March 9th:

 

    Our First day out in the community. Today was Survey Day! This was a long and eventful day! We started off with eating our first Panamanian Breakfast, traveled to our first community, returned to our resort and started on making "baggies" for the community people for our clinical days! 

    After a goods nights rest, my cabin and I are super excited to get the day started and see what the day will bring! We enjoyed our breakfast prior to heading out. 

                               

                                  

    After about a 2 hour ride, we arrived to our first community. We broke out into small groups and started knocking on doors gathering information. 

                       .                            .              

    Today, I enjoyed being able to interact with the community and see how similar and different Panama is to Mexico. Mr. Stinky gives a big shout out to a fellow team member named Grace! Everyone in the group that did not speak Spanish did an impressive job trying to speak the language fluently and gathering needed information! But Grace, was outstanding.....she was extremely nervous to try to speak Spanish with a community member. Once she did, it was an amazing connection between the community member and herself.  She should feel so proud of herself not only for overcoming her fear but also for the meaningful and genuine connection she gained! This was a great experience for myself to witness!

                  

    

    Within my group, I really enjoyed seeing how we all communicated and made a plan prior to starting the survey, we worked together, and did our best. Each of us individually strived and overcome a fear/concern and made meaningful connections. We had fun and enjoyed each other! 

    After all the groups finished with the survey we traveled back, but not before stopping for a little break! 

                

    After, eating and resting for a little bit, we got back to work! Mr. Stinky did a great job helping out with making the "baggies" for our upcoming clinical days as well as sorting and going inventory on medications. We all worked together to make the baggies which mostly included a tooth brush, toothpaste, flossers, soap, and shampoo. Once, medication inventory was done, it needed to be spilt up into 3 piles for the 3 different clinical days. Afterwords, we had free time!

                                

    At free time, we had the opportunity to explore some of the Panamanian environment within our campsite. We had many laughs, giggles, pictures and most importantly FUN!

                                  

               

                                                                        

    We found Coffeeeeeee.....!!!!

                                                               

      

................... A few amazing spots!!: