Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Mexico Trip update

Here are a few things that I observed or did during my medical volunteer trip to Guerrero, Mexico.

(1) In the US, you see Mexican on the roof, but in Guerrero, all you see is white guys on the roof! (The volunteers are fixing the roof)

(2) I get to see my first cataract surgery performed by Dr. Greg Claridy from Clear Lake. He actually met the dean of UT Galveston Medical School through his softball team and that help him get into medical school. Hmmm... maybe I should start playing some kind of sport.

(3) Mennonite (German immigrant to Mexico, http://www.mcc.org/themes/mennonites/index.html). They are very good at making cheese! The women of the clan/colony dress very plainly, because it's a sin to dress nicely, according to their religion. I examine this woman who looks about 35 but turns out to be 28, only three years older than me. I wonder if it is the flower dress that did it. But don't think for a minute that they are very strict on other things. Teenage pregancy (about 16-17 years old) are fairly common. Jean, the women that I volunteer with, joked that maybe since there is not much to do in the farm, they resort to having fun in the barn :P

(4) Polices and relatives of the governers/officials get special treatments when they came to the clinic for check up. They get to cut infront of all other people, but we let them do it because they help the clinic to run smoothly. Sigh.....

(5) Native Mexican Indians also came in for eye checkup. They dress in their best cloth and I love the color of their cloth, very bright. But the guy dress in very little clothing, maybe it's their culture, we had to ask him to put a jacket on :P

(6) Mexican won't sit with the native Mexican Indians, they think Indians carries diseases. We have to separate the seating area, very interesting...

(7) During the cataract surgeries, the blades (with plastic handle) are sterilized and re-used. This makes me realized how scarce the resources are over there.

There are other fun things, I will add more later. As for pictures, I am still waiting to send some film to develop.

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