This morning I was able to catch up with Cathy who is heading the clean water project. She was excited about the progress they were making. Her aids are Scott and Mikey Caruso. The guys had a lot of energy and said they had begun with a general inspection of the spring, which is Vuelta Grande’s water source. They went about with Cathy identifying ways to reduce dirt in the water. They also inspected the water storage tank. After their inspections they met with fellow Rotarian Jack Dallies, Juan Jose a representative from Hydrotechnik, and the local water team of Vuelta Grande. Cathy explained that all the meetings were necessary to inform and get permission to put into action her plan to improve the water source for the people. With their consent her plans were to install pipe at the water source, set up a sediment trap and install an overflow into the tank. The water team also planned to meet with Jack again to show him the schematics of what needs to be done to install a UV light system to treat the water. “Previous tests showed a high concentration of bacteria and a UV light system will reduce this.” Cathy said. The water team is essential to this trip because having clean water will help improve the entire village’s general health.
We reached Vuelta Grande and the medical team already had their first patient waiting. His name is Feliz and he told me he was a healthy 86 years old. That is something of a rarity up here where most do not live to such an old age. I enjoyed Feliz and felt that he was well named considering his sunny disposition, in Spanish the word feliz translates to happy in English. Although Flor was unable to come and help translate, Joel a familiar face from Transitions came and assisted Maureen Welch with the screenings.
We reached Vuelta Grande and the medical team already had their first patient waiting. His name is Feliz and he told me he was a healthy 86 years old. That is something of a rarity up here where most do not live to such an old age. I enjoyed Feliz and felt that he was well named considering his sunny disposition, in Spanish the word feliz translates to happy in English. Although Flor was unable to come and help translate, Joel a familiar face from Transitions came and assisted Maureen Welch with the screenings.
Back at the Dental Team, they were having a hard time getting patients in the door. The morning is dominated with kids because they are there at school, but many seemed to be extra cautious and even when I tried to coax them they would smile and then run away to play. Eventually we got patients in the door, yet just as we were getting started the sterilizer went south. Tom and Jill transferred to bleach baths in order to keep things running and Walter took the machine outside much to the delight of the children who eagerly watched him work. Walter figured that the electric board must have gotten water on it and just needed to dry out in the sun, lucky for the dental team his guess was completely correct.
Catching up with Dr. Paquette later, she marveled over the story of one little girl. She had initially met her last year and the girl was 4yrs old and only weighed 12lbs. She was severely malnourished and had no motor-skills! They decided the best thing for her would be to place her in a 4 month inpatient program. The same little girl returned to see Dr. Paquette today and she had made huge progress. She had doubled in weight, could feed herself, and pull herself up! Another little girl from last year that Dr. Paquette got an update on was Wendy. Wendy was tongue tied and they had performed a surgery that released her tounge. She was enrolled in speech therapy and now because of her ability to communicate, was being socialized into her community. This was a monumental success because in this culture people with dissabilites such as Wendy’s are hidden away and not accepeted within their communities.
No comments:
Post a Comment