We woke early for the sunrise again. It was beautiful. After we watched the sun rise, a few of us took a walk along the path near the Black Sea and looped back along the road to the hotel. It’s always super interesting hearing another person’s life story! Since I just finished the Perspectives course on the history of the movement of Christian missions, it was interesting to hear my friend’s story about life as an immigrant in the United States and the challenges of navigating the legal system to obtain work visa, a green card, and his driver’s license.
After our walk, we ate breakfast and then headed to the vans to load up to our next site. The drive was only about 10-15 minute and felt super short after the last several days of trips. The church was modern and it was so new the lights were still being installed. We worked out of 4 rooms on the second floor, which all had beds like hotel rooms. Our day was slower than the other days, but it gave us time to talk with our new Romanian friends who served as our interpreters.
The students with me during the day were Kacie and Julianne. During the morning, there was a gal who came in with abdominal pain. By the end of the visit, we realized the reason she was there was actually due to depression. She had struggled for 25 years and did not want to burden anyone in her family. She had receive psychological care and did not want any medical management – it seemed she just wanted to talk and have us pray with her. It was quite a moving situation as I was able to share my own experience with depression and pray with her. It was the first patient who came through this week where I personally felt like I could use my own story to help them.
Our lunch consisted of homemade meat and cheese strudels.
The last day of clinic was a great end to the trip as many of us laughed much during our day. During our debrief meeting in the evening, we shared stories of joy from the day – a time when we found ourselves laughing. We also went around the group sharing in one sentence about an encounter with someone we had over the past week, which was memorable. Between clinic and our dinner time, some of the team went down to the Black Sea to do a polar plunge into the cold water. Some of us just watched ;)
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| Lunch |
The last day of clinic was a great end to the trip as many of us laughed much during our day. During our debrief meeting in the evening, we shared stories of joy from the day – a time when we found ourselves laughing. We also went around the group sharing in one sentence about an encounter with someone we had over the past week, which was memorable. Between clinic and our dinner time, some of the team went down to the Black Sea to do a polar plunge into the cold water. Some of us just watched ;)
At the end of the day, we made a trip to a nearby grocery market where we could purchase some snacks and gifts for family and friends at home.
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| Definitely more people than seats. |
It’s been a good growing experience. Although I’m not a brand new provider, I do not use my skills often in chronic illness management, such as diabetes and hypertension. This trip stretched me to use my physical exams and rely on my medical training. It showed me a world where I was no longer comfortable with the medicine again. The interaction with patients was quite similar to the states and the non-English speaking patients I encounter in my own routine clinic day. But the types of medicine were different and trying to figure out the class of medication based on my limited Spanish/Latin and utilizing the pharmacist was a puzzle daily here.
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