Woah. Here we are waking up in Belize. Can I just say one thing? Thank you God for air conditioning. It is SO HOT here, and wicked humid. I slept great last night which I am so thankful for with our busy day. This morning we had breakfast at a place called “Joyce”. It was so fresh that I’m pretty sure they got the eggs from the chicken that was running around the deck. Post breakfast we did a walking tour of Punta Gorda. Parts of the tour were absolutely heart wrenching. We really do take so much for granted in the US. Simple things like hot water or safe playgrounds are luxuries here. All the residents here seem very nice and the kids are so adorable! Today when I was buying chocolate the woman in front of me was helping her son with a spiderman watch they had just bought. I told her son it was such a cool watch! She told me that was his Christmas gift and it was to teach him to tell time. Tell your kids back home that when they are upset about not getting an iPhone for Christmas. Unreal.

The hospital was quite shocking to all of us. Just imagine stepping into an American hospital..but 50 years ago. The hospitals psychiatric nurse showed us around the hospital and clinic. The hospital is split in different wards including male, female, pediatric and maternity. There are no private rooms, just beds with a curtain around them. The pharmacy was very small with some medications labeled in Spanish. The X-ray department was two rooms, one for the x-rays and the other to develop them in the dark room.

The nurse who guided us said that nurses are expected to do most things including medication prescriptions and treatments. The doctor is only called into town for emergent matters. While one of the doctors was educating the group on health care accessibility he told us in emergent cases their is only so much they can do. For example, there is no dialysis (Treatment for those with kidney failure) in Punta Gorda. In fact, there are only three dialysis machines in the whole country!

The hospital was pretty bare in regards to patients. For a population of 30,000 that was pretty impressive. I was told that most people use natural medicine in the home and visit the “Bush Doctor” when needed.