Greetings from Putnam County

I'm new to this blogging thing and I just tried to publish my post, and of course it didn't work and deleted everything I had written! So frustrating.

Anyway, greetings from Putnam County! Or rather, from Palatka, FL! Or Elkton, FL, since that is the address where we are staying. Or maybe from Armstrong, FL, as that is the name of the neighborhood (which consists of a road off of a state hi-way) in which we are staying. So, greetings from northern Florida!

Melissa and I have stayed quite busy down here these past few weeks, working three days a week on the St. Vincent's Mobile Health Outreach Ministry Unit. The Putnam County Health Department has a partnership with St. Vincent's, so we are precepting under Catherine, an RN who is employed by the health department but works almost exclusively with St. Vincent's and the migrant community. The unit is a fancy RV that parks at various places and provides primary care to migrant farm workers and their families. During the day the unit typically parks south of here in Crescent City, FL and serves a primarily Latino population working in the ferneries. These patients usually speak little or no English, and many have questionable immigration status, which provides many barriers to accessing health care.

We are also working a clinic on Monday evenings which services the migrant community around where we are staying, in Hastings and Armstrong, FL. This population of migrants is typically single African American men who work in crews, following the crops and living in camps that are located on the farms. I have greatly enjoyed working with both populations, but the Hastings and Armstrong clincs are my favorite, simply for the fact that language is not a barrier and I am able to learn more about the patients and their lives.

I am also very grateful that we have encountered so many wonderful people down here--the staff we work with obviously care very much about the patients and are constantly working hard to make the lives of others better. We have also been warmly welcomed by Ms. Margaret, who is hosting us in Armstrong and used to do farm work with her family. The entire community has welcomed us and allowed this to be more than just a 9am-5pm experience.

I don't want this to be a novel so I'll post more about our out-of-clinical experiences at a later date. Stay warm while we're working on our tans :)

-Maya