¡¡Quinceñero!!

Things were mellow at the clinic this week as there were no American volunteers down here. The clinic relied on a Bolivian doctor or two a day with a cut back to the number of patients that could be slated to come. Luckily it was May Day on Saturday and people were busy barbequing and we could close the clinic.

This is a picture of the new crop of community health volunteers that are being trained. It's a twelve week course held every Saturday at the clinic, except this last Saturday was May day and it got moved to Friday. In the background you can catch a glimpse of one of our patients who arrived to the clinic in DKA, or diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal complication of diabetes that she is seen receiving treatment for. One of the virtues of the clinic is ability to provide long term, meaningful care to people who would otherwise not have access. At the same time, acute cases can be managed at the clinic or can be transferred to hospitals nearby, like in Portachuelo. This patient was interned in Portachuelo for observation, treatment, and diabetes education.

Mumi's son Lalo turned fifteen, which is a big deal in Latin America, so they had a quinceñero party for him. Lorenzo enjoyed the cake.

The mayor, Bladimir, of the closest major town, Buena Vista, stopped by with a case of beer and a couple friends. The road to clinic was discussed as his alcaldia had recently had a tractor groom the dirt road to the clinic. He mentioned a French experiment during World War II with termite saliva to bind soil in passing and then it was generally agreed that the road should be fixed in the manner leading up to the nearby bridge, without which the clinic would truly be out of reach.

By the end of the night things had gotten a little out of hand, as this photo shows.

There was lots of dancing and in the morning we rode the horses back to the clinic at sun up to pick up two ER attendings that will be here for some weeks. They are great!