One Health One Medicine

Just got back from an awesome morning at the SGU One Health One Medicine Clinic. It is a yearly event where medical students give free health exams to the local Grenadians and the veterinary students give free health exams and vaccinations to their pets. My job was to travel (not by myself Mom!) to some of the poorer areas around Grande Anse giving out flyers to the population of people who cannot afford to see a doctor. I wish I had known beforehand whether or not the med students had HIV testing...that seemed to be the most common question I received. When I was finished talking to 50-80 people I was reaking of pot smoke and rum... not bad for 10 am on a Saturday morning.
When I got back to the SGU tents I tried to do little jobs here and there for the vet students who were examining pets. We saw dogs all over the spectrum for possibly mangy to a temperature over 107 degrees. Most just had some tick problems and nails clipped. Having free vaccinations and dewormer was phenomental, if we can save a few dogs from rabies and intestinal parasites, than standing out in the heat for a few hours was well worth it. After that I went food shopping (since I was right next to the mall) and they totally had french vanilla coffee creamer!!!!!! I stocked up on 4 bottles and did a little jig with my prized creamers.
<-- My life is now complete

Working Hard of Hardly Working

I apologize that I have not taken the time to update this blog for some time. Academia kicked it up a notch and I had a string of four tests in a short time period. However I have been kicking back and my lowest grade so far is a 96. Let us see how long we can keep that up! Midterms are in 2 weeks (I cannot believe how fast time is flying). Some of the clubs in the vet school have been doing some really neat wet labs to give 1st termers some hands-on experience and a much needed reminder that eventually we will be practicing medicine. Last Saturday we had some dead pigs and got to practice tracheostomys, thoracostomy, thoracocentesis, spinal taps, and trans tracheal aspirations. This first picture is the chinese finger trap suture where you shove a tube through the ribs and then make a beautiful tie from the skin down the tube. That was an awesome morning! Later on this week we have suture and bandage wet labs.


In other exciting news, the Union workers here went on strike! The school sent out a rather miffed e-mail to the students and faculty explaining that 400 out of the 600 Grenadians working on campus were part of a Union and that services would be affected until a deal could be reached. Well, turns out only 50 people did not show up for work and they sat out on lawn chairs outside the school gates. I had to get through them to go to the farm on Wednesday and it was completely anticlimactic. I am not 100% sure why they went on strike other than it was money-related, but I did see the pamphlet the Union was passing out to motivate the Grenadians and it had a picture of a white man beating a black slave.... awkward? We received another updated e-mail last night and looks like the Ministry did a good job of settling everyone down so life will get back to normal.

I also received financial aid so my tuition is paid for- no more free school :o(

Fish Friday

Last night several of my classmates and I went to the town of Gouyave for their popular Fish Friday celebrations. We called up a 10 person reggae bus (taxi service) and the driver gave us a great deal of $20 EC/person for the trip up and back. This island destroys personal bubbles. If you do not like people within a two foot radius of you at all times, this is not the island for you. We managed to shove 18 people into this bus (we have some very aggressive people in my class- they wanted fish really badly) and went screaming down a windy road at 70 mph in the dark. It was rather terrifying, but the reggae bus is the only way to get around the island and everyone drives like a crazy old woman...makes driving in the US seem awfully dull and noncreative. Anyway, so we reach the fishing village where the fishy streets are lined with fishermen and fisherwomen cooking fish for fish lovers. Oh my goodness it was like heaven! The food was so incredibly delicious and after a few drinks I was dancing my little heart out to the reggae. I wish it had been light out so I could get some pictures of the village, it was really neat with tiny streets and incredibly old buildings. Our bus driver ended up being kind of a jackass because I KNOW I asked him prior to us heading to the festivle what time he wanted to leave and I got a 'dunna worry white girl you go have a great time' and then an hourish later he said 'gather your friends so we can go or I will up the charge to $25 EC.' Well that was rather annoying, but we gathered up all 18 and wedged ourselves back into the reggae bus and headed out on the long/terrifying drive home. All in all it was a really neat trip and I will definitely have to do that again sometime.

Funny side note: I absolutely love having a diverse faculty. The professors I have this semester include 2 from Germany, 2 from India, 1 from Scotland, 1 from the US, 1 from Spain, and 1 not of this world. Everyone is incredibly caring for the students and all of them do a fantastic job of teaching. However, this is a slight humerous drawback of having professors all over the world, teaching us technical terms with their thick accents. Here is a sample of some of the words I hear during lecture and have to translate in my mind.

Professor Language - English

Injimes-------------- enzymes
Schlendary---------- secondary
Imblicus------------- umbilical cord
Calshum------------- Calcium
Beetah Blunkers----- beta blockers


Ahh good times!

Hurricane Season

I have had a couple inquiries regarding whether or not I have been affected by the hurricane. Thankfully, Grenada is just a little too far south for the common hurricane tracks. The island has only experienced two in the last 50 years (granted the one in 2004 was pretty epic in a bad way). No worries though, I have already paid for my emergency evacuation insurance so if anything comes this way I am good to go. If you removed the St. George's tag you just might be able to see the island... it feels that small when you live on it too. Clicky for clearer picture if you would like. Sidenote: Still do not have my financial aid yet! Free school!