Post Hurricane Up-date

October 2, 2010

Hurricane up-date: Some of you may have seen that Hurricane Matthew was initially headed right for southern Belize. We spent most of Friday, 9/24, preparing the clinic and ourselves for a possible storm. Len and I went a little overboard, packing things up in the house and moving most of our possessions to the clinic which was built as a hurricane shelter. Luckily we do not have that much down here and the house is small. We told the students that they could not travel on the weekend due to concerns about the winds and flooding. Saturday morning dawned gray and very rainy. Saturday afternoon however was sunny and delightful, though soggy.  Len and I spent Saturday unpacking everything.  We did get 6 to 8 inches of rain Friday into Saturday and now we are very prepared in the event of another storm.

Hard to believe we have been here for 2 months already. We have seen 2 groups of students come and go. A third group arrives today and tomorrow.  We are settled in and feel like true members of Hillside, though I still find that I have not quite gotten my rhythm down in terms of teaching. Part of the reason for this is that schedules are constantly changing due to the realities of life in Belize. A bridge has flooded so we can’t get out to one of the villages for the mobile. The PG clinic calls and asks us to help out with health screenings, two days before the screenings are to be done. A holiday we thought was on a Tuesday is actually being celebrated on a Monday.  You need to be flexible down here.

The month of September has been interesting. It started with some serious tension in the town.  A brother and sister, ages 9 and 11 years, from one of the Maya villages, went missing at the beginning of the month. Here children go along the roads and villages on their own to sell food and crafts to help augment the family income.  These 2 children were selling vegetables and when they were reported missing a search was started.  Apparently, a “witch doctor” from the village told the parents that the children were being held on the property of a local crocodile rehabilitation and rehab facility. The facility is owned and run by an American couple who are research biologists. They rescue problem crocs from around Belize and keep them at their facility.  We had been to a fund raiser for their research and had run into the woman in town and had lunch with her a few days before all this. The villagers, upset about what they felt was inadequate police response to the search for the 2 children took matters into their own hands and one Sunday went to the crocodile research facility and burnt it to the ground. Luckily no one, except the crocs, was injured.  The expat community in PG was very upset and concerned.  We have since learned that this is how the Maya deal with people if they are angry with them. They will attack people or property and it is not unusual for them to burn down the houses of people they are unhappy with or jealous of.  The saddest part of the story is that the 2 children still have not been found and no one has any idea what happened to them.

We are both working hard. Len is busy as the information systems support person for the clinic as well as student scheduler and chief recruitment officer. Due to his hard work and excellent salesmanship as of now the student spots are 86% filled for 2011 (we have room for 10 students a month, all 12 months).  He has also been working at the high school doing math tutoring Wednesday afternoons. We have befriended a young woman, Kathleen, who is here for 2 years as a Jesuit volunteer, sort of a Catholic Peace Corps. She is Allie’s age, comes from the Washington DC area and is delightful. Kathleen’s job here is a teacher in the high school. She teaches 15 classes a week, each with 25 to 30 students, as well as acting as a school counselor. Needless to say she has been a little overwhelmed.  Len has been mentoring her and she stops by every so often to talk.

Len in his "office" at Hillside

Through Kathleen and Len’s work at the school we have started to have Hillside medical students go into the high school to do health education on topics such as alcohol and drug use and the mind-body connections.  There was an incident at the high school this year where a student had an “episode”, either a seizure or more likely an emotional reaction of some sort.  It was apparently very disturbing to staff and students. One of the explanations that is often given here for these types of episode is “demon possession.”  Apparently last year a student who had a similar episode was so shamed and ostracized by the event that the student committed suicide. Kathleen asked Hillside students to come into the school to talk about possible medical explanations for these types of events and to explain why such episodes might happen.  In addition, I was asked (actually I was volunteered by my husband) to give a brief, 5 to 10 minute talk in front of the whole school (800 -900 students and staff) on the same topic. It was the largest group I have ever spoken to and certainly the most unusual setting. The schools assemblies are held outside, the speakers stand on a wooden platform with a microphone and the students stand in a horseshoe around the court yard. It went fairly well, once my hands stopped shaking, and we hope that the students and staff now have at least an alternative explanation to demon possession for these types of episodes.

Assembly at Toledo Community College (TCC - actually the high school in PG)

The clinic has placed flyers in the villages and in PG advertising that there is a pediatrician at Hillside who is available to see children if parents wish. As a result I have started to see some children who are brought in by their parents because of medical and developmental concerns. Two days ago I had a mother bring in her 1 month old for a “check-up.” It was great to do a well baby exam on a healthy infant and to show the medical students a well newborn.  We also saw a 6 week old who was brought in for me to examine because of failure to thrive. This infant was well below their birth weight and I was unable to find an obvious cause. We sent the infant into the hospital for tube feedings and further evaluation and I found myself having to convince the doctor at the hospital that the infant needed admission. When he tried to tell me that it was normal for babies to lose weight before they started gaining I had to pull rank for the first time and explain that I had been doing this for 20 years and this was not normal and the infant was at risk of dying if they did not get fed soon.  The infant was admitted and then sent to Belize City for further evaluation.  

One success story involves a young boy who had a chronic infection of his bone, called osteomyelitis.  It started over a year ago as a wound that got infected and then was not treated fast enough or aggressively enough. When I saw him he had a draining wound in his leg coming from the bone. After several weeks of phone calls back and forth with the orthopedists at the hospital in Belize City and through the generosity of Dan, who drove the child and his mother up to Belize City, he finally had surgery and 10 days of IV antibiotics. We have seen him several times now at the clinic since he got back and so far it looks like he is healing well. We will keep our fingers crossed that he will heal completely.  Our next project is working with a group in the US to get a child with cerebral palsy and severe scoliosis up to the states for surgery. Len is working on the visa end and I am working on the medical end. We will see what happens. Not so easy is the 2 year old in one of the farthest villages who has leukemia which was diagnosed about 6 months ago. The family took the child to Mexico for one round of chemotherapy, there is no chemotherapy available in Belize, and he seemed to do better. However, his symptoms are back now and the family is unable to afford a trip back to Mexico. I am not sure there is anything we are going to be able to do for this child. Treatment in the US would take 2 or more years and cost thousands of dollars and it is unlikely we will be able to arrange for this type of care in time to help them.

We have also found time to rest and relax. The month of September has 2 holidays in it. One was a 3 day weekend so Len and I finally made it up to Placencia. We stayed at a lovely resort, the Inn at Roberts Grove, right on the beach.  Because it is the off season not much was open in Placencia, so we spent 2 days sitting on the beach, resting, reading, swimming, kayaking and eating. On the way back we stopped at the Jaguar preserve again for another hike, called the Ben’s Bluff trail, which was lovely but not as spectacular as the first one we had done there (sorry Ben).

Walking from the airport to our hotel in Placencia

Relaxing at the resort in Placencia

Hiking Ben's Bluff trail at Cockscomb Reserve

The second holiday was Belize’s Independence Day, which is celebrated with fireworks and parades. The fireworks went off at 12 midnight, way past our 8:30 bedtime these days.  I did wake up for them and was able to see a fair amount from our veranda, as they were set off on the pier about ½ miles from our house. Len slept through the whole thing. The parade the next day was great. Floats from local businesses and organizations, school marching bands, and dancing troupes. The whole town was decorated with Belizean flags, which we have been told is the only flag in the world with a human figure on it (it actually has 2 human figures on it). Next weekend Len is organizing a Hillside retreat for Dan and Maria and us to discuss goals and projects for Hillside in the coming year. We will be staying at a lovely resort about 30 minutes from the clinic so it will be a combination of work and relaxation.

Drummers from TCC at the Independence Day Parade

Dancers at the Independence Day Parade