An Afternoon of Fast Tasks

Our second week at San Jose Clinic, Sam decided to take the day off, so Rachel Chacko and I were under the direction of Jeff. First, he had us making tags for all of the art that will be in the Art with Heart auction fundraiser. We had to put a square piece of masking tape centered on the end of a yellow 5 X 7 in. index card, and then we had to punch a hole in the middle of the taped area. After that, we had to loop some wire through the hole so that the card could later be labeled and attached to the art. Needless to say, we did the same as last week and had a smooth assembly line-like system down where Rachel cut and placed the tape, and I punched holes and looped wire. We ran out of wire early, so we went through another stack of 100 index cards with Rachel cutting tape while I placed tape and punched holes. Yes, it was as exciting as it sounds, but we're happy to do whatever we can to help.

After we finished that task, Jeff had us move a bunch of boxes and some artwork from one storage cage to another. Rachel and I again worked surprisingly quickly and in an organized manner, and we had that done in no time. Also, strangely enough, none of the boxes were too heavy for us to move. It was pretty interesting to see the random Christmas decorations San Jose Clinic had as well as some of the artwork that was either not sold at the auction last year or will be auctioned at the upcoming Art with Heart.

Once done with the moving, Jeff asked us to set up two laptops in one of the first floor offices. We hooked the laptop up to the wall outlets and ethernet connection and got them ready to eventually be logged into. Upon finishing that, we then had to create an Excel spreadsheet of the names of all the health care providers in their Downtown doctor directory. That took about two minutes with my speedy typing skills, so Jeff ended up letting us go twenty minutes early. Another afternoon small tasks is another afternoon of small contributions that help to get things done at San Jose.

On a side note, I should work on quickening the pace of my verbal communication in Spanish. A Spanish dental patient lost her way in the clinic, and she asked us for directions to the dental office. I was surprised I understood exactly what she was looking for, but it took me a while to think of the vocabulary as to how to direct her to the dental office. Luckily, a receptionist overheard her and directed her toward it. After a summer of shadowing an Argentinian medical oncologist, my Spanish listening and comprehension skills are sharp, but my speaking skills need more practice. Perhaps I'll have time to crack open some Spanish books during Spring Break.