Mobile Clinic: Daycare #1

Today we started doing our mobile clinics in daycares. Since the Guatemalan school year has ended, we are no longer able to work with the local elementary schools on screenings and health education. We went to two daycares today. They are both located in one of the rural areas where we went to the schools a couple of weeks ago. I have gotten the impression that these daycares receive public funding. The kids are aged 2-6, and each had about 25-30 kids. We had to take the bus out to the end of the line, and then walk about 10-15 minutes. The area was beautiful--farmland and houses surrounded by mountains!

When a group like this (strange people, half foreigners) kids seem to run out to watch and smile and point. These two girls were so happy to be in my photo!

I asked the teacher at the daycare if she would be so kind to let me take a picture of the kids. She lined up the few wandering kids, and kept them still while I took a few photos in the poorly-lit courtyard. The kids were so sweet, and didn't even complain at all!

We set up our little clinic in the classroom here. The kids were called in, one by one, like at the school. They were pretty quiet, you can imagine it's tough to get a history out of a 4-year old who doesn't know you, with no parent around! The daycare teachers actually came in and told us their concerns with each kid. It worked surprisingly well. We ended up referring a girl with a possibly broken arm to the hospital. I referred one girl to the clinic for wheezing, and a little boy for malnutrition. He was adorable, but was about the size of a 3-year old, even though he was 5.

On our way back out, we saw these two little guys at their house. The older brother was being really careful looking after the little one, and came running after him because he was running out to see us and almost fell.

This little girl looks like a little corn fairy. She went running off between the rows of corn!