Hanging out in the Clinic

On Tuesday Geoff, Matt and I went into Chureca with the goal of visiting families. However, like is often the case here in Nicaragua, circumstances made us change our plans.

As Geoff mentioned in the previous post, after months of speculation, one of the mothers in the program was just officially diagnosed as HIV positive. Dr. Lesly made it clear to me that we have to change several of our practices: 1) while we traditionally make coming to the clinic to get the milk and vitamins a responsibility of the mothers, we will have to be more proactive with this mother, insuring that she does not breast feed and increase the possibility of infecting her daughter, 2) we need to include discussions about STD's and HIV/AIDS in our weekly health talks with the mothers, and 3) someone has to locate the father, who we've heard has moved to Masaya.

Obviously, the conversation I had with Dr. Lesly and Esmo was somewhat daunting, but in other ways it was encouraging. After three months, we, as the new Manna Project directors, have begun earning the respect of the clinic staff. I sat in front of Dr. Lesly, a notoriously gruff man, and he asked for our help and said that we needed to work as a team. In doing so, he counted me as an equal, an important part of healthcare in Chureca. It was a great honor.

On Wednesday I saw that that respect extends not only with the clinic staff, but also with the mothers. Rita, Jose Angelo's mother, dragged me and our two friends, Micah and Mark, to her house to introduce us to her mother and grandmother-in-law. The abuelita, MariaJoseOrtegaMolina (she insisted we use all four names as one), thanked us for giving her great-grandson milk and told us that she would pray for us. I felt so honored and humbled that this precious 90-year-old woman with no teeth will pray for us, some gringos who happen to give out milk every month.

When we got back to the clinic, some of the mothers were complaining about the requirement of going to two health talks a month. I told them that the reason we require the talks is not to annoy them or to make their lives more difficult, but to empower them so that they have the knowledge to care for themselves and their children. When I finished, several heads were nodding in agreement and I felt that I had some friends in the room. It was an incredible moment.