Monica Venn’s Blog

Cane

Since I arrived there have been two residents here as well.  They had to return home today, so we took a trip out to Caye Ambergis this weekend to see some of the island.  The atmosphere is quite distinct, and relies on the economics of tourism.  It was nice to have a slow weekend and enjoy each others company.  We did snorkel out to the reef and swam with some sharks.  Nurse sharks that is, benign, but still intimidating.

Today it was back to the clinic.  Typically Mondays have a line of people to be seen, but today was slower.  I spent part of the afternoon suturing a young man’s foot.  He had been hauling grass through his cane field, and stepped on a stick that punctured in between his toes and went through his foot.  Not surprisingly the bottom of his foot was thick and calloused, so I slowly made progress to try to get good stitches in.  He was incredibly stoic, and his only concern was that he wouldn’t be able to work his land tomorrow.

Accidents are not uncommon here.  They range from machete wounds to car wrecks.  Northern Belize is sugar cane country, and it is arduous work.  Machetes are used to maintain the crop.  It doesn’t take much imagination to realize how quickly that can turn bad.  The cane harvest is drawing to a close with the end of the dry season.  Today was the official start of hurricane season, although you wouldn’t be able to tell by the amount of dust on the roads!  It hasn’t rained for two weeks, and everyone seems ready for the relief of moisture.  Hopefully some showers are on the way!