The extraordinary people with whom I worked

Dale is a 71 year old retired pediatrician who loves teaching and whose CPAP machine noise actually entered my subconscious, leaving me dreaming about wave machines when we were roommates.

Dale doing a consultation at Sister Susan's home

Charlotte, an intense ER doc seemed to find the sickest patients and picked up the game of hearts quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Leah is an ER nurse and Charlotte’s good friend. She got sick the third day there and worked on 3 cylinders the rest of the trip. Despite her illness, she persevered, and now we are all worried about her, as she is traveling alone in Honduras and Guatamala for a few days, not being able to speak Spanish. (An email to Britt a few days after we got home reassured us that she was safe in Guatamala).

Jon is a family doctor from Vancouver who has a quiet dignity about him, plus he beat me in hearts.

Dale, Charlotte, Leah and Jon (Deb is partially viewed)

Norm, a lanky pediatrician from Ketchikan, AK, who had a contagious laugh and tried to keep up with the younger women during early morning work-outs.

Barb, an administrator in Alaska, was the photo journalist. She had a keen eye and an awesome camera. She even let me play with it sometimes. We had good discussions about religion and life.

Fidel, Barb, Lyssete, Norm, and Sister Amalia

Marilee, a sister who works in hospice now. She is one of the kindest people I have ever met, and if she lived in Eugene, I would adopt her as my NW mom. This is a picture of Marilee and me with our cool headbands, which left little ink stains on our heads.

Sister Marilee and me

Silvia worked in the pharmacy. She is a kind and warm Salvadoran physician who is hoping to pass the medical boards so she can practice in the US, and maybe even in Eugene.

Moises is an ER nurse at Riverbend, who also worked in the pharmacy and interpreted. He is the first person who I’ve ever seen carry a travel humidor for cigars! He has a quiet calm sense of humor and is easily liked by all.

Ken, Bob and Kent are optometrists who saw a patient every 7 minutes and gave them the gift of being able to read the bible again; the one pleasure truly wanted more than anything else.

Margaret,. I talked with her most today. She is “an associate.” She works closely with the sisters, but isn’t a nun herself. She is an attorney who works pro bono in Yakima in immigration law. She needed some emergency help in the airport with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Some Pepto Bismol didn’t help, but Imodium and rehydration solution brought by the airport doctor, did. We wheeled around together in Houston jumping to the front of the line.

Melissa, another ER doc, was in charge of the pharmacy. She was like the leader of the docs, and her medical expertise was critical for her position. She has been on this mission several times, so her experience and advice were much appreciated.

Kathy was in charge of all of us, and herded us amazingly well. We all felt safe under her care, and when she dropped us off at the airport this morning, we felt like chicks without our mother hen. She has been doing this for many years, and her love of the people, and of her work really shows.

Sister Susan is the other co-coordinator. She lives in Suchitoto, and is very liberal. She is very cool. I told her that she has shattered my beliefs of who nuns are. 

Sister Susan

In addition to those named, who I worked closely with, there were the women in “eyes” who I didn’t work with, but traveled with, and sat with and ate with. Lyssette, Leanne, Elba and Blanca (blood sisters from El Salvador), Sister Amalia,  Mary, Andrea Pam, Deb, and Heather were all wonderful partners. Pam was Deb’s interpreter in GYN. She is a young woman from the lab who is a skier, and hiker and was my ride home. Mary is an ICU nurse at RB, and has a great laugh. She stepped out of her element and fitted people with glasses all week, as well as Leanne who is from Bellingham. Andrea is Kathy’s daughter who was the resident expert on all things WiFi and Apple.  I think Heather was the only one who got picked up at the airport, because she is from Seattle, so we got to meet her hubby.

Lastly, there was my interpreter, Fidel. He was a riot to work with. Sometimes, after hearing the chief complaint, he would nod his head to the patient, then look to me, nodding imploringly as if to say, So, doc, what do you think of THAT!” I then had to remind him that I needed to know what was said. Not only did he interpret the words, but he also was helpful with a Latino insight into what the words actually meant.

Fidel on our hike the first day