"What a Week"

And I am quoting the President, because I could not agree more!  What a week!

I had an interesting professional task early this week.  I felt that a girl with whom I've worked needed an evaluation for medication.  This meant that one of the staff and I walked something more than a half mile to the Kings Park Clinic with the girl so that she could be seen by a psych. nurse.  Belize seems to have no psychiatrist, at this point, so psych. nurses are doing evaluations and prescribing medication.  The first psych. nurse we saw only worked with HIV/communicable disease patients, but with persistence she was able to set us up with the correct psych. nurse across the parking lot.  What a wonderful experience!  After waiting a long time, because she takes time to evaluate her patients, we were seen by the nurse.  I spoke with her for quite some time, reviewing my assessment and looking in the computer records of the child's previous appointments in the south of the country.  Then she spoke with the child for a long time, and we left for the return walk with medication in hand!  The nurse made a good call, in my estimation, on the type of medication.  I was so impressed!  Excellent service!

Dave, though, has not had a good week.  He flew premature twins to Belize City to the hospital, but one of the babies died.  Then he was to fly the next day to Guatemala City with an infant with a heart defect, but the baby died the night before.  The same thing (a planned trip to Guatemala City for a baby with a heart defect), and that baby died the evening before.  Dave also had an out-of-control psychiatric patient whom he flew (strapped down and sedated, more or less), which was nerve-wracking.  I mention these flights to illustrate how stressful his job can be.  Today he has been gone since early morning, transporting the same patient to two different hospitals, ever moving to the better equipped hospital here in Belize City.  He has good medics with him who take care of the patients well, but he is in the left seat, flying under very stressful situations.

And Dave had to deal with "Rattletrap," which tried to rattle its last rattle!  Dave and I went out the highway one morning on our way to the hardware store when he received a call that he would need to get back to the airport for a flight.  As the phone rang, and we were trying to turn left into the store parking lot, the car died.  He was able to get it started and into the parking lot.  No time for the errand, so we headed back on the highway--when the car died again.  This time it refused to start.  Dave called the BERT office, and they sent an ambulance over to pick us up.  They dropped me off at the Centre, which is on the way to the Municipal Airport, and took Dave to the plane.  Later the car started, so Dave returned to the BERT office to pick it up.  Rattletrap didn't rattle for long.  When Dave came to pick me up at the Centre, it must have died 8 times returning to our house.  I was pretty sure that I was going to have to push it!  We made it into the driveway.  The following morning, I walked to work, and Dave took the car to a mechanic, fortunately just down the street.  After something with the radiator was fixed, it seems that we have Rattletrap up and running!

On Wednesday night we joined Yvette from BERT at the annual Rotary dinner where the new officers are installed and awards are given out.  Noteworthy was how cold the room was!  Loved it!  And dinner was great!  We saw many people whom we have met in our short time here.  Four people received Paul Harris awards, including the founder of the Belize Zoo.  Hidden under her shirt through the dinner until nearly the end was a baby crocodile!  I believe her name was Rosie!  I wanted a picture of it, but didn't get one.  Rosie is being trained to be a "petting zoo" crocodile...well, that may be going a bit far, but one who can be shown to children and adults who visit the zoo.  She was the cutest thing!

Speaking of the Radisson (which I was when talking about the Rotary dinner), they gave us a discounted membership in their fitness club and pool access!!!  I am so excited!  We worked out last night after Dave was off call, and today we need to return there to get our official cards with our pictures on them.  I had hoped to go do some water running and get a little sun today, but it is mid-afternoon, and my chauffeur has not yet arrived home.

Next week will be a busy one for me at work.  A number of people from Florida will be here for their annual trip to work at the Centre for a couple of weeks.  We have already received from them 4 computers for our learning centre for the children.  They are huge supporters of Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre!  And on Friday, we will be going to a Sports Day in Belmopan with all of the children, including those in children centres around the country.  My goal for today was to find a yellow shirt so that I can be identified with the yellow clad children from DMCCC!

As if all of those local activities and stressors were not enough, we were watching closely about news from the Supreme Court on DOMA and Prop. 8.  We were thrilled to hear of the decision that clears the way for Jeremy and Jonattan to marry!  In fact, we spent an hour talking via Facetime with them last night.  Jeremy and Jonattan have talked with their immigration attorney, who has been in a meeting on the ramifications of the decisions on binational gay marriages.  The outcome of that is that they will be getting married on August 11 (we think--date needing some finalization)!!!  They are so excited, as are we, and making quick plans for a blow-out party celebrating their union!  The quick date poses some challenges for Dave, though he hopes to find a solution to be there for at least a day or two, but I want to get there the week before so that I can shop in San Francisco for something to wear!!  When I read the Supreme Court decisions earlier in the week, I dared only be cautiously optimistic, but California has moved quickly to reinstate gay marriage, and all looks good.  More legislation and rulings will likely be needed in the future to guarantee this right for all, but it is a solid beginning for equality!