Clinic Day One

San Juan Mirador

Today was our first clinic day and we traveled to the outlying village of San Juan Mirador, which

is about half an hour from San Lucas when driving. We were led into the local school where we

used two of the larger rooms to set up our clinic under the direction of the two health promoters

Samuel and Veronica. The providers were set up in one room, the lab and pharmacy were in the

other, and the nurses and registration were set up outside the building. While the first day is can

be especially chaotic as everyone adjusts to their roles and the new locations, set up overall went

rather well and the clinic was soon ushering in its first patients. While some patients were seen

individually, the majority were seen with family members - in one instance two sisters came in

together, and I also saw several mothers with young children. One woman suspected she may be

pregnant as she had missed a period and we were able to confirm that exciting news for her - this

is her second pregnancy and she has one three year old! My mom treated an entire family for

scabies and the littlest infant was completely covered in bites while his older sister asked if we

had anything that could stop her from itching for her birthday (she turns 8 tomorrow!)

One significant change from pre-pandemic times is that the health promoters now prepare the

community for our arrival by creating and passing out appointment time slots. Rather than the

entire panel of patients awaiting our arrival, the promoters will give a set number of individuals

cards which have the hour they are scheduled to be seen in the clinic so they know

approximately when to arrive. This both cut down on the COVID transmission concerns during

the height of the pandemic and meant individuals no longer had to spend their entire days

waiting in the sun to be seen by a provider. Another huge change (from our stomachs’

perspectives at least!) is that we no longer eat cheese or PB&J sandwiches for lunch. The

mission’s cooks now send hot meals out to jornadas in the communities so we had a warm,

delicious meal of beef and vegetables with sauce, rice, and pineapple.

Vicente, the head of the health promoter program, halted our clinic around 2 PM and after we

packed up we went over to the health promoter building. Once there, Vicente gave a

presentation, complete with powerpoint and photos, on the importance of the health promoters

and the different programs they currently support. After that we returned to San Lucas. The

majority of the team enjoyed a snack and drinks happy hour at our hotel prior to dinner and the

entire team enjoyed some delicious ice cream from La Neveria after dinner which you can see in

one of the photos below. While the day was tiring it was also immensely rewarding and we hope

the rest of our clinic days are similar! ¡Nos vemos!

-Sarah