Santa Ana

So today I made my adventure again out to San Blas! But instead of working in the clinic like I did yesterday I jumped on the back of a motorcycle and the doctor and I went to a near by community called Santa Ana. Now these roads are tiny dirt roads and that weave in and out of fields of corn and open dry land. As I was hanging on to the back of the motorcycle and looking around at the beautiful countryside it seemed so surreal. There were herds of horses and cows all around us and as a back drop to the fields were beautiful volcanoes and mountains! It was truly an incredible ride!!

Once we got to Santa Ana, my attention turned from admiring the countryside to the reality of this community. Santa Ana is a community of extreme poverty, the houses don´t have running water and the majority don´t have electricity either. The houses are made of aluminum sheets or planks of wood and are usually only one or two rooms. They can´t afford mattresses so their beds consist of a wooden frame and only some had sheets. One family we visited had two wooden beds and they were shared by the whole family which consisted of seven people. Imagine sharing a normal bed with 4 or 5 people, let alone a bed made out of wood! Santa Ana is a farming community so there are animals EVERYWHERE! You will be sitting outside the house and there might be 3 or 4 pigs next to you, 10 or more chickens with lots of little chicks following close by, 5 or 6 dogs with little puppies everywhere and little kittens running around too! In this community the animals and the people live very much similar lives. These houses don´t have any floors and most of the people don´t have shoes and barely any clothes. The most amazing thing about being in these conditions is that they all seemed very happy to me! They were very friendly and we sat and chatted with each family for at least 10-15mins. Not very many doctors come out to this community so we were going around house to house talking with the families and seeing if anyone needed any medical attention.

It´s so hard for me to put into words what I experienced today, I don´t think I´m doing it justice!

Chelcy and I were talking and we are going to find a way to collect either money donations or material donations from the states so we can help out these families and the medical facilities that are trying to keep them healthy. I will let everyone know when we come up with a plan! We can really make a huge difference with a little effort from everyone!

Chelcy and I just finished making a brochure about the importance of getting pap smears so we can hand them out to the women when we go to the clinic together tomorrow! I´m excited that Chelcy is coming so she can help with my Spanish!!

Some Pictures I took today at Santa Ana!

(Sorry I couldn´t figure out how to turn this) This is their bathhroom, again no running water!

These little boys were walking home from school! So cute!

These are pics of the beds!!

First Day at Work!!

So today was my first official day at work!!

Techniqually yesterday I worked too, we went to go tour the clinic where Chelcy will be working most of the time and we ended up staying and going to Pantanal, not sure on spelling, which is a squatter town on the outskirts of Granada. There are about 2,000 families that live in this community and I believe they only have around 8 latrines for the whole community! They live in very basic basic conditions, most of the families do not have any electricity or running water. Around the community they have a few big water tanks for the people to get water but that is about it. It is a very emotional experience walking around and seeing the conditions that these people live in. The houses are basically sheets of aluminum held up with wood posts, and most are only one room for an entire family. And imagine living in an aluminum box when it is around 90 degrees out everyday! It is really amazes to me how people can get by in these conditions. It really makes you realize how much we take for granted on a daily basis. I'm still not accostume to all of the children I see waking around alone on the streets. It seems as if they have no choice but to grow up very fast around here, it's very sad for me to think that they don't get to experience a childhood that most children in the states get to experience.

Last year the Rotary Club built a clinic in Pantanal, and the doctor from Granada usually goes to the clinic every Monday to see patients, mostly pregnant women. Yesterday we went with the doctor and helped examine the pregnant women. It is not uncommon to see 14 and 15 year old girls pregnant!

Something that was also very interesting that I experienced yesterday was when we were walking around this community and we walked by a church and they were talking or shouting in spanish tounges! It was really cool!

So today was quite the day!!

I left my house at 6.30 and jumped on the bus from Granada to Masaya. The way you know that you are getting on the right bus is because a man hangs from the side of the bus and yells "Masaya, Masaya!!!" at the top of his lungs...so it's very clear where the bus is going! I get off the bus at the side of the highway call Capulin. So then i have to get on a mototaxi, which I'll try to get a picture of tomorrow! So today my mototaxi driver looked to be about 15 yrs old and tried to drive as fast as he could!! We are talking about dirt roads with HUGE potholes, so I felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride! lol...On the way to the clinic we almost hit 2 horses, and a herd of cows that were wondering the streets!!

Once I got to the clinic we got right to work with our patients! Something that is very common over here, is people getting fungus I havn't quite figured out why it is so common but I think it has to do with people sweating alot and not cleaning themselves properly. We had an array of cases today from ear infections to pregnancy check ups!

The most entertaining case was a woman who had a huge callus on her hand from washing clothes, since they do it all by hand here. It was propably only a little bit smaller than a golf bal. So the doctor took his time and starting cutting if off with a razor blade. At this point it was SOOO hot, and no AC, I didn't eat much for breakfast and I wasn't drinking water...so what does that mean, yes...I did indeed pass out on my first day at work!!! So the nurse saw me start going down and rushed over and took my blood pressure, whihc was 70/30 and a pulse of 40! So they moved the lady that was getting her callus cut off and I was now the patient in the bed!! Of course, I felt better after I laid down for awhile and ate/drank...but that was a little embarrassing! They told me that I'm too skinny and delicate and of course made fun of me for the rest of the day! lol

So it was a very eventful day, to say the least! The doctor I am working with is absolutely amazing! He has taught me so much in one day, even with a slight language barrier! I'm so excited about working with him and tommorow he told me that I will be in charge of this one lady who comes in everyday to get her dressings changed on a large fungal infection on her foot. Most people wouldn't be that excited about this but I really am!!

Chelcy and I are starting to work on our campaigne, which is focusing on Women's health and the importance of getting pap smears. In a couple weeks we are going to be doing a lecture for these women and then the following week we wil be doing pap smears. And I'm getting the impression that we wil be doing them by ourselves because the women do not feel comfortable with the male doctor doing those types of procedures! So it's going to be all on us!

We are about to meet up with the other interns to go to a lecture on the history of Nicaragua!!

First Adventure!

So It really doesn´t feel like i´ve only been here a couple days, I have experienced so much in the last couple days, it really is amazing!!

So last night we left Granada on a bus around 2pm for our adventure to Masaya! On the way to Masaya we stopped at Laguna de Apoylo (I think that´s what it´s called), its a beautiful lake that was created when the volcanoes were former, so it´s a big crater that´s filled with fresh water and it over looks Mombacho (which is the volcano in Granada). It was absolutely beautiful! We just stopped at the lookout, but we are going to go back to go swimming and kayaking very soon!!

We loaded back into the bus and headed towards the Masaya market, which is so much fun! It´s a market filled with arts and crafts from all over Nicaragua. Masaya is where I stayed before when I came to Nicaragua last year. So Chelcy and I had to wonder away from the market to find our favorite bakery to get some pico!! Pico is a sweet bread with some sugar on it and some really good stuff inside...it was just as good as I remember it being!!

Back on the bus again, now headed towards Volcano Masaya! We pulled up to the edge of the crater and you could see and smell all of the chemicals and stuff coming from the volcano! It looked like smoke coming out but I think it was more the chemicals which made the cloud! It was so awesome!! A long time ago the natives used to believe that the volcano was a god and would make human sacrifices into the volcano of madiens for the god that was the volcano. It was thought of as an honor to be chosen by the community to be sacrificed! When the Spanish came they believed that the volcano was the mouth of Hell and put up a big cross at the mouth of the crater to exorcise the volcano. This was when the natives were converting towards Catholicism and they no longer made human sacrifices to the volcano. Very very interesting stuff!

After when learned about the history and walked around the crater of the volcano, we hiked up a trail to the highest point of the park. It was a pretty intense hike especially because we were hiking on volcanic rock, so it was like trying to climb up a mountain cover in pebbles. We had to basically slide the whole way down!! Once we got to the top we could see all the volcanoes, lakes and neighboring cities. It was absolutely beautiful!! We stayed up on top to watch the sunset and then made the trek back down.

The Adventure was not over yet! Once we got back down we were handed a flashlight and a helmet and started hiking down a winding trail to the caves!! The first cave entrance we got to had bats flying out everywhere! It was so crazy you could feel them whizzing by your head! Inside the cave entrance there are boa constrictors that hang from the ceiling of the cave and catch the bats as they are leaving the cave for the night!! We didn´t go into this cave because it is an outlet for the active volcano, so too dangerous if it decided to wake up! So we hiked down to this other cave and hiked through it, bats and other animals and all! It was sooo dark in there! Such and awesome experience! Some of the bats let us get really close to them, while they were still hanging upside down from the tree roots that came through the top of the cave!!

We have definitely been very busy since we´ve been here and we are going to continue to see everything we can!

This morning we went to visit the clinic where I am going to be working! I have to take a 25-30 min bus ride from Granada towards Masaya, then get dropped off on the side of the highway. After I get dropped off I jump in the back of a motortaxi (which is like a motorcyle with 3wheels) for about 10-15mins to get to the clinic! The motortaxi ride is a rough one!! The streets are all dirt roads with cows and horses in the middle! It is the dry season here so the roads are really dry and dusty and VERY bumpy!! It´s going to definitely be an adventure! The clinic that I will be working at is mostly funded by Spain, and at the clinic they also have a pre-school, soup kitchen for the kids to eat and a computer lab to teach the kids how to use a computer! It really is an amazing facility and I can´t wait to actually start working this week!!

Well...I could probably write for hours about everything I have seen and experienced, but these internet cafe computers are really hard to type on!!!

Finally!!

So I finally made it to Nicaragua! I´ve been waiting to come for so long and I can´t believe I´m actually here!!

I´m staying with a wonderful family in Granada! The food is amazing...obviously...and my host mother told me she was going to fatten me up before I leave, as she brought me a whole plate of gallo pinto (rice and beans), a bowl of fresh fruit, 5 pieces of bread and plate of eggs!! WAY too much food, but of course I had to eat it!! lol...So there is no chance of me being malnurished while I´m here!

My room is sort of on top of the house i´m staying in, I have a little set of wobbly stairs that go up to it...and I smack my head on the roof everytime I go up...but hopefully I stop doing that! In Granada the water and electricity goes out frequently, so they store water in these big buckets around the house, just in case. The water wasn´t working this morning when I got up, so I had to take a bucket shower, which was kinda interesting...but I´m sure I´ll get the hang of it soon!

Last night we meet up with some of interns and went to a dance class, which was amzing!! Me favorite part was when we switched from dancing salsa to dancing to the soundtrack of Grease. It was epic!

Today Chelcy and I wandered around Granada, getting stared at by everyone who went by us, and we might be heading to the pool with some of the other interns.

Tommorow we are going to take a bus to Masaya to go on a night volcano tour, which should be amazing!!

There is a volcano right outside the city, that is a 3mile climb to the top so Chelcy and I are going to concor that very soon!

Sorry for this being sort of lame, I´m still exhausted from getting here! I promise to be more entertaining in the future! ( And i´m trying to get used to this keyboard)

:) Mol