New Volunteering Stuff

So yesterday I went to Rodolfo Robles to volunteer for my first time. I got there and they took me to the nurses station for the women. Amy, Jill, and Greg work in the men's side. Only Jill and Amy were there with me, kinda, today. So I get there, change into my scrubs, and the nurse shows me how she gets all the pills together, then I go with her to give them out. Next, breakfast for the ladies...but there's a catch...one of the ladies can't feed herself, so they ask me to do it. Ok, I've never fed a baby much less a old woman, I suppose they're the same in reality. More practice for the baby to come! Anyway, so I didn't want to do something wrong, and the lady doens't speak, she just like grunts and semi-points, more like throwing dead hand towards a general object and you guess what she wants, so I asked if I could watch the first time. This lady is so weird, she'll give you the craziest eyes, like she's going to fucking kill you, the nurse ignored it so so did I, so I watched the nurse and then she left me and I did it alone. Doesn't sound like a big task, which it wasn't, but it was weird as hell. She ate just about nothing and then laid down, I didn't know if I was supposed to force her up (that's what the nurse did originally) or let her lay down and leave. So I left. Later I saw her sit up again and bring the tray to herself so I went back and attempted to help again. I fed her then waited around until they were setting up injections. Watched them mix them up, I think I'll be able to do that eventually, soon likely, then I went with one of the nurses to give them. The ones she did went into the IV they already had so it looked pretty easy, she asked me if I'd like to do it, which I did, but I got scared and said another time...perhaps tomorrow. That'll be cool to give drugs, injections, the feeding of the crazy lady isn't so cool, but whatev. I talked to 3 of the patients. They all have TB so I wore my mask. The first girl I talked to is 18, she can't really speak cause her TB is too bad. She was really nice, but I couldn't hear shit. I was bored and didn't want to just approach the beds to chat, and I was cold, so I went outside to sit in the sun. Walked by one lady who seemed coherent, she was, and I talked to her a little, she only has 2 more days and had been there 18 days...she was nice, I don't remember where she's from. Later I sat on a bench and one of the other younger girls came and sat by me to chat, that was nice, we talked a bit, her husband is in Portland, Oregon and has been there for 4 years! Her kids are staying with their grandparents in Mexico, I think, if I'm not getting stories crossed. Then one of her friends came and chatted too..we were outside, I didn't have my mask on, and felt rude to put it on right when they came up to me just because they came up to me...the wind was blowing their direction so the particles weren't coming my way...so I was thinking and hope is the case. The other friend who came up has 6 kids who her husband is taking care of. I told her I was tired cause I watched a movie in my bed until 12 and she had no idea what a movie was! She doesn't have a tv at home and the first time she saw one was in the hospital! Most of the ladies in my area are from very rural areas, can't read or write, don't have tvs, don't even know about other countries really. Today I asked a random question to one of the ladies, "if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go," she said, "yes." Then I asked again and still, yes, then I asked her if she's ever seen pictures from other countries, no. I let her try on my shoe cause she said it looked soft. Her toenails looked like someone had gnawed on them for years, even the tops. These rural ladies also are really hard to talk to sometimes cause they've had no education and speak the jibberish spanish their folks taught them so it's harder to communicate, but it's great for my spanish. Being in the women's area is good cause they just love to talk, if I sit around they'll just come to me to talk. Next time I go they're going to teach me how to mix injections and probably give them, that's exciting. Today I got there this morning and they immediately took me with them to watch a procedure. It's called a bronchioscope. I didn't know what was going to happen to this lady until it started happening. They wheeled her into the room with the table and all the instruments and stuff, there was a doctor and 3 nurses and me. They had the lady lay on her side, put a towel over her head to cover her eyes, then they put this device in her mouth to keep it open which tied behind her head...so freaky looking, there was a hole in the mouthpiece too, to fit something in it. So the doc takes this thing that looked like a black octopus and hooked it up to a tv and other instruments...they were about to put this huge tentacle into this women's throat who they only spraid anesthetic in! FUCK. So I watched this camera go all the way almost into the small intestine of this lady! It was crazy cool. Then they took this other wire thing which has a claw at the end, like the game you play with the claw to get the stuffed animals, and took out chunks of her stomach! The whole time she's like gagging. Nothing much else happened today, just talked a lot to the patients, ate my snack forever to waste time, talked to Amy and Greg a little...then later I am napping forever, going to eat at the Med aka the best restaurant in Guatemala, salsa class, then live folk music at 9! Great day!