Tuesday, December 23, 2008

AZ/MX Trip - Post 1 - Medical Clinic

After my semester was over, I hopped on a plane and headed to my old stomping ground of Phoenix, Arizona. While I was there, I went to Puerto Penasco with friends to volunteer at a medical clinic. The group was called:Here's the clinic - basically it was two trailers (and a third for storage). Unfortunately, they didn't have electricity since someone stole their generator. And although there was a bathroom, they didn't have running water so we had to flush the toilet with a bucket of water.I helped file medical records with the clinic organizer's mother, who was also just visiting.My friend Sean is in medical school studying to be a naturopathic doctor. We went with a bunch of his classmates and one doctor from his school. Seeing patients:My friend Maria, a speech pathologist (and also became one of our spanish translators), also joined us and worked with some of the children.And a neighbor of Sean and Queenie is a dentist, Greg. Greg and his wife Keerat came along too. They did checkups and showed the kids how to properly brush their teeth:We all got checkups while we were there as well:Pam, the organizer of the clinic, with Pam and brother - yes, little Pam was named after her:The kids were so cute!Lydia was my favorite. I think she would have gone home with me...
In the afternoon when things started slowing down, we played with the children:Sean and Queenie being silly:Sean and his classmates/other volunteers:Maria, Queenie, Sean, Keerat, and Greg after a long day - still smiling!

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