Boiling Lake and Rural Health

This weekend we hiked the Boiling Lake trail to experience more of the natural beauty of Dominica, and learn about the medicinal benefits of sulfur. Dominica has 9 dormant volcanoes.  Hot gases are released from underground, making the lake boil and a nearby valley and stream which they named the valley of desolation since nothing can grow there due to the heat.  The sulfur mud found in that valley has healing properties for skin, and the sulfur rocks and crystals can actually be lit on fire. It was a strenuous hike that took all day, which tested both our mental and physical strength, as well as our team-building skills as we helped one another make it through safely.

Sunday we helped execute a 5k run in the native Carib Kalinago territory. We were promoting the health benefits of exercise, and hope they will continue running together after we are gone. After the race we shared educational information on topics such as how to prevent and treat running injuries or foot problems, as well as how to stay hydrated and make their own oral rehydration solution from salt and sugar at home.  We also showed them some simple stretching exercises.

Today was the first day visited the rural health clinic and got to see first-hand the vast discrepancies between privately run pharmacies like Jolly's versus the government run rural clinics.  The rural clinics have very limited formularies of what they can prescribe, and very low quantities of what they do receive so they often run out and access to medications becomes a big problem.  We discussed problems associated with lack of access and variety in formulary, such as resistant bacterial infections, and lack of emergency drugs since they are a long distance from the nearest hospital. They also have to keep all handwritten logs of inventory, usage, and care given since they have no computers. Every person keeps their own medical book which acts as their whole medical history and prescriptions.

--- Erin & Jaclyn ---