Oh what a month!!

One month down and four more to go. It's crazy to think about but somehow this last month has held so many different emotions and so many special moments and has been quite long and terribly short all at once.
HODR is such a beautiful place to live and get to know people but they leave just as quickly as they enter. Here one day, gone the next. This last week, about 7 "really good" friends (as good of friends as you could have in a month) left to go home and start their lives back up. It's a tough transition but so beautiful to know that new different people will come and hopefully bring a different kind of richness with them.

This week has been particularly tough at the hospital because we've had such a shortage of volunteers. We had one PA and one 4th year med student both as our providers and then just 4 nurses. We had to cancel our outside clinic and just run the hospital. This would had been fine if I didn't have an awful run in with the PA. Most of the people down here are incredible. Most. This woman, from day one, was pushy and rude and very disrespectful. Being that I also have a fairly strong personality and I don't back down very easily, we clashed. She told me I walked around acting like I knew everything and really I was just in the way basically. So I gave her a little piece of my mind as well. It was all done respectfully but I guess I just couldn't believe how awful she was being to me and for no good reason. So I left the hospital to cool down a bit. I went to see Williamson to see if his presence would cheer me up. I walked up to his tent and he was outside eating plain white rice for breakfast. The first this he said was "CHRISTINA!" the second " Manje!" as he holds his bowl of rice out to me. He wanted to share his rice with me. He has nothing yet whatever is given to him is usually quickly redistributed to anyone around him. He's just so good. His soul and generosity are ridiculous. Such a healing moment right after such a damaging encounter with this grown woman. I cried a bit in front of his tent with him. He just kinda looked at me sorta funny.

As I returned to the hospital to grab my stuff a couple of good friends had shown up injured. One girl needed stitches and as we walked in the hospital, she said she'd really love a gnarly looking scar so she wouldn't mind if I did her stitched. so.... of course I did. She said I did too good of a job though. I'm totally okay with that and kinda proud of myself. Another reminder that this woman is kinda crazy and a big jerk face.

We've worked together the rest of the week and she's been civil and slightly nicer so it's been good.

Also, because we were so short on providers at the beginning of the week, we still ran the clinic and me and another nurse acted like doctors. We saw patients, asked questions, assessed, and prescribed medication. It was weird. I mean, I know a lot of the complaints were the same and fairly simple but it was super awesome knowing how much we were helping these patients. We would always consult a doctor if we were unsure and the nurse was far more experienced than I was... either way, it was incredible and terribly humbling to know these patients trusted us with their treatment and health. Basically, in Haiti, I'm half a doctor. Oh and the jerk PA woman missed a very obvious diagnosis the other day. I had the dad bring his sick daughter back in the hospital and tested her for malaria (which she had, which I knew she had, and which the PA missed cause she was being dumb about her symptoms) and she had it. It was so classic and I felt so good that that little girl is gonna finally sleep through the night without throwing up anymore. As I was talking to her dad, he had told me that his wife died 8 years ago because she wasn't treated for malaria and she had gotten so sick she died. Can you imagine? Your wife dies of malaria and your only daughter is sick for four days and gets sent home with a tums? I'm so glad he brought her back to get tested and treated. Poor little thing.

So this is long enough. Many more amazing things have happened but I'll leave those for another day.
Love you kids. miss you too. Besitos.