VCT Tent

(Left: My first victim of the day; Right: co-workers Paul and Grace at the VCT Tent)

I'm actually getting quite proficient in drawing blood these days. Actually, my skill has remarkably improved after P. Young left. Too bad he couldn't see me in my glory, haha (jk). Anyways, patient by patient I'm getting better, hee hee. Although I try to stay away from babies and chunky people (I CAN'T SEE THEIR VEINS!!--sorry don't want to offend anyone, but I guess I did). I'm not sure if I would have been allowed to do this if I was back in the States, I probably would've gotten sued left and right. I remembered my first time trying to stick my first patient, I kept on telling myself, "you can do it, you can do it, it's just like sticking a mouse...no problem." Yeah, the problem is when you miss a vein in a mouse, you don't have the feeling of two eyes searing into your skull...knowing that you'll have to pull out the needle and stick them again. Anyways, I think I can pull my weight these days and I don't have to ask someone to bail me out anymore. Although struggling babies are still a challenge--they just have so much fat around them! But they're all quite cute. So the VCT (which stands for Voluntary Counseling and Testing) tent is where new clients come to the center to get tested if they have antibodies to HIV. If they have it, then more than likely they are HIV-seropositive, although it's a different situation for babies under 18 months of age.