Half one of Nicaragua

Ok, so I thought I'd be updating this blog a lot more frequently, but finally during our spring break week I'm able to get time to gather my thoughts and make an update. For those asking the question whether or not i'm still alive, i'll say yes, for those wondering if i'm healthy I'll say yes other than the sunburn that I'm healing from, but thats a story that deserves to be told a bit later. So we'll see if I can start from the beginning, well, nearly the beginning and those who enjoy long reads can grab your favorite choice of drink and sit in a comfortable chair ;)

I think I updated when we were in Managua, so I'm not going to start there, our flight to Port was postponed and we got there a day late, we were planning on staying the night anyway, but hoping against all hope that we could drive out that day. It didn't happen, things over here are on a much slower schedule than we in the western world would like. After a day and a half in Port we finally hit the road at 6 pm. They had said we couldn't leave in the dark the night before, but I guess they changed their minds and let us leave. The trip to Francia is only 100 kliks (Km), but it took us nearly 8 hours to do it. We had a tie rod break on the way there and the second truck get stuck. Our truck is a 1948 Duce and a half. For those not privy to the military names, duce is 2 tons, so a duce and a half is 6000 lb. I know we haul more than that in it, which is probably why they break down, well that and the age of the vehicle. After the break down and the other truck getting stuck, we didn't make as good of time and we made it to Francia just before 3 am. We all just sunk into our beds and waited until morning to do much of anything. I woke up at about 11 and did not much of anything in the first few days, we were told that we could go to church, but most didn't, between the international travel, the intranational travel, and the duce ride. It took most of 2 days for all of us to get acclimated to the new weather, new abode and new schedule.

We spent the next week or so cleaning up the clinic in Francia and getting things done on the hill (where we live). The UC building wasn't as finished as they had let on to believe, so we are in the bunk houses that the mission has for SM's. Most of us had minor diherea the first week of being there, our guts were getting a whole new set of flora and we were having oh so much fun with it.

The second week we actually started our normal schedule. Monday and friday are class days where we are quizzed and tested over jungle health care and public health, Tuesday's and Thursday's we leave the hill around 7:30 or 8 and head out to the various villages and work in clinics there and do village health care. We rotate through the different stations, receptions, vitals, consultations, and pharmacy. So far in my rotations I've done all but reception. We work in teams of 3-4 in receptions, vitals, and pharmacy and in pairs for consultations. For consultations we work with either Jeff Joiner (our group leader and division chair), Dr. Lineres (sp), or Mrs. Lineres (Nurse).

So far we have been to 4 of the 9 villages we wanted to; we have been to St. Claira, Wisconsin, Espiransa, and TiCamp. In most of these villages we see anywhere from 20-30 families. That doesn't mean we've seen 20-30 people thought, sometimes the family includes all extended and cousins and everyone you call family regardless of whether or not they are family, but our usual is no more than 5 in each group to keep things going in the vitals, consultations, and pharmacy. So on a good day we might see anywhere between 70 and 150 people. I don't think we've ever seen the latter, but in most villages we do max the village out, we see everyone there is to see.

Most of the complaints are due to worms and not drinking enough water. Everyone has a fever, everyone has pain, everyone has worms. Even if they don't say they have worms we still treat them for worms, one 400 mg tablet of Albendazol and nine 100 mg tablets of Mebendezol should cure them of worms for the next three months. The other major drug we give out by what seems like the case is Amoxicillin, we have it in 4 different forms for your taking pleasure......har har har. I've mixed up way more than I wanted to in my life, but hey down here, it still kills off most of what ails people. Some people remember times when Penicillin could do that, I don't, it would kill off me if I took it, but there was a time when it killed everything, UTI, URI and everything else.

Monday in addition to our classes we also have 2 fun white tablets that are such great tasting things, NOT!!!! Monday is Chloroquine day (for those that don't know, chloroquine is a drug for malaria). Chloroquine is a drug that is taken weekly starting a week before you leave and lasting 2-4 weeks after you get back. As Jeff told us, “the chances of you getting malaria is pretty high, chloroquine won't keep you from getting it, it will just diminish the effects of the illness.” So far I'm not sure whether any of us have contracted the illness, I don't think I have, and I hope I don't ever, its not a fun illness to have from what I've heard.

I left out what happens on Wednesday's. On Wednesday's we work on projects that need to be done, both in Francia and on the hill. We haven't been doing a lot for those, but we have only had 3 of those days, mostly we don't have enough jobs to do, so we don't do much, its just a catch up day, which seems to be needed every week.

The weeks kind of run together now, in Francia and going out to the villages is all we really do. Don't get me wrong, it is fun, and if I was writing this every night or so I'd probably have quite a bit more to say about it. So that much sums up the first 3 or so weeks that we've been here in Nicaragua, now the next part will be about our adventures going to and being on Little Corn Island.

We left bright and early on Sunday morning, in fact earlier than we had thought we were going to. It ended up being about 6 am when we left. When we left it wasn't raining, but not to long after we started out it started, we've gotten pretty used to the rain, its something that just happens, you get the bag out of your pack and cover it, you'll dry out eventually, most of us don't even put on rain coats. About an hour into our drive we all had breakfast, well all it was, we each had a grapefruit and a bit of bread, then later on we had crackers and chips. We were all amazed when the sun came out, we started to dry out and actually got warm. We were all ok with not eating much for breakfast or lunch for that matter, we knew that pizza was waiting for us when evening came in Francia. We got to Francia in record time, 4.75 hours, not the 8 it had taken the last time. We all got checked into our hotel, we pretty much fill up one hotel there, they are called the twins or thats what I call them, two separate hotels, but owned by the same person, the guys get the ocean, the girls get the wireless internet. I don't think its quite fair, but its ok, both are good places to stay. We all got loaded onto the duce and went over to the pizza place to find out that its owned by a Catholic family and its not open on Sunday's. We were all very bummed about that. We found another place, but it was way overpriced and not very good food, we ate there anyway, they kind of roll up the sidewalks at night there. After a very disappointing supper we all headed back to head to bed Monday morning was going to come very fast and early.

Monday morning was a quite early morning, we had to be at the airport by 7 am. The airplane that goes to Bluefields wasn't big enough to take our whole group, so half of us (the guys) ended up flying back through Managua. We got through check in and such and were pretty happy our dive gear bags didn't cost us any extra, that was a blessing in itself. So our trip was going to be from Port to Managua to Bluefields to Big Corn Island to Little Corn Island, whereas the girls were going to go from Port to Bluefields to Big Corn Island to Little Corn Island. Well we arrived in Managua and were on the ground just long enough to refuel the plane and to go back through security. Maybe a 15 minute turn around time. It was one of the shortest turnaround times I've ever experienced. We were told that the girls would arrive about the same time we did to Bluefields, but they ended up being 4 hours later than us.

When we arrived at Bluefields and realized that we were stuck there for quite some time we rechecked our bags so that we didn't have to carry them around the city looking for stuff. We found some lunch, it was amazing, a couple of us had “sandwich con amerillo cheese” (sandwich with yellow cheese), it was thee first yellow cheese we had seen since leaving the States. They have cheese down here, but its not so good, its sour and just gross. We went back to the airport and just waited for the girls to come in. We waited for what seemed like forever, but they finally came in. They were told that our flight would be in 45 minutes, so all of them went and scarfed food and came back. In all actuality we were waiting there for like 2 more hours. About 5 pm we finally got on an airplane to make the 35 minute flight out to Big Corn.

We arrived on Big Corn and made it through everything and headed down to the dock to get on the “panga” (little boat) that was going to take us to Little Corn. We waited for a while for the rest of our group. We found out soon that they weren't coming, apparently neither Big Corn neither Bluefields had runway lights, so they had to suspend the flights. This was just one of the fun things we had to deal with. So we left and headed to Little Corn. We got to Little Corn about 7, well after sundown, and lugged all our stuff over to the “resort” where we would be staying that night and the rest of our “spring break” week. We got there and a good meal was waiting for us and soft beds.

The next morning came and so did the rest of our group and the rest of our luggage. We were happy to see both believe me. When the rest of our group got there we searched around for a suitable place for our jungle survival course, we found one without to much trouble and got the whole group to that location.

The Jungle survival course was pretty fun. We got to build a shelter that one person could stay in, we got to prove that we could still make fire using our metal match, we got to break open coconuts without breaking open the nut and letting all the milk/water out, we got to build snares to try and catch things, but overall it was a very cool experience. Since it was a survival exercise we didn't get to eat anything we didn't find in the jungle, I mostly ate coconuts, some people boiled water and had crabs, but I figured that I know I could eat them but since they are “unclean” meat I didn't want to. I also ate a few, very sour, oranges, let me tell you, think the most sour lime you have ever eaten and then go about 10 steps further sour, thats about where these sit.

I can't finish this now, I need to get this uploaded before internet goes down again. I'll upload the rest later.

Love

SB

IRR Update - Feb 19, 2010

A message from Linda Becker, VP for Student Services

Dear Parents of IRR Students in Nicaragua:

I have just returned from visiting the IRR Students on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua. They had just completed their jungle survival and their water raft survival exercises. They had great appetites and were pretty excited to complete their test and be on spring break. I took this picture and several others that we will post as soon as we can. As you can see they are all doing well!
We will let you know where more pictures are posted as soon as time permits.

Have a great day!

IRR Update - Feb 4, 2010

We are just beginning our third week at the Tasba Raya Adventist Mission in Francia Sirpi, Nicaragua. Our dorm/school building continues to progress. They should start laying the second floor this week and then begin framing the second story. We have been busy - we have now had four outreach medical clinics the last two weeks. Two clinics were held in Francia and one each
in Santa Clara and Wisconsin. Students have been busy working with Dr. Linares and the two nurses. So far, our students have assisted with several minor surgical procedures, splinted a few broken limbs, given several injections, filled hundreds of prescriptions and have improved their Spanish and are learning Miskito. We have assisted in the stabilization and transport of a villager who was bitten by a bushmaster, the patient lived!

We are settling into our routine at the clinic and our classes. One more week in Francia and then we change locations as we transit to Little Corn Island for a week of Jungle, Ocean & Shoreline Survival training with Mike Lowe. That week will be followed by a week of spring break on Little Corn for relaxation, scuba diving & snorkeling, and maybe some deep sea fishing! At least there will be no homework! All students wish to tell their families hello and we love you all. We anxiously await reports from our fellow IRR students who are responding to the earthquake in Haiti - they remain in our prayers also.

IRR Update - Feb 2, 2010

This is a note from Jeff that was sent on Tuesday:

Well we finally made it to Francia at 0300 Sabbath AM. Nice cool ride in the deuce at night. There was a lot to do in Port so we left late Friday afternoon. The duece only broke down one time, but they were able to get it going. The Milky Way was just jumping out of the night sky, very pretty.

Every one is safe, a few have started having some GI upset, but it appears to only be lasting a day or so. Our dorm is not finished yet so we will be doing quite a bit of construction work the first three weeks or longer. We are also painting the clinic in the village and doing lots of odd-jobs on the hill. we are hoping to have our first clinic Tuesday the 19th.

Everyone is working hard and spirits are high. The weather has been mild and no rain yet. We are still in the dry season - we need rain or we will be rationing showers - never good for a group. Everyone says Hello to their family and friends - keep us in your prayers.