Carita Feliz, Sex Ed, Bicycle Rights, y Cafe del Tiempo

Carita Feliz is a school that goes from primer to 8th grade on the weekdays, and on the weekends, they offer practical knowledge and skills classes for older adolescents and young adults. The classroom is like an old school house in the way that everyone is together.  They have separated teachers for different grades and subjects, but everyone is in the same place pretty much.    A lot of people in one place, trying to learn different things.  Needless to say, the teachers are really good at what they do.  Here is an article on Peder Kolind, the guy who started it all.  It's in Spanish, but try and translate it!  It is very inspiring!

Sex Ed... Yesterday, I bounced around classes and age groups, and one of the classes was very interesting. I was with a group of 9 year olds, when I entered into something completely foreign to me. They were given a Sex Ed presentation.  This wasn't anywhere close to the vagueness of a US lesson.  This presentation was straightforward, honest, and not sugar-coated.  Latin America has more problems with STIs and pregnancy within a much younger population than in the US.  This discussion was great, because it opens up discussion at an age where pregnancy and STIs are more common than you would think.  These pages from Advocates for Youth  has some good facts (*a wee bit outdated). Same with this WHO factsheet  that compares all countries (*also a bit outdated).  I am starting to see potential for some good research here :)

mi bicicleta

Bicycle Rights? Nope. I rode by bike all morning and rode it to Carita Feliz.  I ended up in a class on Turismo with other young adults who want to learn skills to work in food and bev and tourism.  It was more a Spanish comprehension class for me.  Anyway, there are no rules for cyclists or for drivers when it comes to watching out for bicyclists.  No one pays attention to stop signs, uses blinkers, looks to see if anyone is coming. So you keep your eyes open and head up and hope for the best while on a bike.  Despite the craziness, drivers here are pretty good at last minute reactions and horns. No close calls yet :)

Free time... I explored Granada for the rest of the day. I bought a chip for my phone, ate another great Dona-prepared lunch, and went back out to get lost. 

Main Square 

I was walking down to the lake and it started raining hard.  I'll have to try that again when it's drier or bring a raincoat. Granada is pretty safe town.  Super chill.  You can always find someone taking a nap or relaxing on a bench.  No rush here. If anyone bothers you, just give the Nica Finger, which is a wave of your index like saying no no no. What is interesting is that I keep seeing Americans, Canadians, and Europeans.  No one will really make eye contact with each other, because most of the people who travel to rustic countries like Nicaragua are trying to get away from their world.  I found some really cool places to eat that will be visited tomorrow.  I had coffee at a really neat place in the center of town called Fitzcarraldo.  They serve coffee that is in the Specialty Coffee Association of America.  

 Then I came back and hung out with my house family.  Dona Espinoza had her son and his family over.  Their youngest son, who is 9, speaks near fluent English. Very impressive. Now I am resting, and I will spend my evening learning some medical Spanish so I am not a total dumbass on Monday.

Lastly, here's the bird

I can't spell his name... but it starts with an S... I call him Shh

Primer Dia

What am I doing here? I am volunteering with Clinica Alabama, which is an internal/ family/ general medicine clinic who take care of the majority of the poor in this REGION. People travel hours to get care.  Why did I chose doing something in general medicine over ObGyn (my destiny)? I believe having experiences in the general helps you understand the specific.  And many of the health issues I will encounter on this trip, I will also encounter as an ObGyn (hypertension, diabetes, infectious disease).  And I could not let this opportunity go.  

So last night, I got off the plane, and I saw my driver through the window.  One of the organizers for my trip, Albertina, was gracious enough to set me up with her local driver so I would be safe.  And since my plane was 2 hours late, it was comforting to know that I would have someone there. 

He took me through some back ways through Managua to get to the main highway.  Drivers be crazy in this country, but as crazy and fast and rule dodging as they are, they make it.  In Mexico, I called it "offensive" driving.  I try my best to make conversation, but I am rusty. After 40 minutes, we pull into Granada. Unlike Managua, she is sleeping.  We find my house after turning down nameless streets and alleys, and I can't help but think of Charleston :) An older women, Dona Espinoza, greets me through her gate. -Pictures tomorrow-.  She leads through her yard/house to a bedroom.  She shows me around the room, and says goodnight, we will talk tomorrow. 

Needless to say, I've begun sweating.  One because it is hot, and two because I suddenly realize the loss of my grasp of the Spanish language. I also meet Fred.  Fred is a very big spider. And I can't catch him. And he makes noises. At least I have some company, right?

I wake up sweating, to a parrot or something screaming HOLAaaaaAA. His name is Shut Up.. jk. BReakfast is on the table.  Gallo Pinto, egg, jugo. Que rica.  I then put on my scrubs... pants.... now I am not pleased. 

Jaime, one of the other organizers of my life here and one of the big guys at Clinica Alabama, showed up at 7:30 to pick me up.  He is fantastic and shows me a round the clinic, introduces me, and tells me all about it.  He then takes me to Carita Feliz.  This is school for the poor.  I will dedicate a whole post, tweet, whatever you call it to this magical place. I fell in love. 

We go back to clinic and I jump into medical mode.  I take BPs, pulse, weight, blood sugars on 40+ people in 4 hours.  There are 2 doctors at the clinic, one very accomplished American nurse - Mary, and a 4th year med student from England- Rachel.  Medical Spanish is over my head, so I gave myself some homework to do this weekend. Vocab! Fun note: Doctor asked me if I had been running because I was sweating so much.  haha. 

Jaime comes back to the clinic to have a meeting with someone, and he says " I have a sorpresa for you". Earlier, when we were driving around to Carita Feliz, he was giving me directions and telling me where to walk and where not to walk.  I hate walking, so I asked how or where could I rent a bike down here.  He responded "I'll check into that for you later".  Well did above and beyond, and obtained a bicicleta for me.  I will photo it later. What a great guy though. The unrelenting kindness some people have always amazes me.  Something to learn from. 

Lunch was a dinner. In Nicaragua, like some other Latin countries, lunch is the biggest meal. I had a cheese stuffed pepper, a bounty of rice, beans, and bbq chicken... and juice water. mmm

I wheeled over to Carita Feliz after that, and taught some things and played with kids for the rest of the afternoon.  Tomorrow I will spend my whole day there, so I'll put up more about it. But it is a great program. 

I had dinner with the Dona and one of her friends.  I mentioned how much I love corn tortillas, so they prepared corn tortillas for me with something similar to al Pastor. I feel loved. 

I love Nica food almost as much as I love the people. I haven't stopped sweating since I got here.  And usually I don't like to eat and sweat at the same time.  But I gave that up with my first meal here. 

Going to watch a telenovela to get some Spanish in and then crashing. 

Buenas noches!

Don't blink

I am here!  I will begin this blog by saying that airplanes are my least favorite of places.  There were just too many storms on the way down here.  In Atlanta, our flight was delayed on the runway (1.5-2 hours... I turned off my phone to quit looking at the time).  Now that I look back on it, I think that the flight gurus were deciding whether or not to cancel it.  They mentioned something about figuring out a new flight path.  So we take off and everything is great. We hit some patches of "rough" air along the way, but nothing serious.  

I am sitting next to the most posh and tude'y 14 year old from France and a sweet, tenacious woman in her 20's from the states. After about 2 hours of doing our own thing we start conversing. Very lovely ladies. The French girl was cracking me up and her name is Cosette.... She has  on tight, ripped jeans and a leather jacket.  Her hair is pulled and hair sprayed framing the left side of her face with bouncing brown curls.  She and her family are visiting their missionary side of the fam who now lives here.  The blonde-haired, blue eyed American is traveling with two Nica friends she made in college.  She has never been out of the country, so I helped her with her travel visa documents and told her all some things to expect. We chatted about our Nica plans for a bit, and then we all started to doze off. 

Out of no where, the plane drops.  I feel like I am driving my old Jimmy with its busted shocks and fake 4WD through  roads in Latin America.  The only difference was, I am stuck in a plane, I can't see shit, I have no control, and my stomach is in my throat.  everyone is screaming. A woman to left of me starts convulsion crying. And then we feel the nose of the plane start to dip down.  All three of us looked at each other.  Cosette grabs my white knuckles.  Her dad, who is behind her, grabs her shoulder and says I love you in French.  Blondie screams.  I tense up so tight it got a charley horse. This was the most scary plane trip I have ever experienced. It beats the Laguardia ice landing.  Eventually, after probably 20 minutes of dropping, shaking, and nose tipping due the violence of mother nature, the pilot pulled the plane back up over the storm.  Everyone immediately started clapping and hugging. The three of us look at each other and start laughing??  It was actually hilarious, mainly because of the inappropriate timing, and it was three female strangers who didn't know how to respond to this little miracle.  

I told my dad that a thousand Hail Mary's (Catholic prayer) came out of my subconscious and I repeated it until I started forgetting the order of words. 

I know this little upcoming thought may seem cheesy, everyone has plane issues, people are always mostly fine, blah blah.  But I felt that I was so close to "knowing" that this could be it. Life is uncertain. A long Life is not guaranteed. Take each day at a time.  Love the ones you care about and reach out to those in need, even those who you might not care for. Instead of dreaming of money of material things, dream of leaving a positive impact on everyone around you.  Because in the end, that is all that matters. I wish for everyone who reads this blog, that they will see the light of this country, and maybe be inspired to come here and volunteer and be a witness to this amazing culture and her beautiful people. 

Salud!

Song of Day/Night: I am Blessed to Be a Witness _por_ Ben Harper