San Pedro Village Clinic, 1980
This clinic built was on stilts once located in front of SP Primary School.
When I was 6 years old, I had noticed this curious building that never really seemed to be occupied located in front of primary school.
Once in a while there would be lots of activity there and then abandoned again.
One day, we were asked to get in line because we were going to “visit” this curious building. My suspicious curiosity started asking “why?” over and over again until I got an answer.
We were going there to get “sweets”. That just heightened my suspicion. It wasn’t even Halloween yet for goodness sake.
As we walked up the steps and into the dark room one by one, I was more suspicious as I watched my classmates walk back out of the room with a lollipop in their mouth but also holding the top of their arms, near their shoulders, rather tightly...
Finally it was my turn... I saw the person who was the center of all the activity and they called her “nurse”. It was confusing and while being distracted with the lollipop, I didn’t really pay attention while my sleeve was being rolled up until I felt an unfamiliar prick in my arm!
Before I could protest this invasion, she yelled out “next!” and I was being led back out the door.
I later learned that she visited the community health center once a week from Belize City which explained why the building seemed vacant most of the time. During the week of our “visit”, she was conducting mass vaccinations so going through that was inevitable.
Years later, the building fell victim to an unexplained fire along with Wayne & Jo Castleberry’s house. It was the first large fire I had seen.
A few years later, the Lions Community Clinic was established near the airstrip and many years after, the town library was built on the exact spot where the community health center once stood.
As for me, I would keep an eye on that building every school day after the incident to see if the nurse was in and I never said “yes” to anyone who asked me if I wanted any sweets since then. LOL.
Martha McBratney:
I remember the clinic I lived there when my sister Nurse Neria Arceo (Fuller) came to give her service to San Pedro our home town, it was so beautiful to even walk out side on the little deck facing the northeast of the Island what beautiful memories those this brings to me, I have lots of memories to that special place, hey Jay you forgot to paint the outdoor bathroom!
Drawing and story by Jayson Forman
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