For the past year we here at SRI have had a goal of introducing more education into our barrio clinics/mobile clinics. And we’ve had “glimpses” of what that could look like several times throughout this year. But the last two weeks of barrio teams, this dream of sharing education has been realized in a bigger, better way than I ever thought possible.
It means that one or two of our translators show up on Sunday afternoon to review and prep some “charlas” (or “talks”) with the American team. It means that we have a few props now, like a model for breast exams, some posters, coloring sheets for kids, handouts, prizes, etc, that we organize and prepare for the barrio teams. It means that we are willing and open to learning about topics that our American teams might be gifted in teaching and then able to focus on a subject to present for the week. It means that sometimes we stop before we hand out intake forms to the patients waiting in the barrios so that they can listen and watch a 5 minute talk about nutrition or Proper Body Mechanics or more. It means that sometimes our doctors will leave their desks and come outside and talk to the patients (who are crowded under a tree waiting) about Dengue or Preventative medicine or community living. It means we’ve got to have a number of Americans willing to do “education” and play with the kids and hand out crayons and sing songs about handwashing sometimes. It means that we have to think about how we can introduce God and His Great Love for Us into every charla that comes out of our mouths.
It’s about 10 million times better than I ever thought it would be. I thought that maybe we should wait and undergo some formal training, me and the translators and leaders and everything I thought that somehow someone would tell us exactly what to do and when and that it would probably be sometime in the future when someone more gifted in educational promotion would be here. I thought that basically since I’m not good at the stuff like this… that it would just wait and wait and wait. And then God kinda pushed me. He reminded me that He has called me to be a BRIDGE all the time. I just have to connect the right folks… not always make everything happen by myself. And it turns out that our translators are hugely smart and gifted and can freakin TEACH. And it turns out that people show up here who know how to teach CPR and the Heimlich manuever and Nutrition and Proper Body Mechanics and Diabetes and a whole bunch of other stuff. Ohh and I work with guys like Dr. Sandy Valdez and Dr. Borit, who came out with us, got up from their desks where they were seeing patients and proceeded to talk to the folks waiting outside about Community Living, Dengue, Preventative Medicine, and Vaccinations.
On the last barrio team I was on, I had a woman who actually TAUGHT CPR and First Aid (like…FOR A LIVING!) in the States on our team. And every day someone else would join in on the education fun and teach another charla/talk or participate. We all learned amazing stuff from each other and I watched in awe as they and Hector (our translator) would teach the crowds. My absolute favorite moment was probably our last day. We had been teaching the Heimlich Maneuver every day, since it turns out that almost everyone here knows someone who choked and DIED on a fruit or something in San Juan. THAT is horrible. It speaks to a huge need to educate. Teaching the Heimlich Maneuver took those guys less than 10 minutes. Then we would have a member of the audience “demonstrate” and “save” Hector as he pretended to choke. On the last day, as Hector was giving the scenario and then stated “which of you can come up and save my life?”, a small 5 or 6 year old boy in the front row sprang to his feet. He ran to the Hector as quickly as he could and proceeded to attempt to “save him” although he only came up to his waist. The audience dissolved into applause and I stood there in awe. Everyone was smiling and sharing and so happy to have this basic information. And I realized that teaching the Heimlich Maneuver possibly had greater life-saving potential than the pills that most of the folks in the crowd had come to see us about. Incredible.
I’m sure that doing 5 or 6 “charlas” or educational talks every day in the barrios can get old. Folks are pushing to get in the doors to see the docs and some don’t want to hear us or the kids just want crayons and it’s hot and we just want to get moving and yada yada yada. But wow- seeing it WORK with the last two teams has motivated me. I’ve seen folks get psyched and even ask us for extra handouts to do their own teaching in their communities. Or start asking questions about diabetes and exercises, etc. And then I hear Hector preach about God our HEALER when we have sicknesses or talking about spiritual parasites when we address physical parasites, and on and on and on. It all runs together into beautifulness for me. Amidst the chaos and pushing and heat.
And God nudges me a bit and reminds me that He’s got this all covered…this whole BRIDGE thing that He’s called me to be. Just putting together a couple folks who have cool gifts that I might not and then letting me watch the beautiful chaos that He makes it all out to be. Oh and yeah, reminding me to make about 2000 copies of the fruit and veggies coloring pages for the Kids in the Nutrition Charla. Cuz- I’ve got mad skills for making copies. God is really good like that. He loves 5 year olds who try to save big guys from choking. And so do I.
Mavelin and the American educators prepping the crowd and asking questions.
Presenting their charla on Nutrition to the waiting kids.
Hector doing the story of David and Goliath.
Dr. Sandy Valdez and Mavelin speaking to the waiting patients about Community Living, Preventative Medicine
and Dengue Fever.
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The kids anxiously raising their hands to answer questions (and win prizes!)
Folks settling in to listen to Dr. Valdez and ask questions.
