Trying To Beat The Heat

Thus far, 3rd Semester has been pretty cool in terms of weather. Of course, it's usually somewhere in the 90's, but it hasn't been as humid compared to the last two semesters. As long as you can walk in the shade and stay inside the classrooms for the greater part of your day, the heat won't really affect you. Like I've said before, my apartment does have air-conditioning, but, proudly, I haven't even turned it on for the entire time that I have been on the island...for multiple reasons: (1) I barely spend any time in my room unless it's to sleep (2) it's kind of expensive and (3) I only have wooden planks and screens on my windows (I don't have actual glass), so I don't feel much like air-conditioning the outside world. But, for the most part, the fan gets the job done...until it doesn't. And when I say it doesn't...I mean my fan broke...again. It's always a nice surprise when you come home from a long day of studying only to find a palpable warmth in your room that, without a fan, you can't get rid of. I don't know what it is, either the poor quality of fans that they sell down here or some sort of corrosion to the electrical wire caused by the nearby saltwater, but nonetheless, it's an inconvenience. Luckily, I have nice enough friends to borrow me an extra fan until I have time to go to a store to buy another one.

The only other time that I really get overwhelmed by the heat is when we have to dress up for school activities, which is pretty much every Monday and Thursday this semester. This past Monday I had to dress up because I had my first community clinic! Three other classmates and I were assigned to make a visit to St. Joseph's Health Center in a town called St. Joseph's (Duh!!!) about 40 mins from Portsmouth. So basically, we showed up at 7:45 AM at our meeting spot, school officials ushered us into our respective transports, and some random Dominican driver drove us to our destination. When we got to the health center, we were greeted by the friendly nurse who gave is a tour of the facilities and a brief history of the area. Now, when I say "health center"...it's nothing like what we have back in the US. Not in the least bit. It's more like an entrance room (about 20 feet X 10 feet), one office room (about the same size), and one hospital room with two beds. That's it. The nurse told us that it was actually the largest "health center" on the West side of Dominica (not including the hospitals in Portsmouth or Roseau). Regardless of its size, it was functional and clearly sufficient to get the job done. At that time, us students were divided and assigned our own patients to interview. Yada yada yada. After our interviews, we then met with the local medical doctor at St. Joseph's and reviewed each of our cases. It was a really cool experience working with the local MD and seeing her own viewpoints and assessments of the patients that we saw. She also critiqued our interviewing techniques and gave us a lot of helpful advice, so all in all it was a worthwhile experience. After debriefing, we drove back to Portsmouth and went on with our day. Over the course of this semester I will do two community clinics. One down...one to go.

Third semesters now have one week left before our first test, Mini I. So I'm sure it will be a long week of studying and making sure that all of the information that we have learned thus far is cemented into our brains. We will just have to wait and see.

Anyway, that's it for me. I'm glad the Big Bang Theory is back on TV! (Sorry, I didn't mean to rhyme)(Ok maybe I did). Have a good week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhTSfOZUNLo