Once again, I woke myself up bright and early to go volunteer. This week was busy when I first arrived, trying to get all of the medical records ready for the doctors' arrival. After about 30 minutes of working very hard, there was nothing left for me to do. Sometimes one of the most discouraging parts of volunteering is when I am standing there with nothing left to do. I feel guilty at times because of my lack of ability to communicate with the patients, due to the language barrier.
The volunteers do sometimes tell me why the patients are visiting the clinic. The ailments range from very minor to extremely major, and sometimes the patients even have to be sent to the Emergency Room because their conditions are too extreme for the volunteer doctors to deal with. I am always so aware of the fact that these people must have very touching stories, but I am unable to talk to them and find out.
This week pushed me more and more toward the inclination to take at least one semester of Spanish, even though language is no longer a requirement at UST. Even though I will be no where near fluent, I think increasing my communication abilities just a little bit would be very beneficial to my future career as a doctor in Texas. Also, if I knew a little bit of Spanish, I would have more to do when things get less busy at Casa Juan Diego!
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