Monday morning I had planned to meet the Doctora Lajarza at the bus station at 6:50am, but she wasn’t there. I knew we were planning on going to the Guacucal Health Post, which I had been to on my first day of work in el Sauce, so I decided to take the bus anyway and see about meeting Enfermera Olga at the post instead. With some luck, it worked out and at the post I met Olga again, for the second time. Apparently, the Doctora had gone to Leon again, so a 5th year medical school took her place that day (instead of four years at a general university and then another four years at a medical school, here, medical students attend a total of five years of medical school without needing four years of undergraduate education).
On Tuesday, I met the Doctora at 6:30am to go to a fair in Sabano Grande with two other doctors and two more nurses. Along with some other people and the fair supplies (piñata, gifts, candy, etc.), we all piled into the back of the truck. The roads/trails were barely passable by truck to Sabano Grande and for about 30 minutes we were stuck in a creek bed because, with all the weight in the back, the truck tires sunk deeply into the sand. For at least 20 minutes we tried pushing the truck and shoving rocks under the tires, but it was no use. Finally I saw a wagon pulled by two bull cows passing us in the river. Nothing too surprising. But when the animals stopped directly in front of the truck, I realized that the wagon was not simply passing us—it was going to act as our tow truck! To my disbelief, the “towing” worked very well, and we were out of the creek within seconds of the animals beginning to pull. When we arrived at the health post, it was situated right next to a school and there was already a line of at least 60 patients. It was the greatest number of patients I had seen so far at one time, but this time there was more than one doctor, so the line went quickly and we were done by 2:00pm. One of the doctors, Jorge, met with his parents from Leon there. Jorge’s father is also a doctor and his mother is a pharmacist in Leon. I worked with Sandra, Jorge’s mother, in the pharmacy and helped distribute the medications as needed by the patients after their consultations with the doctors. It was a very good opportunity to learn from Sandra, who was very patient with by Spanish-speaking skills, allowing us to have very interesting conversations. In addition to providing physical help that day, Sandra had brought medications and other medical supplies from her pharmacy in Leon to help the patients in Sabano Grande. Unfortunately, although she brought many supplies, she wished she had brought more because the pharmacy in Sabano was lacking many essential supplies and very few of the medications that were most often used were in stock. (For example, Acetomenofén tablets for adults are very commonly prescribed, but there were only about 30 tablets in stock, and other medications, such as Indomedicina, were completely absent.) Meanwhile, as patients were being seen in the health post, next door was a very loud and exciting party of kids gathered around the piñata, dancing, chatting, and listening to the music. After nearly all of the patients were taken care of, I went over to check out the festivities with Sandra, Jorge Sr., and Jorge Jr., but we didn’t stay over there long because there were so many people inside, standing in the doorway, and around the windows, that I couldn’t even see into classroom. Everyone was very excited about the party, candy, and small gifts. Afterward, I walked back to health post to help the doctors and nurses to clean up and organize the post. Then, with Doctora Lajarza, another Doctora (a licensed doctor who I had met the previous week during the Panales supervisión), and I walked down the road a bit to somebody’s house, went in, sat down, and paid a couple cordobas for a piece of bread and drink. When we walked back to the school, the women had cooked everyone lunch (rice, beans, and tortillas) and were graciously handing them out to all the people who had worked in the post, along with a thick pineapple drink in a bag (in Nicaragua, most drinks are in plastic bags; to drink it, you either stick a straw into the top and grasp the bag around the straw, or a knot is tied at the open end of the bag so you bite a bottom corner and squeeze the drink into your mouth).
That day, after returning from the health post, it began to rain. Here, during the rainy season, rain storms usually don’t “sprinkle” rain from the sky, it is literally poured down and lasts so long that the roads are impassable by foot due to flooding. Since Tuesday night was one of these cases of rain storms, English class at 6:00pm was cancelled (most students wouldn’t attempt the rain anyways). But at around 7:00pm, it slowed down slightly and everyone decided to meet for dinner and drinks at one of the local restaurants: El Viajaron. Since I already had eaten at home, I just went to hang out and buy a drink. I ordered a juice, and was slightly surprised when I received a can of Apple nectar, which is as stick as syrup and incredibly sweet (I made sure to find out that the juice wasn’t actually nectar every time I ordered a drink after that!)
On Wednesday, I went to the Centro de Salud to meet the doctor at 6:50am, but didn’t actually find her until around 7:30am, at which time we met up with Vista Mundial (“World Vision”) and rode in the back of a pickup truck into the country, specifically to Los Loros. We only go out to Los Loros once or twice every two weeks, but it is one of my favorite places to go because the ride is so fun and the people there are always happy to see us and incredibly nice. On this occasion, we were going there in order to obtain blood samples or urine samples if the patients presented a variety of symptoms, in addition to performing regular check-ups, weighing the children to identify malnutrition if present, and providing medications to those who needed them. In Los Loros there isn’t an actual health post; it is actually the main room of someone’s house, where they also have a small business selling snack foods. The room is made of a sort of brick material, has two open doorframes, dirt floors, and two smaller rooms come off the back wall, with a light curtain serving as a door. When nearly all of the patients were finished, I decided to wander around outside a little bit and found a few boys, around 5 to 10-years-old, playing a game with marbles on the ground. I wasn’t sure exactly of the rules of the game, but I could see that the basic concept was to try to hit the other person’s marble, so I asked them if I could play. They responded by giggling and handing me a translucent, light blue marble. In the 15 minutes or so that I played with them, I didn’t think I was doing that bad, but I did manage to attract a small crowd of other kids and some adults who let out giggles through the huge grins on their faces.
On Thursday, I took the 7:00am bus to the health post at Panales, where I met the two nurses (Emparo Palacios and Chepito Sanchez). Doctora Lajarza had to work in the clinic at the Centro de Salud that day, so a different 5th year medical student-doctor took Lajarza’s position for the day. That night, the English class was cut short at around 7:00pm and everyone came back to Ileana’s house (it is also a restaurant) to eat. Except when we got there, all the students from the English class were there, and a large surprise going-away party was awaiting everyone, for the four Geneseo students (Mandy, Dani, Meagan, and Hannah) who were leaving at this three-week interval. We ate food, played games, and hung out with everyone there until about 12:00am, and then the four leaving said their sad goodbyes to all the English students.
On Friday, none of the doctors or nurses went out to health posts. Instead everyone met in the Centro de Salud to do paperwork, and then Doctora Lajarza gave a lecture/workshop on mother-child malnutrition and sickness. During the workshop, she read aloud a scenario of a medical case of a child to about 30 doctors and nurses gathered around. Then, she told everyone to split into two groups and figure out the plan for treatment. It was very interesting to take part in this and to see all the health care workers working together to collaborate their ideas.
That night at 6:00pm we met at the nun’s convent. Since a few of the girls taught English to children in the Catholic schools and since several of the nun’s themselves were students in our night English class, we were invited to the teachers’ celebration, in which the nun’s provided a show and dinner to all the teachers in the schools. Afterward, we all went out to a club in celebration of the four girls’ last night here. The activity was put on by the students of a local high school, from whom we brought our tickets.
Saturday was my first weekend staying home in el Sauce, and it was so nice just to hang out with Ileana and her family for the day. We said our goodbye’s to Hannah after lunch, and then I sat around reading and talking with the family for the rest of the day.
On Tuesday, I met the Doctora at 6:30am to go to a fair in Sabano Grande with two other doctors and two more nurses. Along with some other people and the fair supplies (piñata, gifts, candy, etc.), we all piled into the back of the truck. The roads/trails were barely passable by truck to Sabano Grande and for about 30 minutes we were stuck in a creek bed because, with all the weight in the back, the truck tires sunk deeply into the sand. For at least 20 minutes we tried pushing the truck and shoving rocks under the tires, but it was no use. Finally I saw a wagon pulled by two bull cows passing us in the river. Nothing too surprising. But when the animals stopped directly in front of the truck, I realized that the wagon was not simply passing us—it was going to act as our tow truck! To my disbelief, the “towing” worked very well, and we were out of the creek within seconds of the animals beginning to pull. When we arrived at the health post, it was situated right next to a school and there was already a line of at least 60 patients. It was the greatest number of patients I had seen so far at one time, but this time there was more than one doctor, so the line went quickly and we were done by 2:00pm. One of the doctors, Jorge, met with his parents from Leon there. Jorge’s father is also a doctor and his mother is a pharmacist in Leon. I worked with Sandra, Jorge’s mother, in the pharmacy and helped distribute the medications as needed by the patients after their consultations with the doctors. It was a very good opportunity to learn from Sandra, who was very patient with by Spanish-speaking skills, allowing us to have very interesting conversations. In addition to providing physical help that day, Sandra had brought medications and other medical supplies from her pharmacy in Leon to help the patients in Sabano Grande. Unfortunately, although she brought many supplies, she wished she had brought more because the pharmacy in Sabano was lacking many essential supplies and very few of the medications that were most often used were in stock. (For example, Acetomenofén tablets for adults are very commonly prescribed, but there were only about 30 tablets in stock, and other medications, such as Indomedicina, were completely absent.) Meanwhile, as patients were being seen in the health post, next door was a very loud and exciting party of kids gathered around the piñata, dancing, chatting, and listening to the music. After nearly all of the patients were taken care of, I went over to check out the festivities with Sandra, Jorge Sr., and Jorge Jr., but we didn’t stay over there long because there were so many people inside, standing in the doorway, and around the windows, that I couldn’t even see into classroom. Everyone was very excited about the party, candy, and small gifts. Afterward, I walked back to health post to help the doctors and nurses to clean up and organize the post. Then, with Doctora Lajarza, another Doctora (a licensed doctor who I had met the previous week during the Panales supervisión), and I walked down the road a bit to somebody’s house, went in, sat down, and paid a couple cordobas for a piece of bread and drink. When we walked back to the school, the women had cooked everyone lunch (rice, beans, and tortillas) and were graciously handing them out to all the people who had worked in the post, along with a thick pineapple drink in a bag (in Nicaragua, most drinks are in plastic bags; to drink it, you either stick a straw into the top and grasp the bag around the straw, or a knot is tied at the open end of the bag so you bite a bottom corner and squeeze the drink into your mouth).
That day, after returning from the health post, it began to rain. Here, during the rainy season, rain storms usually don’t “sprinkle” rain from the sky, it is literally poured down and lasts so long that the roads are impassable by foot due to flooding. Since Tuesday night was one of these cases of rain storms, English class at 6:00pm was cancelled (most students wouldn’t attempt the rain anyways). But at around 7:00pm, it slowed down slightly and everyone decided to meet for dinner and drinks at one of the local restaurants: El Viajaron. Since I already had eaten at home, I just went to hang out and buy a drink. I ordered a juice, and was slightly surprised when I received a can of Apple nectar, which is as stick as syrup and incredibly sweet (I made sure to find out that the juice wasn’t actually nectar every time I ordered a drink after that!)
On Wednesday, I went to the Centro de Salud to meet the doctor at 6:50am, but didn’t actually find her until around 7:30am, at which time we met up with Vista Mundial (“World Vision”) and rode in the back of a pickup truck into the country, specifically to Los Loros. We only go out to Los Loros once or twice every two weeks, but it is one of my favorite places to go because the ride is so fun and the people there are always happy to see us and incredibly nice. On this occasion, we were going there in order to obtain blood samples or urine samples if the patients presented a variety of symptoms, in addition to performing regular check-ups, weighing the children to identify malnutrition if present, and providing medications to those who needed them. In Los Loros there isn’t an actual health post; it is actually the main room of someone’s house, where they also have a small business selling snack foods. The room is made of a sort of brick material, has two open doorframes, dirt floors, and two smaller rooms come off the back wall, with a light curtain serving as a door. When nearly all of the patients were finished, I decided to wander around outside a little bit and found a few boys, around 5 to 10-years-old, playing a game with marbles on the ground. I wasn’t sure exactly of the rules of the game, but I could see that the basic concept was to try to hit the other person’s marble, so I asked them if I could play. They responded by giggling and handing me a translucent, light blue marble. In the 15 minutes or so that I played with them, I didn’t think I was doing that bad, but I did manage to attract a small crowd of other kids and some adults who let out giggles through the huge grins on their faces.
On Thursday, I took the 7:00am bus to the health post at Panales, where I met the two nurses (Emparo Palacios and Chepito Sanchez). Doctora Lajarza had to work in the clinic at the Centro de Salud that day, so a different 5th year medical student-doctor took Lajarza’s position for the day. That night, the English class was cut short at around 7:00pm and everyone came back to Ileana’s house (it is also a restaurant) to eat. Except when we got there, all the students from the English class were there, and a large surprise going-away party was awaiting everyone, for the four Geneseo students (Mandy, Dani, Meagan, and Hannah) who were leaving at this three-week interval. We ate food, played games, and hung out with everyone there until about 12:00am, and then the four leaving said their sad goodbyes to all the English students.
On Friday, none of the doctors or nurses went out to health posts. Instead everyone met in the Centro de Salud to do paperwork, and then Doctora Lajarza gave a lecture/workshop on mother-child malnutrition and sickness. During the workshop, she read aloud a scenario of a medical case of a child to about 30 doctors and nurses gathered around. Then, she told everyone to split into two groups and figure out the plan for treatment. It was very interesting to take part in this and to see all the health care workers working together to collaborate their ideas.
That night at 6:00pm we met at the nun’s convent. Since a few of the girls taught English to children in the Catholic schools and since several of the nun’s themselves were students in our night English class, we were invited to the teachers’ celebration, in which the nun’s provided a show and dinner to all the teachers in the schools. Afterward, we all went out to a club in celebration of the four girls’ last night here. The activity was put on by the students of a local high school, from whom we brought our tickets.
Saturday was my first weekend staying home in el Sauce, and it was so nice just to hang out with Ileana and her family for the day. We said our goodbye’s to Hannah after lunch, and then I sat around reading and talking with the family for the rest of the day.
What vivid and colorful postings, Sarah! Your narratives are almost etnographic and certainly paint a living picture of what life is in El Sauce. Beautiful!
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