Observations of "The Settled Rio Life":
1) There is construction going on in the apartment above ours. Not light construction. Not painting, not fixing faucets. No. Lots and lots of banging and hammering. Nonstop 9am-5pm Monday thru Saturday. This is pretty lame. And it should be over within a few weeks. But it's usually so loud that it wakes me up. Usually I can put earplugs in or headphones on and sleep a bit later. But one of the random positive benefits is that it makes me leave the apartment for the majority of the day. So, I take the good with the bad, but i DO hope the construction ends soon.
2) Jelly shoes are HUGE here in Rio. There is one chain of stores called Jelly/Melissa and it's all different types of jelly/plastic shoes in different designs colors etc. I LOVE that jelly shoes are so popular here, because they were only popular until I was about 6 in the U.S. In fact, I typed "jelly shoes" + "brazil' into google, and a New York Times article popped up about this phenomenon here in Brazil! So if you're more curious about the fad, here's the article link! Oh yeah, and I bought two pairs of jelly shoes, one pair at Jelly/Melissa and one at a generic store. I love that I have an excuse to wear them.
The shoes I got are the ones toward the left with the white high heel print. They're flats and super fun! (I also met some really awesome Brazilians at the shoe store, and once they got off work we all hung out! It was super fun and I look forward to seeing and talking to them again!)
3) I love amazon.com, a lot. I love that I can find almost any book, dvd, cd, socks, computer thing that I possibly need without leaving my house. I love that my dad forgot to cancel our amazon prime trial membership so I can get anything I need sent to me in two days. (like the day I was almost out of socks and instead of doing laundry, I ordered new socks and they got to my house right when I needed them). But, while I love love love the convenience and breadth of amazon, I now realize that I really miss good bookstores. Brazil still has FABULOUS bookstores. They're usually charming and have nice cafes and wall to wall, ceiling to ceiling books, something I hadn't seen in a while. I went to a bookstore in Ipanema to find some books I needed for my research on Joao do Rio and I went in and the people there were so helpful. And they luckily had all the books I needed and the guy just walked up to different random stacks of books here and there and found what I was looking for. It was wonderful. And the cafe inside the bookstore was delicious too. It was international women's day yesterday and the bookstore cafe gave out cute bookmarks to all the women. it was lovely. apparently international womens day is celebrated everywhere in the world except the U.S. hmpf.
4) FRUIT. Brazil has some of the most delicious fruit and when it's from Brazil ie "local" it's cheap! As I mentioned in the last post, there's a farmers market on the plaza outside of my house so I went today. I got much more fruit than one person can eat, but the prices were so low it was hard to get smaller quantities than I got. I got 3 bananas today for like 80 cents. 3 mangos for around 2ish dollars. plums, grapes, cherries, apples! delish!! and right at my door step!! and some biscoito globos which are delicious crunchy light sweet or salty and round cookies/crackers. im going to try to now always buy enough fruits and veggies at the farmers market so that i dont have to buy much of that at the regular super market where the quality is lower and its more expensive. Speaking of FRUIT. 1) two of my roomates had never seen raw mushrooms before in their lives (i had bought them for a stir fry, and they were so weirded out...i havent shown them tofu yet...how do you even describe tofu to someone?). in general people here only eat canned mushrooms which are gross to me. and 2) one of my roommates barely eats any fruits or veggies. i was cutting a mango today and she had never had a mango, so i made her try a piece AND SHE SPIT IT IN MY FACE. just kidding. but she DID spit it into the sink. and i was horrified! mangoes are so so delicious and sweet and yummy, and she spit it out. i couldn't believe it. i will no longer waste my delicious pieces of fruit on her... (CUSP(i)O NA MINHA CARA Livia, hein!?)
5) my living situation is still way awesome! until a few minutes ago I was up with my roomates hanging out, talk and laughing and it was taking me forever to write this post and then I realized it was 4am!! so we all went to bed, but I wanted to finish this blog post before I went to sleep, so all my anxious readers would have something to read in the morning hahaha (right..). but as the days go on i'm learning more and more about my roommates and hanging out with them more and more which is great fun and we laugh about english and portuguese, and candy and spitting out fruit and besteira and tudo isso. but, they now know I have this blog and Livia reads it, so I have to be careful what I say....just kidding...kinda (é uma brincadeira, sabe!)
6) I joined a gym today!! I'm super excited to start going!! I think I'm going to try spinning, and maybe some of the other classes that they offer, but we'll see. It's not as chique as my other gym was in Leblon, but that's okay. I'm excited to see what this gym culture and experience is like.
I think that's all on the blog front for the moment. I'll try and blog again soon!! Also, thanks to all of you who e-mailed or IMed me or commented about the blog!! I'm glad to know people are enjoying it, and I'll definitely continue posting! Also, I got some requests for pictures of my apartment so I will try to do that soon. I also got requests for pictures of the farmers market, so I will try and do that as well next week. Does anyone else have any request for photos they want to see or topics they want discussed? if so, let me know!
P.S. To those wondering..I am IN FACT doing research down here!! Those books I got in item # 3 were extremely research related and are greatly going to help my research. I should be visiting the archives and meeting with people in the next week or so, and in the mean time, I'm reading my books and "prepping" and making a research plan.
But yes, the books, the fruit, the jelly shoes--life truly is paradise down here.
1) There is construction going on in the apartment above ours. Not light construction. Not painting, not fixing faucets. No. Lots and lots of banging and hammering. Nonstop 9am-5pm Monday thru Saturday. This is pretty lame. And it should be over within a few weeks. But it's usually so loud that it wakes me up. Usually I can put earplugs in or headphones on and sleep a bit later. But one of the random positive benefits is that it makes me leave the apartment for the majority of the day. So, I take the good with the bad, but i DO hope the construction ends soon.
2) Jelly shoes are HUGE here in Rio. There is one chain of stores called Jelly/Melissa and it's all different types of jelly/plastic shoes in different designs colors etc. I LOVE that jelly shoes are so popular here, because they were only popular until I was about 6 in the U.S. In fact, I typed "jelly shoes" + "brazil' into google, and a New York Times article popped up about this phenomenon here in Brazil! So if you're more curious about the fad, here's the article link! Oh yeah, and I bought two pairs of jelly shoes, one pair at Jelly/Melissa and one at a generic store. I love that I have an excuse to wear them.
The shoes I got are the ones toward the left with the white high heel print. They're flats and super fun! (I also met some really awesome Brazilians at the shoe store, and once they got off work we all hung out! It was super fun and I look forward to seeing and talking to them again!)
3) I love amazon.com, a lot. I love that I can find almost any book, dvd, cd, socks, computer thing that I possibly need without leaving my house. I love that my dad forgot to cancel our amazon prime trial membership so I can get anything I need sent to me in two days. (like the day I was almost out of socks and instead of doing laundry, I ordered new socks and they got to my house right when I needed them). But, while I love love love the convenience and breadth of amazon, I now realize that I really miss good bookstores. Brazil still has FABULOUS bookstores. They're usually charming and have nice cafes and wall to wall, ceiling to ceiling books, something I hadn't seen in a while. I went to a bookstore in Ipanema to find some books I needed for my research on Joao do Rio and I went in and the people there were so helpful. And they luckily had all the books I needed and the guy just walked up to different random stacks of books here and there and found what I was looking for. It was wonderful. And the cafe inside the bookstore was delicious too. It was international women's day yesterday and the bookstore cafe gave out cute bookmarks to all the women. it was lovely. apparently international womens day is celebrated everywhere in the world except the U.S. hmpf.
4) FRUIT. Brazil has some of the most delicious fruit and when it's from Brazil ie "local" it's cheap! As I mentioned in the last post, there's a farmers market on the plaza outside of my house so I went today. I got much more fruit than one person can eat, but the prices were so low it was hard to get smaller quantities than I got. I got 3 bananas today for like 80 cents. 3 mangos for around 2ish dollars. plums, grapes, cherries, apples! delish!! and right at my door step!! and some biscoito globos which are delicious crunchy light sweet or salty and round cookies/crackers. im going to try to now always buy enough fruits and veggies at the farmers market so that i dont have to buy much of that at the regular super market where the quality is lower and its more expensive. Speaking of FRUIT. 1) two of my roomates had never seen raw mushrooms before in their lives (i had bought them for a stir fry, and they were so weirded out...i havent shown them tofu yet...how do you even describe tofu to someone?). in general people here only eat canned mushrooms which are gross to me. and 2) one of my roommates barely eats any fruits or veggies. i was cutting a mango today and she had never had a mango, so i made her try a piece AND SHE SPIT IT IN MY FACE. just kidding. but she DID spit it into the sink. and i was horrified! mangoes are so so delicious and sweet and yummy, and she spit it out. i couldn't believe it. i will no longer waste my delicious pieces of fruit on her... (CUSP(i)O NA MINHA CARA Livia, hein!?)
5) my living situation is still way awesome! until a few minutes ago I was up with my roomates hanging out, talk and laughing and it was taking me forever to write this post and then I realized it was 4am!! so we all went to bed, but I wanted to finish this blog post before I went to sleep, so all my anxious readers would have something to read in the morning hahaha (right..). but as the days go on i'm learning more and more about my roommates and hanging out with them more and more which is great fun and we laugh about english and portuguese, and candy and spitting out fruit and besteira and tudo isso. but, they now know I have this blog and Livia reads it, so I have to be careful what I say....just kidding...kinda (é uma brincadeira, sabe!)
6) I joined a gym today!! I'm super excited to start going!! I think I'm going to try spinning, and maybe some of the other classes that they offer, but we'll see. It's not as chique as my other gym was in Leblon, but that's okay. I'm excited to see what this gym culture and experience is like.
I think that's all on the blog front for the moment. I'll try and blog again soon!! Also, thanks to all of you who e-mailed or IMed me or commented about the blog!! I'm glad to know people are enjoying it, and I'll definitely continue posting! Also, I got some requests for pictures of my apartment so I will try to do that soon. I also got requests for pictures of the farmers market, so I will try and do that as well next week. Does anyone else have any request for photos they want to see or topics they want discussed? if so, let me know!
P.S. To those wondering..I am IN FACT doing research down here!! Those books I got in item # 3 were extremely research related and are greatly going to help my research. I should be visiting the archives and meeting with people in the next week or so, and in the mean time, I'm reading my books and "prepping" and making a research plan.
But yes, the books, the fruit, the jelly shoes--life truly is paradise down here.
12 comments:
Hi!! :)
1) Mars was good practice apparently. JK! I like your good attitude though about getting out and about!
2) Link does not work. :( And how do you just "meet Brazilians at a shoe store"????
3) Would like to request photos of bookstores, because I miss bookstore/cafe culture.
4) Henning was the same way with fruit. His mom fed him like apples, bananas, oranges and nothing else fruit-wise. Unless steak & potatoes are fruits. Ew.
5) What is besteira?
6) Excited to hear about the gym!
7) I love the blogging in numbers!! Spoken as a true engineer I suppose... sigh.
8) Would also love to see pictures with YOU in them. So we can all be sure it's you that's posting and not some poser.
LOVE YOU.
-S
Hi Friend!
1) Hahah back in Mars I didn't know about earplugs
2) Link should be fixed. Let me know if it works. I'll tell you this story when we skype next, since it's kind of long hahah
3)Will do!
4) hahah yes..a friend of mine who I told the story to said my roomate didnt deserve to live in the tropics
5) besteira can technically be "shit", "Crap" or "junk food"
6)im excited to go to my gym! hahah
7) me too, its much easier for me
8)hahaha that will be more challenging, but I shall try!
beijosssss
BWAB
Ok, so I'm actually not still in Nicaragua, but that is because it was basically a living hell (not really, I had a lot of fun, but in a lot of respects, it was hell). For those of you who don't know, this a BWAB (blog within a blog) post. Basically I led a medical service trip to Nicaragua and the following is an account of what happened.
DAY 1
1) (numbers do help) Flights
So I got up at 3AM to catch our 5AM flight to Houston and on to Nicaragua. Things couldn't have worked out any better. Everyone arrived in plenty of time and the souvenir store even opened up before we boarded so I was able to get my gift for my host family in Omaha (and not from the Managua airport like I did last year). I got Carmen Delia (our host) an Omaha mug b/c I love drinking her coffee but she lacks interesting mugs). We easily made our connection in Houston and practically waltzed through customs and were greated by Carmen (for San Marcos side) and Patricia (for Managua side) - our group splits in two and one deals mainly with the urban poor in Managua and the other with the rural poor in the state of Carazo.
2) Ministerio de Salud (MINSA)
We ate lunch at the Best Western across from the airport and people, especially Dani (our 50 year old nurse practitioner student), could not get over how nice Nicaragua was with lovely flowers and air conditioning. FORESHADOWING - If I go back, our first stop will not be the Best Western across from the airport. It will be the hot, smelly mall we went to last year with little pickpocketing urchins. After lunch we had to go be trained by MINSA. One thing I like about our Nicaragua trip is that it is through the government. One of my concerns with going through an NGO or church group is that it may not be providing the most necessary services to the people and may even be counterproductive. With the government, we are at least working with their agenda and not our own. We got a presentation on the Nicaraguan vaccination schedule and then had to demonstrate our own vaccination proficiency. I was the first to get a shot (in my lateral rectus aka leg) and was most unpleasantly surprised that it was sterile water and not saline that was in the injection. For those of you who have not received a water injection, it is horrendously painful and, since it is not isotonic to your bodily fluids, causes cell death and shooting pain for hours afterwards.
3) Touring Managua
After our lovely time with MINSA, we went on a little tour of Managua which was maybe a bit of a shock to some of our participants who had expected the rest of the country to be like the Best Western. They were alarmed by the trash burning in the streets and the shacks that most people live in. We drove past the old cathedral which was beautiful, but crumbling (it has been abandoned since an earthquake and war destroyed most of Managua in the 70s). It was also plastered with government propaganda proclaiming the glory of the Frente Sandinista. We next stopped by the new cathedral, which attempts a more modern look, but was definitely not constructed by the most famed of modern architects. It is essentially a cube of concrete with something an egg carton roof. The inside is painted a gaudy purple and yellow and there is a prominent plaque in the back thanking Domino's Pizza for funding the new cathedral.
4) San Marcos
6 of us split up and hopped on the bus to San Marcos, a small town about an 1 1/2 from Managua in the state of Carazo where we stay with Carmen Delia, a nurse who may be the most awesome person in the planet. She lives in what would be considered a shack by American standards, but is actually solidly middle class. Her house doesn't have a roof except over the sleeping quarters and water only runs at certain times during the day, but it is well kept and homey. The students who came with me were somewhat shocked, but warmed up pretty quickly, especially when we had dinner which is always delicious (we had Gallo Pinto, which is a rice/bean/onion mix, tostones, which are fried, smashed plantains, and fruit juice). That is basically all for day one. I hope it wasn't too long. Future posts will be shorter.
Chris
Chris, I liked the numbers and BWAB.
Hannah, when are we skyping?
BWAB
DAY 2
1) More MINSA
We got up and had our customary breakfast of a mound of fresh fruit and coffee which I really miss right now, then we drove back to Managua for another presentation about epidemiology and disease in Nicaragua. Our presenter was a doctor I had met last year, but he seemed particularly stylish this year so I asked Carmen about him. Apparently he is a member of the Frente Sandinista and had recently received a high paying gov't post. Since his rise to power, he has divorced his wife, married a younger woman, moved into a mansion, and fired all of his non-Sandinista workers. So it goes in Nicaragua... Another thing I noticed at our meeting as I was compulsively counting our students is that we were lacking one. That one happened to be our nurse practitioner student. She apparently had something of a mental breakdown the night before after arriving at her host family's home. She flew into a fit of rage and blamed us for not preparing her for the squalor and heat of Nicaragua and she blamed Nicaragua for its sorry condition. She raved for an hour or so before demanding to be put on the next flight out. We talked some reason into her and put her in the Best Western by the airport for the night hoping that she was merely dehydrated and would regain her senses by morning.
2) Masaya
Our dear NP student did recover over night and was ready to continue her Nicaraguan adventure the next day provided that she join my group in San Marcos. Though not pleased, I agreed, as the Managua group had more than their fair share of crazies (another girl in Managua had cried herself to sleep the first night out of fear of bugs). We began our tourist day by driving to Masaya and touring the touristy market down there. I didn't get anything b/c I spent most of the time mediating the NP students transfer to San Marcos w/o having to give up one of my students. The market there is overpriced anyway and was pretty uneventful.
3) Granada
Our trip next took us down to Granada, the stately old conservative capital of Nicaragua. We ate lunch at a fish restaurant where I ate a whole fish and was once again appalled at the lack of adventure in our group who expressed complete disgust at my lunch choice. The restaurant sits on the Lake of Nicaragua and offers boat tours of the lake, so we decided to head out onto the lake. The lake is filled with little islands with mansions peopled by the rich and famous of Nicaragua and Texas. The largest island is owned by the Flor de Cana (Nicaragua's premiere rum) barons and comes complete with a helipad. The lake is also home to the world's only freshwater sharks and an island populated by four monkeys kept alive mainly by tourist boats. We pulled up to the islands and tried to coax either Lucy or Michael Jackson (a black monkey with a white face) onto our boat. We had the bad luck of luring Peter, an angry monkey with part of his tail missing onto our boat. Our guide was quite alarmed and started throwing things at Peter who made threatening gestures and howling noises at us before being smacked across the face with a banana and leaving the boat. After our run-in with Peter, we decided to end our boat trip and head into Granada itself. I climbed a bell tower where I met a Danish woman and had a conversation in Norwegian. Then we had dinner at a delicious grill sort of place. (There was no alcohol of course, b/c our "chaperones" still see themselves as "chaperones" and us as children, but more to come on this later). We packed up the NP students stuff in the San Marcos van and had an uneventful drive back to Carazo.
BWAB
DAY 3
1) Work
So we finally got around to working on our 3rd day in Nicaragua. Our first assignment in Nicaragua was the vaccination of a school. We had our delicious breakfast and piled into the minibus. We drove to Diriamba where the regional Health Center is located. The Health Center is most impressive and, as usual in Nicaragua, not in a good way. It is small and horribly crowded. It is literally impossible to make it down the hallway because there is a mass of people very reluctant to move lest they lose their place in line. The administrative rooms are composed of stacks of files and some overworked woman behind a desk. We stopped there to pick up our vaccines and some nurses, then headed out to the school. Kids in Nicaragua go to school in two groups, one from 7-12 and the other from 12-5, so we got there around 9 to tackle the first group. We handed out Albendazole (antiparasite), vitamin A, iron, and gave tetanus/diphtheria shots. We split into groups of 3 and tackled about 500 kids in the ensuing 3 hours. The teacher really made a difference in how the kids reacted. A good one would have the kids stand up and say hello when we entered the room and then line up peacefully to get their shots. You could immediately tell a bad one by the shreak let out by the kids when we entered the room. In those rooms, it was more like herding cats to give kids vaccines. We would get the more docile ones first, then wait for the mean kids to point out and drag some poor, crying vaccine-dodger to our needles. This went on until lunch which our host mom had packed for us. We took a breather and then started in on the afternoon kids. It was exhausting, but pretty uneventful.
2) Exploring San Marcos
We ended up vaccinating over 1000 kids and everyone was pretty tired, so we headed to the San Marcos main square for some Eskimo (ice cream). I went down these cement slides in the square which were amazingly fast if you used cardboard. At the Eskimo store, I got fig and coconut ice cream. It ranks among the best ice cream I've ever had and I will make it my life quest to find more fig ice cream. After that, we went to Pali which is a WalMart affiliate in Nicaragua. It is about 1000 times smaller but has the same feel. We picked up some water and basically bought the store out of cookies. I got Fibra y Miel (some damn good graham crackers) and "Bob Esponja" con Fresa cookies. Both were fabulous and sustained me through the hot days to come.
BWAB
DAY 4
1) Pap smears!
On Day 4, we went through our usual morning ritual and picked up the nurses at the clinic and took them to a beach town for pap smear day! Ne'er have I set up clinic in a cooler spot. It was an abandoned hotel overlooking the ocean with a constant resfreshing breeze. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the hot, stagnant pap room all day helping out and translating. But it was still pretty cool. I will highlight some of the more exciting paps. The first was not really a pap at all. That is b/c one was impossible on this woman, mainly b/c her bladder was prolapsing out her vagina. That's right women, don't let this happen to you. If you get a hysterectomy, get your bladder attached to your abdominal wall or your bladder might decide to wander outside of you body. Another exciting one also never ended up getting a pap smear. That's b/c she was on her period... And I mean blood literally poured out and got all over our exam table. I was just stunned. I'm not really sure what could possess you to think we could do a meaningful exam when you have blood spraying out of your vagina. Anyway, we also had a woman with such a foul yeast infection that we had to use several specula to help drag out all of the secretions. We did have some legitimately interesting ones, however. We had a pregnant woman who had no idea how far along she was, so we did all of these measurements and listened to the heartbeat and decided she was 25 weeks. We also had some sad ones with polyps that were probably cancerous that could have been prevented with earlier screening. All-in-all we did about 30 pap smears that day and I have about had my fill of Nicaraguan vaginas.
2) Beach
So after we got to go to the beach! The weather was sunny and that perfect temperature/humidity when you can't really tell that it is any temperature. The water was warm and the waves were big enough to be exciting, but not too big as to be frightening. We hung out in hammocks and sipped fanta (b/c again alcohol is forbidden...). While were at the beach, we witnessed a horrendous dog fight. One dog had its jaws around another neck and the other was making the most horrifying noises ever that will probably haunt my dreams for years to come. Some locals come up and dumped water up the nostrils of the offending dog to force it to let go and allowed the other dog to run away, so it had a happy ending sort of.
3) Fiasco #1 (or 2 if you count the first day)
We drove back to San Marcos, had a delicious dinner, and were settling down for bed when our dear NP student who caused such a fuss the first day starts banging on her door. I come check it out and discover she has locked herself out. Being Nicaragua, there is only one key and it is firmly entrenched within the locked room. There is, however, about a 6 inch gap between the door and the roof that may just fit a small child. So at 10PM, I found myself running through the streets of San Marcos searching for a child small enough to fit, but large enough to not break when we drop him on the other side. I eventually find a suitable one, bring him back, and discover he doesn't quite fit. So we resort to Plan B, which involved using a hammer and crowbar to tear away at the cement around the window and remove the iron grate from the window. The child was then able to slip through the window and unlock the door and another adventure drew to a close.
BWAB
DAY 5
1) The Baptist Clinic
On our 3rd work day, we went to a clinic supported by a Baptist church in the US which had been entreatying us for the last couple of years to come and perform pap smears and give vaccinations at their clinic. Because of this, we came prepared to have a busy day and decided to set up 2 pap rooms: one headed by Carmen and the other by me. To our disappointment, however, very few people showed up to clinic. We only did about 8 paps and vaccinated a dozen or so people. Some of us also drew blood for HIV testing (without gloves b/c the lab techs there think gloves interfere with finding a good vein). One of us also helped out with a surgery to remove a lipoma from a man's groin. During the surgery, though, the power went out (as it frequently does in Nicaragua) and I had to hold a flashlight for the rest of the surgery. At some point in the day, a tarantula decided to visit us in the clinic. It was enormous and just sort of sat there on the wall minding its own business. I would have let it be had not Carmen noticed it and pronounced it to be a biting tarantula and proceed to whack it with a broom. We caught that on video just in case anyone wants to see the death of a tarantula. Shortly afterwards, we decided our work was done at the clinic and decided to head out.
2) Tourism
With our free afternoon, we decided to head back to Masaya, but go to a non-tourist market. It was a lot more like the markets in Morocco (aka dark, narrow alleys with dead animals, leather goods, and people shoved into very tight quarters). I got a tostones (fried, smashed plantains) maker. After we went to a potter and watched him make some ceramics. Then we basically robbed him. You could get a large ceramic bowl for $5. I got two crazy turtle mugs for $3. Our last stop of the day was an overlook over a volcanic lake at a bar owned by Carmen's family. This being my side of the trip and St. Patrick's Day, we made full use of the bar and sampled the local beers. We even got our doctor chaperone to dance with Carmen.
3) St. Patrick's Day Party!
We got back to San Marcos and decided we need to continue the fiesta and share some of our culture with the Nicaraguans, so we went to Pali and bought some beer (Victoria and Tona are the two beers down there) and Flor de Cana. We pulled a table out into the street and start the cultural exchange. All of the sudden some old, old man comes wandering out of the dark with a guitar and joins us. He was originally from Venezuela and had wandered all over the region with his guitar and used to play with some famous Venezuelan singer. He was a blast. He was about 9,000 years old and sang all of these old comical songs as well as boleros and the anthem of the Spanish fascists ("Cara al Sol", which I requested...). We were just having a great time until we noticed the NP student wasn't there. We went to find her and what did we find? She was locked out of her room again! Yes, for the 2nd night in a row we had to chisel the cement off her window and rip out the iron grate (for it had been replaced and cemented over earlier that morning). At that point we just laughed about it and carried on, but it was yet another example of how incompetent this woman was and a taste of the headache she was about to cause us.
BWAB
DAY 6/7 (These days sort of blended together...)
1) Leon
This was our last day in Nicaragua, so we spent it doing some more tourist activities. We drove up to the old liberal capital of Nicaragua, Leon, to see the cathedral and the university. Its kind of a long drive up to Leon (about 3 hours), but still, I was not expecting to have a potty incident. Generally as adults, we know when we have to use a bathroom before a long bus ride, but that did not stop one girl from demanding to stop at a roadside shack to pee. I guess I found it so annoying b/c we were in a convoy and the other group became concerned when we suddenly pulled off the road. That, and she should have been able to last 3 hours... Anyway, we made it into Leon and wandered around the cathedral and the main square and sat down for some coffee to wait for the others. Afterwards we went and toured the university and took group pictures on the roof with the churches and volcanoes in the background which was quite lovely. Afterwards we ate lunch in a little comedor and got rice/beans, plantains, chicken, and a soda for $1! It was so delicious and amazing. In the afternoon, we toured the university hospital. It is among the best hospitals in Nicaragua, but was pretty pitiful by our standards. There is no AC, people are strewn in beds throughout the hallway, and there are pigeons wandering freely. I got to tour the ICU and was even more shocked. A doctor pointed out their "old ventilator" in a corner which truly looked run-down. Then he showed us their "older and oldest" ventilators which basically consisted of a monkey turning a wheel. They use peripheral lines down there b/c central lines are expensive. There were also two people in the ICU from separate car accidents (traffic is a huge problem down there, especially with motorcycles and bikes). GRAPHIC DISCLAIMER! One was missing his face down to the bone and his eyeball on one side of his face. I felt awful, not just because of the extent of his injuries, but b/c he was in this awful hospital. In the US he might have had a better hope both for recovery and reconstruction and hopefully lead a normal life. Anyway we were thanking our lucky stars that none of us had to stay in that hospital when (who else) but our NP student claims to be feeling ill. She and one of our chaperones (who was also feeling ill) checked into a hotel to rest for the afternoon. Her condition rapidly degrades into hysteria again and she demands to be taken where? To the hospital we just left! So we take her to the hospital and decide that most of the rest of us should continue with our trip to the beach and would come back to pick her up later.
2) The beach
We make it to the beach just in time for the sunset but not in time to swim (damn you np student!). I nearly get into a fight with a group of little urchins on the beach. I generally try to politely ignore them, but this group was particularly pesky, so I eventually told them to leave. One nasty little girl comes up to me and says "all tourists are mean and ugly and won't buy things." I told her look who's talking and maybe she should try not selling shit. That shut her up and she stopped bothering us, but tensions ran high there for a second. We ate dinner at a restaurant on the beach and I passed along to people that we were told by our "chaperones" that we could only have one alcoholic beverage during dinner, but that we were all adults and could decide how much we could drink and remain decent. So I was enjoying a really cheap lobster dinner when the only chaperone who came to the beach with us, announces to the table that she does not want to see any more people ordering alcohol as she has seen people ordering a 2nd. I had to go talk to her and explain what I had told the others and she was understanding (she tends to be one of the more reasonable of our chaperones), but said she didn't want to change anything b/c her and the others had already discussed the dinner booze limit. I am still so pissed. I wasn't aware that a group of medical students in their mid-20s needed "chaperones" (their intended purpose is to guide us in all things medical, not babysit us).
3) Leon, again
We drove back to Leon around 8 and waited around the hospital for news about our NP student. Since our departure she had been demanding to go to a private hospital, but since everyone gets public healthcare in Nicaragua the private hospitals are not as good. Then she demanded a private jet back to Houston. We told her, hell no. We're going to do a work-up here and see how to progress. She got some labs drawn and an EKG and guess what? She wasn't dehydrated or having a heart attack. But they wanted to keep her under surveillance for another 2-4 hours, so we decided to go back to the hotel where she was originally staying and hang out. At this point, we had the NP student in the hospital, the chaperone stricken with diarrhea in the hotel, a student doped up on benzodiazepines (as a later found out b/c he had failed our last test and was anxious about returning to the US), and at least two other students claiming illness. I was about to go insane, so I tried to sleep on the floor of the lobby of the hotel. But I couldn't, so I wandered around the hotel (which used to be a convent) for a couple of hours. 12:30AM rolls around and the NP student is finally released from the hospital.
5) Flying home
So our original plan was to get up at 7 and leave by 8 for the 2 hour drive to Managua to catch our plane home at noon. Our driver, however, decided to sleep in (I can't really blame him) and didn't show up until 9:30. Once again, we found ourselves flying down the road, this time to the airport. We get to the airport around 11:15 and hop in line. And what should happen? The power goes out! For the next 1/2 hour we start and stop in line while the power goes on and off. Finally we all get through and go the security line. I do a head count and come up 3 short. I run back to the counter and there are 3 students (NP included) wandering around like chickens with their heads cut off wondering where I went. I drag them back to the line and, though we are late for our flight, the flight is late too b/c of the power outages. We make the plane and arrive in Houston late once again with only 45 minutes to catch our flight and customs ahead of us. We send one girl flying through customs to the Continental customer service desk to announce that our group was in the airport and would they please hold the plane for us. We were 17 people on a relatively small flight, so they did end up holding the plane for us and we made our flight back to Omaha! (But its not over...) My bag never comes at the baggage claim (of course the only one not to in our group) and I go ask the Continental desk about it. They say it is on the next flight and they will drop it off at my house when it comes in. At 4AM, my bag finally comes and my Nicaragua sojourn was over.
Post a Comment