June 11th

**just an FYI to the nursing girls I'm writing this blog for my friends and family so they can see what Im up to*** 

     Anyways Im doing two posts tonight to catch up :) Well the night before clinincals got really sour after i finished writing that blog. We found out that where we are staying had bed bugs!!! We are staying in "vacation homes" that belong to the panamanians and unfortunately, bed bugs are native to this area...GREAT! There was a lot in Leslie's bed/room and I found one in my bed. I chose to sleep there anyways and take a risk because our options at 2am were limited and I knew I needed to rest for clinincals. Good news, I didn't get any bites that I know of but the next day we headed off to the clinical setting. The clinicals were different than I expected. Where we are working this week is similar to a Health Department back home. They are up to date on most equipment that we have in FL which was surprising to me. I have really been improving with my Spanish and can have a basic conversation with the Panamanians which I think they really like. There is about 4 girls out of the 16 right now that are the unofficial translators and were trying to make it work. I got placed in the OB (Obstetrician) section of the health clinic :) They don't see many patients on the OB side but I was able to see a PAP smear and listen to consultations that the nurses have with the women. It was cool because I got to be in a room with the two nursing students from the University of Panama and they didn't know any English but my Spanish was well enough to carry on a conversation. Other students got to go to Pediatrics and Immunizations and we will all be rotating this week in the different areas. Its frustrating because I don't understand much but Im still learning a lot! 

the rest of the pictures from the restaurant that was on top of the mountain

Me, Sarah, & stephanie

Our clinical group outside of the clinic with the instructor

this is their social security health clinic

other students hanging outside the clinic

Me and Sarah

Sarah & Stephanie at the University of Panama library

Me, Katie and Rachel at the college library

                              this is where we took our laundry to get it "de-bugged"

The sign of the place where we dropped it off!

After clinicals we went back to our homes to change clothes and go to the university of Panama for our "welcome dinner." The director of the university welcomed us and made us feel appreciated in this country. After this we went back to our homes and got all of the laundry out to be sent to the laundry mat to get the bugs off. We were relocated to another house 3 doors down. This house still has limited air, cold showers, and some bugs but at least we don't have bed bugs i guess! The kitchen is wide open to the outside which is a little creepy lol. I will send pictures of the house later on. Going to the laundry mat was an interesting experience haha! They had no idea why these random americans showed up with 12 trash bags of laundry but we used our spanglish and hopefully we will be picking up our clothes at 4PM tomorrow! We shall see how that goes! :) They took our WIFI connection so it's back to just one ethernet cord for 6 girls so hopefully I can keep up the blogging. thanks for reading!