee with a beautiful sign that said my name and Cilnica Esperanza. We stopped at Plaza de Mar grocery store so I could get a few essentials such as coffee and water. I then made it to my apartment which is amazing and right on the water. In fact I went snorkeling today and once you get far enough out there is some of the most amazing snorkeling I have done.

For those of you that don't know Roatan is a small island about 50 miles off of the coast of Honduras. It was originally a British colony and was later given to Honduras in mid 1800s? I don't know this tidbit for certain. (I just wikipediaed and I was correct). Thus, the population is very interesting. You have a native English speaking population but you also have about halff Honduran population, individuals who migrated here from the mainland for work and speak Spanish. Thus any day in the clinic we speak English and Spanish.

My role in the clinic is still being defined. For now I mostly do triage (i.e. taking BP, temp, weight and soliciting chief complaints from patients) and shadowing other doctors. Speaking of one is from London and 24 (and looks 12). And she's a full doctor. I'm almost 30 and only finished my first year of med school. Sometimes I feel a little jealous that I'm still only at this point. I have also shadowed PAs (there are two who are also allowed to see patients alone) which is always interesting to me that they have the authority to see patients alone even in Honduras and will be doing the same thing I will be doing as a family doctor with a bout a third of the training. I'm a little bitter and don't quite get it. My only consolation is that at the end I'll have a higher salary and perhaps more autonomy. I also spent some time with the pediatrician which confers my desire for family medicine- I really liked working with both the children and adults.

The clinic has seen many more "normal" complaints that I expected (i.e. headache, back pain, diabetes, hypertension). Diabetes seems by far the most prevalent, not surprising since obesity and poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are spreading everywhere. I was kind of hoping and excited to see malaria, TB, etc. like I did in Thailand, but I guess people are a little better off here in (although this is not apparent when driving through La Colonia the poor Spanish area).

I have also been to several school to do vision screenings for the children. Those who have poor vision are told to come back in August when another group will be giving out glasses. My main project will be to complete HIV testing around the island and analyze the data in addition to the triage and shadowing.

Well I must go as the internet place is closing in West End. Mis Peggy's internet at my house is atricious so this is the best option.

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