7.3.13

Today was my first day at La Clinica Condesa. It serves patients with HIV/AIDs and targets Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), transgender women, sex workers of both genders, and drug users. It has outreach programs to nearby jails as well.

This morning, I had canned peaches because my stomach was still pretty angry from my terrible dinner last night. I had taken a photo of my computer screen with the route and was using that to get to the clinic. I only took out my iPhone around cops so it wouldn't get stolen. But once, right after I put away my phone, a man came up to me and said that he had been robbed. He showed me a bare wrist and a cell phone holder with no cell phone. I thought it was a scam and that a partner was going to rob me so I grabbed my purse tightly and said I couldn't help him. He said oh, ok thank you for your time and sauntered off. I was looking over my shoulder for the rest of the way to work waiting for his partner to come try to rob me. When I got to the clinic I asked someone if the area was safe or what was going on and he said that it was a scam, just not a two-person robbery like I thought. It is just a way to beg for money here. People will say their mother just died, or their child, or that they got robbed etc and ask for money. The guy said I walk past the same women every day and every day her mother dies, again! He also said that the area is really very safe. Its true, there are policemen on every other corner hanging out with machine guns. He said that the area is full of tourists and they govt is putting in a lot of money to renovate all the buildings so it has upped security so the area is desirable and the real estate will go for more. There are also cameras everywhere. On every building, on every street corner, so robbers know better than to pull that crap here. He said this was a fine area to walk around at night, too. I won't be doing that but its good to know its that safe.

I got to the clinic at 10:00 am and waited for Nathalie (my contact at the clinic) in "coordinacion" on the 1st floor. I assumed this meant the lobby on the first floor. Apparently, this meant a corner back office on the second floor. In Spanish the 1st floor is the 2nd floor and "planta baja" means 1st floor. After 15 minutes of standing in the atrium, I went up to someone in a white coat and asked if she knew where I could find Nathalie. She directed me to the office on the second floor where I met Nathalie.

Nathalie is in charge of the social programs of the clinic. This means she runs the peer-to-peer program that councils people right after the get a diagnosis of HIV, the jail testing and treatment program, and about 20 more projects. I'm still a little iffy on whether she is an employee of the government or of the clinic, but they seem to be one and the same.

She gave me a tour of the clinic which took about an hour because she kept being stopped by people and asked questions. One of the doctors didn't show up to the jail today but the doctor inside the jail had his cell phone taken away so he couldn't call her so she had to call the doctor but she didn't answer her phone so she had to call the doctor inside the jail back but then the doctor inside the jail said that the missing doctor had showed up he just didn't see her and wasn't aswering her phone because they had taken it away at the jail. This was just one of a billion crisises that Nathalie was dealing with. Somebody else needed a computer to skype with, someone else couldn't find the meeting, etc etc.

Somehow we managed to finish the tour of the ginormous clinic. I should say that this clinic is HUGE. Its beautiful and has everything that someone with HIV could want. First we saw the intake area. If you want to get tested (for free) you go to this area, register, get a rapid test (measuring antibodies against HIV), go to a group pre-consultation lecture on what HIV is and means, go to your consultation with a psychologist, then go to peer-to-peet consultation (you talk to someone else living with HIV about any doubts you have about treatment, etc) then you can leave. If you scram at any point in this process, they have your address and telephone number from your registration and they will track you down (first they call then they go to your home to make sure you get treatment). All of this at this point is still free.

Then she showed me the lab where they do 1200 HIV tests every month. They have ELISAs (yay immunology) going all the time. They also test for HIV antigens (in case you've recently acquired the disease and haven't made antibodies to the antigen yet), Hep B & C, and syphilis. They also have flow cytometry machines. I have learned about these tests in immunology but never saw them going on in real life. Pretty cool!

There are dermatology clinics, gynecology clinics, internal medicine clinics, x ray machines, infectious disease clinics, transgender clinic, etc etc etc. Oh, and this is still all free.

I am going to rotate through the different parts of the clinic. I will have to get approval from the medical director to work at the different clinics, but I have already gotten approval to work at the intake where they get their diagnosis and in the lab.

I got out pretty early today, and have the rest of the afternoon free. I went to a taco place that hopefully had non-disease-causing, non-stomach-cramping food. After I got back to the apartment is started raining like crazy! Thankfully my mother insisted I bring my umbrella and rain jacket.