On Monday the rain continued. We fell asleep to rain Sunday night and woke up to it on Monday morning. Claire, Marcia and I returned to Maternidad for our second week. We were placed in the neonatal ICU for babies of minimal risk. There were over 80 babies and only 55 cribs so that meant two babies to a crib. The staff in that area was very friendly and allowed us to hold any of the babies that we wanted to. When we first arrived, one of the male doctors showed us how to measure the circumference of the babies’ heads. So, we went around measuring all of their heads and recording it in the baby’s chart.
Some of the babies were born all the way back in February and had made their way from the high risk ICU to the intermediate to the low risk. Their cribs all have little pieces of paper taped to them stating their mother’s name, birth date, birth weight, height, and some have their diagnosis. The majority of the diagnoses say low weight, premature or some kind of respiratory problem. The babies from February and March were born weighing about 1 kilogram, which is about 2 pounds. It is amazing to me that these 5 month old babies are still in the hospital, receiving minimal attention and care. In the United States, these same babies would probably be with their families and not sharing an old, dirty, rusty crib with some other kid. The premature babies just look sick and they will probably have a decent amount of mental and health problems. There are babies covered in their own vomit or poop. There was one baby with a severe cleft lip and he was not receiving any special care. The nurse said they might do something about his lip but it is doubtful because no family here could afford it.
The majority of the babies are screaming because they are hungry or wishing for some kind of human contact. Do not get me wrong, the nurses are not treating them poorly; they just do not have the resources or staff to take care of so many sick babies. For the remainder of the day we helped carry babies to get an ultrasound picture of their forebrain and just held the crying ones. We talked with some of the nurses and doctors about their jobs and I got a bottle of water from the cafeteria (which is disgusting).
We left our area at 11:50 am because our ride comes at 12. Unfortunately, the nursing office where we keep our bags was locked. So we waited and waited for one of the nurses to return but no one came. We started walking around the hospital looking for one of them and Claire finally had to pull Sra. Lopez out of a meeting. We were pretty late but luckily our van was still waiting for us.
We ate lunch and then the group of us from the advanced Spanish class discussed our reading. On Thursday, we were assigned over 100 pages to read in our Spanish novel. There was no way I was going to be able to do that, especially because we were going to be at the farm all weekend. So we split it up into 35 page sections and two of us did each section. It was a great idea and it helped all of us. When we got to class, we all struggled with the questions that he asked us but we pulled through.
We have a 30 minute or more break during our Spanish class so our teacher drove a few of us to Mister Donut. It is like Dunkin Donuts but they have more food. Every meal comes with a donut on the side instead of fries. The donuts were pretty good and I had a café con leche.
After class, some of us stayed in the UCA’s computer lab to check our email. Their computers and internet are unbelievably slow! We ate dinner in Casa Silvia and then had our “fiesta de limpieza” (cleaning party). Every Monday we have “Avisos” which is kind of like announcements. We were supposed to go to the beach this Saturday but they changed our plans because of the big tropical storm that has been going on. Instead, we are going to Ataco for Saturday and part of Sunday. It is a small town about 2 hours away and we are staying in this big house, kind of like a bed and breakfast. Anita and Clara say that it is really nice; we can shop, hike, and go horseback riding. On Friday night, we are doing Salsa dancing lessons too!
We returned to Maternidad at 8 am on Tuesday. We were placed in the same area as Monday and we walked around and held different crying babies for 4 hours. I finally asked one of the nurses if we could see the babies in the other areas. She took us to the high-risk area first. The babies were crazy small and hooked up to all sorts of monitors. There were probably about 30 babies and I think all of them had their own incubator. Next, we went to the intermediate ICU. There were a lot more babies in that area and quite a few of the incubators had two or three babies. Can you imagine a parent in the United States going to visit their premature baby and finding him or her in an incubator with two other kids? I think the parents would sue! The nurses were joking about having three babies in one incubator. I did not think it was too funny. One nurse asked us if we saw three babies together in the United States; I told them no way, only one. Think about how many germs are being shared between those poor babies.
We ate lunch at Casa Romero; the main dish was fish but I had my good old rice and beans to rely on. I have eaten rice, beans and tortillas with every single lunch and dinner here. We all finished our “ser vs. estar” Spanish homework and went to class. During our break, I went to the computer lab to check my emails and Facebook.
I miss the States a lot. I am ready to come home.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
On Friday mornings, we have our public health class. Today we talked about culture and how it affects the health of a population. Our teacher can speak English but she is not super at it so we had a translator today. The translator gave us these devices with earphones so that he was able to translate for us while our teacher was talking. I thought it would be a great idea but it sucked. I was hearing the teacher speak Spanish at the same time as hearing the guy through the crackle-ly earphone. Plus the earphone kept falling out. AAAAnyways…..the overall of the class was that so much of the population here follows old natural medicine. In most of the rural areas, there are not doctors so people will either completely ignore their illnesses and problems or they will seek care from a herbal therapist or “witch” doctor. A lot of their believes are based on old wives-tales that have not been straightened out or the belief that God wanted them to get sick. It was somewhat interesting but it was difficult to understand because of all the weird translating.
Our bus picked us up at the UCA and we drove to San Ramon for lunch. We ate at this small “comedor”; here it means café or eatery. I had chicken, vegetables, rice and “casamiento” which was a mix of rice and beans. We drank cantaloupe juice; it was so delicious, I felt like I was drinking a cantaloupe. The world cup game was on; Spain was playing Chile so pretty much everyone was cheering for Chile.
Since their community is at the base of the volcano, they are very worried about landslides right now because of the rainy season. Pretty much everyone I talked to there mentioned the possibility of a landslide soon and how it would completely destroy the area like it did in 1990 or something.
We visited the homes of two families from the school. We spoke to the mothers about their lives, jobs and economical situations. Both of them expressed how important their children were in all of their decisions. They both spoke about how they work hard every day so that their children can live a better life.
Before we left we picked up six homemade pizzas from the café where we ate lunch. We ate the pizzas for dinner and they were good. The crust was very good and it was made from the soy product. After dinner we went bowling! The bowling alley looked just like any American bowling place. We had a great time together and we even ordered a pitcher of beer haha. When two of the girls ordered it, the woman showed them like a clear pitcher that they would fill with tap beer. When the waiter person brought us the beer it was just a metal bucket with 5 bottled beers haha. The entire place was blasting American music so that was fun. We then returned to the Casas to pack for our Saturday overnight trip to the Finca (farm like place).
Saturday:
We woke up bright and early to leave for the Finca. The drive there was pretty because we were driving in between bright green mountains. We arrived at this little town and then switched to a truck. We all put our bags in the driver part and stood in the back of the pickup part holding onto bars. It was scary because he was going fast. Anita told us to just wait until we got to the unpaved roads haha. The unpaved roads were literally red clay with huge rocks; the ride was so bumpy and we just went up and down huge hills the whole time. We stopped off at this waterfall area; it was very beautiful. The two boys started to climb the rocks of one part and disappeared. We waited and waited for them because we were trying to leave. The driver told us that they could not hear us yelling because there was another huge waterfall about 15 meters up. So then, a group of kids climbed through the woods to that upper area to find them. I did not go because it was really steep and full of bugs. After seeing what they looked like when they got back down I was really happy that I didn’t go.
We drove further up the mountain and arrived at the Finca. The view was excellent and I got a lot of cool pictures. Literally as soon as we walked into the kitchen to eat lunch it started pouring. The clouds creeped over everything and we could only see like 10 feet in front of us. Because we were so high up we were literally inside the cloud. It continued to rain all day and through the night. The leaders told us that it was a huge tropical storm. We could not go outside to do anything because it was raining so hard. It did not stop raining for over 20 hours!
We all stayed inside the kitchen/dining area all day. We played card games for, no joke, 7 hours. After dinner, we made Salvadoran-style smores over the stove. We used these local cookies that have chocolate on the bottom so that was their version of graham crackers and chocolate. We roasted regular marshmallows to put in between the cookies. They were delicious but not as good as the ones at home. We played a few more card games then went to our cabin. I slept with six other girls in one cabin and it was a nice cabin. We each had our own bed and there was a bathroom with running water and a shower. The only problem was the bugs. I thought there were a lot of bugs at our house here but man was I wrong! There were spiders, beetles and mosquitoes EVERYWHERE. No joke. I could barely sleep. The spiders were larger than a golf balls and the other cabin found a scorpion in their bathroom. When I pulled back my sheets, there was even a spider in my bed!
We had to wake up at 7 am for breakfast then we got back on our pick up truck to go back down the mountain. It started to rain just as we arrived to meet our van. When we got back to the Casas my roommate and I took a nap until noon because we all sleep like shit at the farm.
Our cabin group and the clouds coming in!
Our bus picked us up at the UCA and we drove to San Ramon for lunch. We ate at this small “comedor”; here it means café or eatery. I had chicken, vegetables, rice and “casamiento” which was a mix of rice and beans. We drank cantaloupe juice; it was so delicious, I felt like I was drinking a cantaloupe. The world cup game was on; Spain was playing Chile so pretty much everyone was cheering for Chile.
We went to this area because it is where Anita is a social worker. She works in this community in the school and she helps with this soy project. The head of the soy project, who has lived here for 17 years working for some missionary, spoke to us about it. They make soy milk in that kitchen and families can receive a cup per person per day for only 6 dollars a month. They also sell soy wheat for an affordable price. The project promotes using soy for its nutrition value because it’s high in protein and other nutrients. Next, we visited Anita’s school. We saw all the little kids; they were so cute. One of Anita’s bosses spoke about their health clinic and some other things about public health. We drank some delicious coffee and this cheese bread made out of their soy wheat. The bread was amazing; it tasted a lot like corn bread. 
Since their community is at the base of the volcano, they are very worried about landslides right now because of the rainy season. Pretty much everyone I talked to there mentioned the possibility of a landslide soon and how it would completely destroy the area like it did in 1990 or something.
We visited the homes of two families from the school. We spoke to the mothers about their lives, jobs and economical situations. Both of them expressed how important their children were in all of their decisions. They both spoke about how they work hard every day so that their children can live a better life.
Before we left we picked up six homemade pizzas from the café where we ate lunch. We ate the pizzas for dinner and they were good. The crust was very good and it was made from the soy product. After dinner we went bowling! The bowling alley looked just like any American bowling place. We had a great time together and we even ordered a pitcher of beer haha. When two of the girls ordered it, the woman showed them like a clear pitcher that they would fill with tap beer. When the waiter person brought us the beer it was just a metal bucket with 5 bottled beers haha. The entire place was blasting American music so that was fun. We then returned to the Casas to pack for our Saturday overnight trip to the Finca (farm like place).
Saturday:
We woke up bright and early to leave for the Finca. The drive there was pretty because we were driving in between bright green mountains. We arrived at this little town and then switched to a truck. We all put our bags in the driver part and stood in the back of the pickup part holding onto bars. It was scary because he was going fast. Anita told us to just wait until we got to the unpaved roads haha. The unpaved roads were literally red clay with huge rocks; the ride was so bumpy and we just went up and down huge hills the whole time. We stopped off at this waterfall area; it was very beautiful. The two boys started to climb the rocks of one part and disappeared. We waited and waited for them because we were trying to leave. The driver told us that they could not hear us yelling because there was another huge waterfall about 15 meters up. So then, a group of kids climbed through the woods to that upper area to find them. I did not go because it was really steep and full of bugs. After seeing what they looked like when they got back down I was really happy that I didn’t go. We drove further up the mountain and arrived at the Finca. The view was excellent and I got a lot of cool pictures. Literally as soon as we walked into the kitchen to eat lunch it started pouring. The clouds creeped over everything and we could only see like 10 feet in front of us. Because we were so high up we were literally inside the cloud. It continued to rain all day and through the night. The leaders told us that it was a huge tropical storm. We could not go outside to do anything because it was raining so hard. It did not stop raining for over 20 hours!
We all stayed inside the kitchen/dining area all day. We played card games for, no joke, 7 hours. After dinner, we made Salvadoran-style smores over the stove. We used these local cookies that have chocolate on the bottom so that was their version of graham crackers and chocolate. We roasted regular marshmallows to put in between the cookies. They were delicious but not as good as the ones at home. We played a few more card games then went to our cabin. I slept with six other girls in one cabin and it was a nice cabin. We each had our own bed and there was a bathroom with running water and a shower. The only problem was the bugs. I thought there were a lot of bugs at our house here but man was I wrong! There were spiders, beetles and mosquitoes EVERYWHERE. No joke. I could barely sleep. The spiders were larger than a golf balls and the other cabin found a scorpion in their bathroom. When I pulled back my sheets, there was even a spider in my bed!
We had to wake up at 7 am for breakfast then we got back on our pick up truck to go back down the mountain. It started to rain just as we arrived to meet our van. When we got back to the Casas my roommate and I took a nap until noon because we all sleep like shit at the farm.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Wednesday: We arrived at Maternidad and we were placed in a new area. We were in the post-surgical area for women who had cesarean sections. Some of them had babies with them while others did not. Some of the babies had already gone home with their family while the mom had to stay and others were in the neonatal ICU. We met the staff and once again watched them bathe the babies. Then they let us each wash a baby! It was fun but difficult because they were all crying and moving around. The baby boy that I washed did not poop that day so I was excited! They do not put diapers on the babies so when you unwrap them there is poop everywhere. It is not so chivo (cool).
We met a patient in our area named Selena. She was so sweet and beautiful. Her baby was up in the neonatal ICU. Selena gave birth at only seven months so her baby was “mucha chiqueta pero bonita” (very tiny but pretty). She began telling us about the father of her baby. She said he is a very bad man and that the police arrested him so he is in jail right now. Selena explained that she was better off without him because he always hit her. She said he would punch her stomach, trying to kill the baby. He also made her take some kind of pills to induce labor early. I am not sure if he caused her to go into labor or not but her baby was very premature. Selena was on bed rest because of her surgery so she could not go see her baby. We discussed her family and her older sister actually lives in New York. In addition, she was excited because her mom was coming to visit at noon that day. Selena also told us that she was studying accounting at a nearby university and that she loved math. Her story really touched me and I have been thinking about her since then. I am sure that baby will have a large amount of health and psychological problems. Selena is only 18 years old!
Near the end of our work day, Anita came to check in on us. She walked around with us and talked to patients. I like Anita a lot. She graduated from Marquette and has been living in El Salvador for 3 years working as a social worker.
We ate lunch back at the Casas and then walked to our Spanish class at the UCA. Stacey, Danielle and I went early to go to a nearby coffee shop that had free Wi-Fi. Turns out, you had to buy $3.50 worth of their food and drinks in order to get the password for the internet. That is a total ripe off because everything is so cheap here so I had to buy like three things. Also, I pay only 75 cents an hour at the internet café by our house so I lost money by going to this “free Wi-Fi café.” AND when I got to the UCA I figured out there is free Wi-Fi in the building that our Spanish class is in!
The Spanish class went well. I could understand everything the teacher was saying. We studied syllables, accents and proper naming of where the stress goes in certain words. It was fairly difficult because you had to know how to properly pronounce the word before doing anything else. Our teacher assigned us a ton of homework too!
Later that night we had a reflection at Trena’s house. She made “Trena Treats” again and they were awesome. It was some cookie bar called “sin”. We did a guided meditation and then reflected on how we felt since being here a week. After the reflection a group of us worked together on our homework and reading for our Spanish class. The reading wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be so that’s good.
I took my ice cold shower, typed some of my journal/blog and went to bed.
Thursday: At Maternidad we were at the same post surgical area. We talked with Selena again and asked how her baby was doing. The nursing students were in our area today so we followed along with them. First, they washed the mothers’ wounds and private areas. They used iodine…they use iodine for everything, even washing their hands. They asked us if we wanted to try doing it but we explained that our program has rules and we are not supposed to do things like that. I think we could have done it because it is just caretaking, which we are able to do, but I would not have felt comfortable without some training beforehand.
Afterwards they all went to breakfast so we sat and chatted for some time. We made a trip to the cafeteria to check it out. It was SO different from the States. It was more like a creepy corner store booth.
When we returned they had started to bathe the babies. The nursing professor insisted that we help again so Claire cleaned a baby first. Then I went and finally Marcia. They applauded us all after we were finished haha. There was one male nursing student, which was weird because pretty much all of the nursing students are women and the medical students are men.
The one medical student that we met on Tuesday came by to talk with us. He asked us if we had ever seen a live birth. We said no but that we really wanted to see one! He told us that he was in the birthing room that evening from 4pm to 6am. He invited us to come back and come in with him. He assured us that no one would care at all. The one girl really wanted to call a taxi and come back that night. I was hesitate because who knows if this guy will be able to get us into the room or even the hospital. Plus, I didn’t want to be in that area of town when it was dark outside, it is creepy enough during the day. Later on, we spoke with two female medical students who, once again, spoke perfect English, but said they could not speak English. They said they would be in the birthing room next week in the mornings when we would be there. We talked to one of the head nurses, who is in charge of us, and she said that would be totally fine. She is going to arrange for us to go into the birthing room on Monday or Tuesday! I am so excited!
After lunch, I went a little early to Spanish class so I could use the Wi-Fi in the building. Class went well except for the end. We each had to answer one of the four questions that he wrote on the board. They were questions about your childhood so you had to use the past tense and imperfect tense. It is difficult to distinguish when to use one or the other, especially when you are talking about your childhood. I didn’t realize that we had to write enough to talk about it for five minutes each afterwards. Mine was terrible; I felt so dumb.
During our class, the professor gives us a 25 minute break since it is a 3 hour class. My roommate Hannah and I went on the computer for a few minutes and then to the outdoor café on the ground level of the building (all of the building here are pretty much wide open, there really are not too many doors or windows, all of the walls just have huge openings or there are no walls at all). I bought a Coke Zero and Cheetos. The Cheetos tasted different than in the US! The World Cup was on the television and Holland was playing!
After class, we returned to the Casa and then left shortly after for Pupusa night. We walked to the pupusaria together and it was literally in the front area of someone’s house. It was like five houses down from Casa Silvia and I would never have guessed that it was a restaurant. A lot of the stores and restaurants are like that here…just built into the front of a house or window.
A group of us played a board game afterwards.
I will type more about today, Friday, later on and post it. We have to go eat dinner. We are having pizza from the town we visited today, San Roman.
adios!
We met a patient in our area named Selena. She was so sweet and beautiful. Her baby was up in the neonatal ICU. Selena gave birth at only seven months so her baby was “mucha chiqueta pero bonita” (very tiny but pretty). She began telling us about the father of her baby. She said he is a very bad man and that the police arrested him so he is in jail right now. Selena explained that she was better off without him because he always hit her. She said he would punch her stomach, trying to kill the baby. He also made her take some kind of pills to induce labor early. I am not sure if he caused her to go into labor or not but her baby was very premature. Selena was on bed rest because of her surgery so she could not go see her baby. We discussed her family and her older sister actually lives in New York. In addition, she was excited because her mom was coming to visit at noon that day. Selena also told us that she was studying accounting at a nearby university and that she loved math. Her story really touched me and I have been thinking about her since then. I am sure that baby will have a large amount of health and psychological problems. Selena is only 18 years old!
Near the end of our work day, Anita came to check in on us. She walked around with us and talked to patients. I like Anita a lot. She graduated from Marquette and has been living in El Salvador for 3 years working as a social worker.
We ate lunch back at the Casas and then walked to our Spanish class at the UCA. Stacey, Danielle and I went early to go to a nearby coffee shop that had free Wi-Fi. Turns out, you had to buy $3.50 worth of their food and drinks in order to get the password for the internet. That is a total ripe off because everything is so cheap here so I had to buy like three things. Also, I pay only 75 cents an hour at the internet café by our house so I lost money by going to this “free Wi-Fi café.” AND when I got to the UCA I figured out there is free Wi-Fi in the building that our Spanish class is in!
The Spanish class went well. I could understand everything the teacher was saying. We studied syllables, accents and proper naming of where the stress goes in certain words. It was fairly difficult because you had to know how to properly pronounce the word before doing anything else. Our teacher assigned us a ton of homework too!
Later that night we had a reflection at Trena’s house. She made “Trena Treats” again and they were awesome. It was some cookie bar called “sin”. We did a guided meditation and then reflected on how we felt since being here a week. After the reflection a group of us worked together on our homework and reading for our Spanish class. The reading wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be so that’s good.
I took my ice cold shower, typed some of my journal/blog and went to bed.
Thursday: At Maternidad we were at the same post surgical area. We talked with Selena again and asked how her baby was doing. The nursing students were in our area today so we followed along with them. First, they washed the mothers’ wounds and private areas. They used iodine…they use iodine for everything, even washing their hands. They asked us if we wanted to try doing it but we explained that our program has rules and we are not supposed to do things like that. I think we could have done it because it is just caretaking, which we are able to do, but I would not have felt comfortable without some training beforehand.
Afterwards they all went to breakfast so we sat and chatted for some time. We made a trip to the cafeteria to check it out. It was SO different from the States. It was more like a creepy corner store booth.
When we returned they had started to bathe the babies. The nursing professor insisted that we help again so Claire cleaned a baby first. Then I went and finally Marcia. They applauded us all after we were finished haha. There was one male nursing student, which was weird because pretty much all of the nursing students are women and the medical students are men.
The one medical student that we met on Tuesday came by to talk with us. He asked us if we had ever seen a live birth. We said no but that we really wanted to see one! He told us that he was in the birthing room that evening from 4pm to 6am. He invited us to come back and come in with him. He assured us that no one would care at all. The one girl really wanted to call a taxi and come back that night. I was hesitate because who knows if this guy will be able to get us into the room or even the hospital. Plus, I didn’t want to be in that area of town when it was dark outside, it is creepy enough during the day. Later on, we spoke with two female medical students who, once again, spoke perfect English, but said they could not speak English. They said they would be in the birthing room next week in the mornings when we would be there. We talked to one of the head nurses, who is in charge of us, and she said that would be totally fine. She is going to arrange for us to go into the birthing room on Monday or Tuesday! I am so excited!
After lunch, I went a little early to Spanish class so I could use the Wi-Fi in the building. Class went well except for the end. We each had to answer one of the four questions that he wrote on the board. They were questions about your childhood so you had to use the past tense and imperfect tense. It is difficult to distinguish when to use one or the other, especially when you are talking about your childhood. I didn’t realize that we had to write enough to talk about it for five minutes each afterwards. Mine was terrible; I felt so dumb.
During our class, the professor gives us a 25 minute break since it is a 3 hour class. My roommate Hannah and I went on the computer for a few minutes and then to the outdoor café on the ground level of the building (all of the building here are pretty much wide open, there really are not too many doors or windows, all of the walls just have huge openings or there are no walls at all). I bought a Coke Zero and Cheetos. The Cheetos tasted different than in the US! The World Cup was on the television and Holland was playing!
After class, we returned to the Casa and then left shortly after for Pupusa night. We walked to the pupusaria together and it was literally in the front area of someone’s house. It was like five houses down from Casa Silvia and I would never have guessed that it was a restaurant. A lot of the stores and restaurants are like that here…just built into the front of a house or window.
A group of us played a board game afterwards.
I will type more about today, Friday, later on and post it. We have to go eat dinner. We are having pizza from the town we visited today, San Roman.
adios!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I have not written in awhile so I will split up my writing into the past couple of days.
Saturday night: A group of us went out to dinner at a “pupusaria”. We all ate pupusas and I had a Coke. I had a pupusa with just beans and another with cheese and chicken. They were both good, especially the bean one. After that we all had a reflection night.
Sunday: My two friends and I went to the grocery store that is down the street. It is called La Despensea and it is actually owned by Wal-Mart. It was extremely nice inside and had all American food and local food too. I used the ATM there so I was somewhat nervous that someone would follow me haha. We asked at some nearby pharmacies for phone cards but none of them had any.
My roommate Hannah is from Minneapolis but her grandpa is from El Salvador. Her family here gave her a cell phone and everyone from all sides of the family have been calling her all the time. We all joke about it because she is getting really frustrated with all these people calling her speaking Spanish. She was with her family all day Sunday. From 8:30 am until dinner…she was wiped out after she got back. I cannot even imagine being with a family all day that only spoke Spanish! It would be so difficult.
Later in the afternoon I went to lunch with Claire, Angela, Olivia, Stacey and Allison. We had pupusas….hm, surprising. Every single restaurant around here pretty much only has pupusas so it is really hard to find anything else to eat! I am already sick of it. For dinner, a group of us cooked some pasta with garlic bread. Two of the girls bought us all popsicles from the popsicle place we went to on the first day. They are so good! That night we had a meeting about our praxis sites and kind of what to expect for the first day. I went to bed early because we leave for our site at 7:30 am every morning!
Monday: In the morning the kids going to Maternidad hospital and the Children’s hospital, Bloom, went in the same van. The traffic was horrible and it took us about 30 to 35 minutes to get there. I am at Maternidad with two other girls. Claire is from Marquette and is doing the same major as I am, Biomedical Sciences, but she is a year older. Marcia attends Santa Clara but she is originally from Hawaii. When we arrived we went to the nurse’s office to meet up with one of the chief nurses that would take us to our area. For the first day, we were in the area where moms who had their babies by natural birth were stationed. They typically stay in the area for 24 to 36 hours. There are 5 women to a room and most of them have their babies with them. There are two rooms for adolescents (under 18). There are also rooms called “delicadas” for more delicate cases (kind of like an ICU) like preeclampsia, diabetes or other complications from birth. Finally, there is a room for women with infectious diseases like HIV.
The head nurse in the area took us around and introduced us to healthcare providers in her area. There were nursing and medical students from the national university in our area practicing too. We talked to a lot of the nursing students. We saw the area where the doctor can do a vaginal exam if necessary. It was literally a storage closet with lockers and some old metal table that the women lay on. The conditions are unbelievable. The first thing we observed was the nursing students washing the babies and teaching the moms how to properly wash the babies. They had two little carts that they pushed around from room to room. One was a washing station with buckets of water, soap and cotton. The other cart was stacked with clean clothe to re-wrap the babies. For cleaning the babies, they first cleaned the face with pieces of wet cotton. Second, they unwrapped the baby from his or her clothe (they are literally bundled in little white clothe blanket things). Next they: cleaned the poop etc, got their hands wet with soap, washed the babies hair, arms, stomach, back and legs, wiped them down with a wet washcloth, and dried them with a dry washcloth. Finally, they cleaned the umbilical cord with alcohol swabs. The baby was then re-wrapped and returned to the mother. This washing took a very long time because there were probably about 40 babies. Next, we observed the nursing students giving the babies their first shots.
After observing various things, we made some small talk with the moms. We asked simple questions like the name of their baby, where they lived and how old they were. The majority of the staff went to lunch at 11:20 am so we were kind of left alone haha.
At about 11:40 am we returned to the nurses’ office to get our bags because we were getting picked up at noon. We proceeded outside and waited across the street for our driver. The area was extremely busy with vendors, doctors, students and nurses (the hospital is in an area with like four other hospitals and we are in the downtown). It was somewhat scary, especially since every single person was starring at us three white girls. A doctor passed by and said hi while we were sitting on the curb. He returned like two minutes later and asked if we were scared sitting out there alone and if we had valuables. He insisted that it would be better if we stayed behind the gate of the hospital because we were not safe. We agreed and after we were behind the gate he told us about some protest that was about to start. Supposedly, the lawyers and police were in a disagreement and today was some public argument and confrontation. He said the rally was coming our way from the center of San Salvador and it would be very dangerous out there. Long story short….we ended up waiting a really long time for our ride and a lot more people crowded the area outside the hospital gate. Muchas gracias to that doctor haha.
Later that afternoon we had our Spanish class placement test. There were two forms and I chose the more difficult one. That was not such a great idea haha. I did not take a Spanish class this past semester so my verb conjugations and vocabulary was VERY rusty. Then we had an oral part with the teacher. WOW…I sucked it up and could barely think of things to say. I drew a blank. But, I ended up getting placed into the advanced class. Don’t even ask me how that happened. I still think they made a mistake and put me in the wrong group. (There are three different levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced.) The teacher took us to the bookstore and showed us what book we needed to buy. It was a 350 page novel completely in Spanish. I freaked out for a minute and convinced myself that I needed to switch to the intermediate class. We are going to read the whole book for the advanced class. Later that night I talked to our leaders and told them that I will sit in the advanced class to see how it is but that I might need to put in the middle class. The other kids in my class are more advanced than me, by far.
Anyways, after the class we went to Trena and Kevin’s house. They are the co-directors of the program and they started it like 12 years ago with a Jesuit priest. They have four little girls and they have all lived here since the program started. The kids attend the local international school where they learn English and Spanish. The one little girl, Grace, who is 8, can speak Spanish just like a Salvadoran even though they all speak English at home. Trena made us cookies or “Trena treats”, as everyone calls them here.
We had dinner and a cleaning party that night.
Tuesday: We returned to Maternidad at 8 am but the one girl Marcia was sick so it was just two of us for the day. We were in the same area as Monday. First, we followed the nurse that was changing the bed sheets and giving clean gowns to the women so they could go shower. We watched one nurse clean two women in the ICU rooms. She used iodine to clean their private regions because they had infections or something. I do not really know too many Spanish medical terms so it is difficult to understand a lot of things the nurses are saying.
We met one girl who had been in the ICU area for 8 days already. She was only 16. We asked her simple questions and talked about her siblings. She did not have a baby with her so we asked where her baby was because sometimes the babies are in the neonatal ICU upstairs or they went home already. She tried to explain why her baby was not there. I did not really understand so she finally said “se murío” which means “he died”. I was shocked and just kept apologizing. She seemed fine with it all though. It was strange. She then said “it’s probably for the better”, most likely realizing, “yeah I’m 16, I shouldn’t have a baby.” She gave birth when she was only 6 months pregnant so I’m assuming the baby was too premature to survive but I’m not sure.
We met one doctor and a medical student that was following him. They were both very nice and said they could speak a little English. I have realized here, so many people say, “I speak a little English” and they speak much better English than my Spanish! Both of them spoke great English! The doctor had a pocket radio and was listening the World Cup the entire day haha. He kept updating us on the scores and said that he predicts that Argentina and Holland will be in the final game! YES, GO HOLLAND!
We observed more baby-washing. There were 4 babies in the hallway whose mothers were still in the pre-op because they had cesarean sections. We got to feed them bottles and then observe them getting cleaned. I got to hold one of the babies for a few seconds.
Later on, we met one mom who spoke excellent English. She actually taught English to little kids on Saturdays and Sundays at the local University. They give free English classes on those days. As we were talking to her, the doctor came in and gave her the waiver to go home that day. She was so excited, especially because her husband had not seen their baby yet. They only allow visitors in the hospital from noon until 2pm. She was incredibly nice and so fun to talk with. She is probably the only happy story that I have seen so far.
Next we sat in on the meeting for mothers that were going home that day. The doctors just expressed the necessity to shower, brush your teeth, drink clean water and eat healthy. They also stressed the importance of breast feeding for proper nutrition. We finally said goodbye to our two new friends and waited for our ride.
The cooks made us chocobananas for our lunch dessert! They were so good! Our Spanish classes were in Casa Silvia that day because the UCA was closed for teacher’s day. So…it was my first day of advanced Spanish. I could understand about 99% of what the professor was saying but it was still hard to speak. We learned about the culture, geography and economy of El Salvador. I am doing okay in the class right now but I think I will struggle when we get to the reading part. I am by far the weakest in the class…which I am not used to.
That day I heard that there were two Marquette professors in the area. One of our leaders invited them to dinner. I knew that one of them taught biomedical stuff so I assumed it was a biomedical sciences teacher. Turns out, he was not from my major; he was a biomedical engineering professor. He was super cool and was here promoting and testing a medical device, that he created. He created a human powered nebulizer. It is made from a bicycle frame and the healthcare provider will pedal while the patient uses the device. The other professor was from the theology department. She is actually close friends with Dr. Dempsey who wrote my letter of recommendation for this program! Small world!
By the way…there are rats in the house and that morning we found one caught in our traps. It was huge! Yuck!
Saturday night: A group of us went out to dinner at a “pupusaria”. We all ate pupusas and I had a Coke. I had a pupusa with just beans and another with cheese and chicken. They were both good, especially the bean one. After that we all had a reflection night.
Sunday: My two friends and I went to the grocery store that is down the street. It is called La Despensea and it is actually owned by Wal-Mart. It was extremely nice inside and had all American food and local food too. I used the ATM there so I was somewhat nervous that someone would follow me haha. We asked at some nearby pharmacies for phone cards but none of them had any.
My roommate Hannah is from Minneapolis but her grandpa is from El Salvador. Her family here gave her a cell phone and everyone from all sides of the family have been calling her all the time. We all joke about it because she is getting really frustrated with all these people calling her speaking Spanish. She was with her family all day Sunday. From 8:30 am until dinner…she was wiped out after she got back. I cannot even imagine being with a family all day that only spoke Spanish! It would be so difficult.
Later in the afternoon I went to lunch with Claire, Angela, Olivia, Stacey and Allison. We had pupusas….hm, surprising. Every single restaurant around here pretty much only has pupusas so it is really hard to find anything else to eat! I am already sick of it. For dinner, a group of us cooked some pasta with garlic bread. Two of the girls bought us all popsicles from the popsicle place we went to on the first day. They are so good! That night we had a meeting about our praxis sites and kind of what to expect for the first day. I went to bed early because we leave for our site at 7:30 am every morning!
Monday: In the morning the kids going to Maternidad hospital and the Children’s hospital, Bloom, went in the same van. The traffic was horrible and it took us about 30 to 35 minutes to get there. I am at Maternidad with two other girls. Claire is from Marquette and is doing the same major as I am, Biomedical Sciences, but she is a year older. Marcia attends Santa Clara but she is originally from Hawaii. When we arrived we went to the nurse’s office to meet up with one of the chief nurses that would take us to our area. For the first day, we were in the area where moms who had their babies by natural birth were stationed. They typically stay in the area for 24 to 36 hours. There are 5 women to a room and most of them have their babies with them. There are two rooms for adolescents (under 18). There are also rooms called “delicadas” for more delicate cases (kind of like an ICU) like preeclampsia, diabetes or other complications from birth. Finally, there is a room for women with infectious diseases like HIV.
The head nurse in the area took us around and introduced us to healthcare providers in her area. There were nursing and medical students from the national university in our area practicing too. We talked to a lot of the nursing students. We saw the area where the doctor can do a vaginal exam if necessary. It was literally a storage closet with lockers and some old metal table that the women lay on. The conditions are unbelievable. The first thing we observed was the nursing students washing the babies and teaching the moms how to properly wash the babies. They had two little carts that they pushed around from room to room. One was a washing station with buckets of water, soap and cotton. The other cart was stacked with clean clothe to re-wrap the babies. For cleaning the babies, they first cleaned the face with pieces of wet cotton. Second, they unwrapped the baby from his or her clothe (they are literally bundled in little white clothe blanket things). Next they: cleaned the poop etc, got their hands wet with soap, washed the babies hair, arms, stomach, back and legs, wiped them down with a wet washcloth, and dried them with a dry washcloth. Finally, they cleaned the umbilical cord with alcohol swabs. The baby was then re-wrapped and returned to the mother. This washing took a very long time because there were probably about 40 babies. Next, we observed the nursing students giving the babies their first shots.
After observing various things, we made some small talk with the moms. We asked simple questions like the name of their baby, where they lived and how old they were. The majority of the staff went to lunch at 11:20 am so we were kind of left alone haha.
At about 11:40 am we returned to the nurses’ office to get our bags because we were getting picked up at noon. We proceeded outside and waited across the street for our driver. The area was extremely busy with vendors, doctors, students and nurses (the hospital is in an area with like four other hospitals and we are in the downtown). It was somewhat scary, especially since every single person was starring at us three white girls. A doctor passed by and said hi while we were sitting on the curb. He returned like two minutes later and asked if we were scared sitting out there alone and if we had valuables. He insisted that it would be better if we stayed behind the gate of the hospital because we were not safe. We agreed and after we were behind the gate he told us about some protest that was about to start. Supposedly, the lawyers and police were in a disagreement and today was some public argument and confrontation. He said the rally was coming our way from the center of San Salvador and it would be very dangerous out there. Long story short….we ended up waiting a really long time for our ride and a lot more people crowded the area outside the hospital gate. Muchas gracias to that doctor haha.
Later that afternoon we had our Spanish class placement test. There were two forms and I chose the more difficult one. That was not such a great idea haha. I did not take a Spanish class this past semester so my verb conjugations and vocabulary was VERY rusty. Then we had an oral part with the teacher. WOW…I sucked it up and could barely think of things to say. I drew a blank. But, I ended up getting placed into the advanced class. Don’t even ask me how that happened. I still think they made a mistake and put me in the wrong group. (There are three different levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced.) The teacher took us to the bookstore and showed us what book we needed to buy. It was a 350 page novel completely in Spanish. I freaked out for a minute and convinced myself that I needed to switch to the intermediate class. We are going to read the whole book for the advanced class. Later that night I talked to our leaders and told them that I will sit in the advanced class to see how it is but that I might need to put in the middle class. The other kids in my class are more advanced than me, by far.
Anyways, after the class we went to Trena and Kevin’s house. They are the co-directors of the program and they started it like 12 years ago with a Jesuit priest. They have four little girls and they have all lived here since the program started. The kids attend the local international school where they learn English and Spanish. The one little girl, Grace, who is 8, can speak Spanish just like a Salvadoran even though they all speak English at home. Trena made us cookies or “Trena treats”, as everyone calls them here.
We had dinner and a cleaning party that night.
Tuesday: We returned to Maternidad at 8 am but the one girl Marcia was sick so it was just two of us for the day. We were in the same area as Monday. First, we followed the nurse that was changing the bed sheets and giving clean gowns to the women so they could go shower. We watched one nurse clean two women in the ICU rooms. She used iodine to clean their private regions because they had infections or something. I do not really know too many Spanish medical terms so it is difficult to understand a lot of things the nurses are saying.
We met one girl who had been in the ICU area for 8 days already. She was only 16. We asked her simple questions and talked about her siblings. She did not have a baby with her so we asked where her baby was because sometimes the babies are in the neonatal ICU upstairs or they went home already. She tried to explain why her baby was not there. I did not really understand so she finally said “se murío” which means “he died”. I was shocked and just kept apologizing. She seemed fine with it all though. It was strange. She then said “it’s probably for the better”, most likely realizing, “yeah I’m 16, I shouldn’t have a baby.” She gave birth when she was only 6 months pregnant so I’m assuming the baby was too premature to survive but I’m not sure.
We met one doctor and a medical student that was following him. They were both very nice and said they could speak a little English. I have realized here, so many people say, “I speak a little English” and they speak much better English than my Spanish! Both of them spoke great English! The doctor had a pocket radio and was listening the World Cup the entire day haha. He kept updating us on the scores and said that he predicts that Argentina and Holland will be in the final game! YES, GO HOLLAND!
We observed more baby-washing. There were 4 babies in the hallway whose mothers were still in the pre-op because they had cesarean sections. We got to feed them bottles and then observe them getting cleaned. I got to hold one of the babies for a few seconds.
Later on, we met one mom who spoke excellent English. She actually taught English to little kids on Saturdays and Sundays at the local University. They give free English classes on those days. As we were talking to her, the doctor came in and gave her the waiver to go home that day. She was so excited, especially because her husband had not seen their baby yet. They only allow visitors in the hospital from noon until 2pm. She was incredibly nice and so fun to talk with. She is probably the only happy story that I have seen so far.
Next we sat in on the meeting for mothers that were going home that day. The doctors just expressed the necessity to shower, brush your teeth, drink clean water and eat healthy. They also stressed the importance of breast feeding for proper nutrition. We finally said goodbye to our two new friends and waited for our ride.
The cooks made us chocobananas for our lunch dessert! They were so good! Our Spanish classes were in Casa Silvia that day because the UCA was closed for teacher’s day. So…it was my first day of advanced Spanish. I could understand about 99% of what the professor was saying but it was still hard to speak. We learned about the culture, geography and economy of El Salvador. I am doing okay in the class right now but I think I will struggle when we get to the reading part. I am by far the weakest in the class…which I am not used to.
That day I heard that there were two Marquette professors in the area. One of our leaders invited them to dinner. I knew that one of them taught biomedical stuff so I assumed it was a biomedical sciences teacher. Turns out, he was not from my major; he was a biomedical engineering professor. He was super cool and was here promoting and testing a medical device, that he created. He created a human powered nebulizer. It is made from a bicycle frame and the healthcare provider will pedal while the patient uses the device. The other professor was from the theology department. She is actually close friends with Dr. Dempsey who wrote my letter of recommendation for this program! Small world!
By the way…there are rats in the house and that morning we found one caught in our traps. It was huge! Yuck!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
BUSY!
I don't have time to write anything because we are SO BUSY.
we have been in the hospitals and spanish class for the last three days. I have soo much to write about when I find time.
we have been in the hospitals and spanish class for the last three days. I have soo much to write about when I find time.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Last night we had dinner at a local campo (like countryside) house with a past becaria student. We were at her parents' house and they have 11 kids! I like about 9 of them were there. It was a typical campo house, very wide open with a few small rooms and lots of people and animals. We all received hugs and some kisses haha. Christina, the past becaria student, had lots of ice-breaker games planned for all of us. They were so much fun. First we all stood in a circle, said our name and then had to say the name of everyone that went before us. If you forgot one of the names (there were like 25 of us) then you had to pick from the hat of punishments which was basically embarrassing things you had to do. Next we played a game where someone would say "everyone who is...." (i.e. wearing a red shirt, wearing sandals, etc.) then you had to run around and find a new seat. And believe me, that room was so small and we were all crashing into each other. Since the World Cup is big here, the next two games involved soccer. The first one, we all sat in a circle and had to pass a small soccer ball around the circle with our feet. And the final game was outside and we all had to shout little phrases as fast and loudly as we could. One group said "pass the ball", another said "kick out the ref" and the final group said something else...I can't remember. It was really fun, loud and crazy. Our final game was "find someone who.." and then you walked around the room finding someone who fit the description on the game paper. FINALLY, we sat down to get some food. One of the sons, Michael, spoke to us all about his experiences. He is currently studying medicine in Cuba through a scholarship program from the Cuban government. He taught us a lot of valuable information about Cuba's health care system, El Salvador's system and how they compare. He was very nice and intelligent. Eventually the whole thing turned into a discussion about Cuba's government and how poorly the United States talks about it and most of what the US says are lies. It was an extremely long conversation and a lot of the family spoke. The food was from a restaurant near the Casas and I didn't really like it at all so I only took a few bites. BUT our Casa cooks made a lot of cookies so I ate a ton of those and some hot chocolate. After the food the family put on a little concert for us. Christina sarcastically introduced them saying stuff like "the famous...the one and only...here for the greatest concert in the world..." haha she was extremely enthusiastic, loud, funny and really great. They were all really good guitar players and singers. Everyone started dancing and it was really fun. We didn't leave until 11:30 at night!
Anyways....After this we meet with a woman named Guadalupe who had survived the war in the rural area. She was a very nice older Salvadoran woman with a lot to tell. We meet her at a local monument. It was a large wall of the names of the people that were murdered or disappeared in the war.
After meeting Guadalupe we drove up to the top of the San Salvador volcano. We ate lunch at this BEAUTIFUL cafe. The seating was all outside under huge orange trees and there were all different levels. The view was amazing. You could see like the whole country.The food was great and I drank fresh squeezed orange juice from oranges right on their land. After lunch we drove further up the mountain/volcano to a lookout point and the top of the crater. The drive was fun...there were little kids selling fresh raspberries and other fruits along the road. One little boy tried to race our vans. The roads were very windy and there were coffee bean trees everywhere. I felt like I was in the rain forest. The one lookout point looked over all of San Salvador. The city is HUGE! I have so many great pictures that I want to put up but I cant fit too many on here. The volcano crater was a little higher up so we hiked there on some, obviously man made, stairs. It was pretty steep. The crater was so deep and large. Because we are in the rainy season everything is super lush green. Otherwise its pretty dusty and brown I guess. I will type some more later. (once again...i didn't proofread sorry) Adios!
Friday, June 18, 2010
More tours...
So I was not able to finish my last post because I had to return to the Casa....I will continue where I left off...
On Wednesday, it started to rain very hard as we were trying to leave for the UCA. It has rained on and off every day; it goes from being beating hot to pouring rain to hot again. The UCA was so beautiful. There are huge trees, flowers and gardens everywhere. We toured the Oscar Romero Center and learned so much about him and the 6 Jesuit priests that were murdered on the UCA grounds in 1989 during the war. The US gave over 6 billion dollars to the Salvadoran government during the war and it turns out that the government was killing thousands, including the priests. We saw the residence where the 6 priests were killed and the rose garden and musuem dedicated to them. After the UCA we bought some phone cards and returned to the Casa for dinner. Later that evening we had a doctor come to speak to us about public health and the healthcare system in El Salvador and how it compares to the US. He was actually the mayor of San Salvador for 2 terms and he has studied at John Hopkins and Harvard! After the speaker we had our first Wednesday night reflection and it was kind of emotional. I miss home A LOT...its weird here.
Yesterday we visited the two clinics that we will be working in and one of the hospitals. Fundacion de Desarollo Social is the clinic that is right near the Casas. That is the clinic that I will be in for the 3rd and 4th week. It was very nice and well organized (for the country, you know). They had a lot of specialized doctors: eye doctor, ear nose and throat doctor, dentists, physical therapists, and a few more. This clinic is private and run by non governmental organizations (NGOs). The patients pay what they can towards their care and if they cannot pay, the clinic will cover the cost. The second clinic we went to was out in a more rural area. It was extremely poor and had a lot of crime. I am glad that I am not working there...no offense. Their facility was lacking and obviously in a third world country. It was run by a church and on their church grounds they also had a school, pre-school and library for the kids. Afterwards we returned to the Casas for lunch.
After lunch we left for our tour of the maternity hospital, where I will be working for the first two weeks. Maternidad Hospital is the all woman public hospital. About 80% of the population gets public health from the government, which is free, but the conditions are terrible. It was clearly unsterilized with open medicine and liquid bottles everywhere. Some of the babies were just in the middle of the hallway, some patients had to share a bed and a lot of the babies in the ICU had to share incubators. So many of the pregnant moms were like 15. They had a high-risk pregnancy area, an oncology area (breast and ovarian cancer), infectious disease area, ER, neonatal ICU, and a birthing area. When we work there we will follow nurses and we will spend time in the nursery with the babies. After the tour we returned to the Casas and I ran to the internet cafe really quick because we had a speaker scheduled at 5pm. The speaker canceled so I came back to the cafe but then some of the other kids came over here to tell me that now he was coming. The speaker was Rick Jones from Catholic Relief Services. He has traveled the world working for them and now heads CRS in El Salvador. He taught us a HUGE amount of information about El Salvador's culture, economy, poverty, health care and lifestyle.
We had dinner with the Salvadoran Scholarship students whose program is associated with the Casa. They all attend the UCA and live in community together like us. The older students live in the Casa houses with us..two to each house. There are about 30 "Becarios" and they are mostly from the rural areas. We ate pupusas (the most popular Salvadoran food) which are tortillas stuffed with either beans, cheese, pork or both. For dessert we had this amazing homemade apple pie. It was sooo good! We all ate with small groups of Casa students and becarios. Almost none of them can speak English so we had to speak Spanish. I can understand pretty well what people are saying in Spanish but it is very hard for me to speak it. Maybe some of you have learned another language but the hardest thing is putting into words what you are trying to say and conjugating the verbs. After dinner a few of the becarios started playing the guitar and singing. I went to the bathroom quick and when I returned everyone was dancing and singing. We sang and danced to classic Salvadoran songs and then said our goodbyes. Two of the becarios that are living with us shared their 'testimonies' or life stories afterward. They both had lived through the war in the rural area which was hard.
This morning my alarm didn't go off so my roommate woke me up ten minutes before we had to leave haha. We had our first Public Health class today at the UCA. It was very interesting but kind of a repeat of what the doctor taught us Wednesday night. The teacher is very nice and we have a translator there in case she cant translate what she wants to say to English. Her English is pretty good and I can understand her pretty well. We then walked back as a group and waited for lunch. We talked with one of the becaria girls while we waited; she's so nice. Lunch was fish today; they were basically crab cakes but made with tilipia fish. I tried half of one and it was pretty good but I really don't like fish. Oh and we always have fresh fruit like mango and pineapple....the fruit is always so delicious. By the way....there are bugs everywhere! We had three HUGE cockroaches in my house yesterday. IT WAS HORRIBLE! I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE! And the mosquitos are really bad. I am getting bitten as we speak.
After lunch we visited the public children's hospital, called Bloom, where another group of students will be working. It was very large and a little more organized/ sterile than Maternidad. They had a burn unit, multiple surgery departments, intensive care units and neonatal areas. It was pretty advanced for the area. Afterward, we visited the museum of popular art. They had a lot of work from the rural areas and lots of these local "surprises" which are little wooden egg-shaped pieces. You can open them and there are painted scenes with people in the inside.
Right now I am waiting to leave for dinner at this local family's house. They are close friends of the Casa and have a lot of kids. All of the kids are supposedly really talented, musically or other stuff. I am having fun but it's still really strange here. Tomorrow we are going to the big cathedral downtown where Oscar Romero was assassinated. We will then climb the San Salvador volcano and eat lunch up there.
Got to go. I didn't read over this so sorry for the mistakes!
-Valerie
On Wednesday, it started to rain very hard as we were trying to leave for the UCA. It has rained on and off every day; it goes from being beating hot to pouring rain to hot again. The UCA was so beautiful. There are huge trees, flowers and gardens everywhere. We toured the Oscar Romero Center and learned so much about him and the 6 Jesuit priests that were murdered on the UCA grounds in 1989 during the war. The US gave over 6 billion dollars to the Salvadoran government during the war and it turns out that the government was killing thousands, including the priests. We saw the residence where the 6 priests were killed and the rose garden and musuem dedicated to them. After the UCA we bought some phone cards and returned to the Casa for dinner. Later that evening we had a doctor come to speak to us about public health and the healthcare system in El Salvador and how it compares to the US. He was actually the mayor of San Salvador for 2 terms and he has studied at John Hopkins and Harvard! After the speaker we had our first Wednesday night reflection and it was kind of emotional. I miss home A LOT...its weird here.
Yesterday we visited the two clinics that we will be working in and one of the hospitals. Fundacion de Desarollo Social is the clinic that is right near the Casas. That is the clinic that I will be in for the 3rd and 4th week. It was very nice and well organized (for the country, you know). They had a lot of specialized doctors: eye doctor, ear nose and throat doctor, dentists, physical therapists, and a few more. This clinic is private and run by non governmental organizations (NGOs). The patients pay what they can towards their care and if they cannot pay, the clinic will cover the cost. The second clinic we went to was out in a more rural area. It was extremely poor and had a lot of crime. I am glad that I am not working there...no offense. Their facility was lacking and obviously in a third world country. It was run by a church and on their church grounds they also had a school, pre-school and library for the kids. Afterwards we returned to the Casas for lunch.
After lunch we left for our tour of the maternity hospital, where I will be working for the first two weeks. Maternidad Hospital is the all woman public hospital. About 80% of the population gets public health from the government, which is free, but the conditions are terrible. It was clearly unsterilized with open medicine and liquid bottles everywhere. Some of the babies were just in the middle of the hallway, some patients had to share a bed and a lot of the babies in the ICU had to share incubators. So many of the pregnant moms were like 15. They had a high-risk pregnancy area, an oncology area (breast and ovarian cancer), infectious disease area, ER, neonatal ICU, and a birthing area. When we work there we will follow nurses and we will spend time in the nursery with the babies. After the tour we returned to the Casas and I ran to the internet cafe really quick because we had a speaker scheduled at 5pm. The speaker canceled so I came back to the cafe but then some of the other kids came over here to tell me that now he was coming. The speaker was Rick Jones from Catholic Relief Services. He has traveled the world working for them and now heads CRS in El Salvador. He taught us a HUGE amount of information about El Salvador's culture, economy, poverty, health care and lifestyle.
We had dinner with the Salvadoran Scholarship students whose program is associated with the Casa. They all attend the UCA and live in community together like us. The older students live in the Casa houses with us..two to each house. There are about 30 "Becarios" and they are mostly from the rural areas. We ate pupusas (the most popular Salvadoran food) which are tortillas stuffed with either beans, cheese, pork or both. For dessert we had this amazing homemade apple pie. It was sooo good! We all ate with small groups of Casa students and becarios. Almost none of them can speak English so we had to speak Spanish. I can understand pretty well what people are saying in Spanish but it is very hard for me to speak it. Maybe some of you have learned another language but the hardest thing is putting into words what you are trying to say and conjugating the verbs. After dinner a few of the becarios started playing the guitar and singing. I went to the bathroom quick and when I returned everyone was dancing and singing. We sang and danced to classic Salvadoran songs and then said our goodbyes. Two of the becarios that are living with us shared their 'testimonies' or life stories afterward. They both had lived through the war in the rural area which was hard.
This morning my alarm didn't go off so my roommate woke me up ten minutes before we had to leave haha. We had our first Public Health class today at the UCA. It was very interesting but kind of a repeat of what the doctor taught us Wednesday night. The teacher is very nice and we have a translator there in case she cant translate what she wants to say to English. Her English is pretty good and I can understand her pretty well. We then walked back as a group and waited for lunch. We talked with one of the becaria girls while we waited; she's so nice. Lunch was fish today; they were basically crab cakes but made with tilipia fish. I tried half of one and it was pretty good but I really don't like fish. Oh and we always have fresh fruit like mango and pineapple....the fruit is always so delicious. By the way....there are bugs everywhere! We had three HUGE cockroaches in my house yesterday. IT WAS HORRIBLE! I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE! And the mosquitos are really bad. I am getting bitten as we speak.
After lunch we visited the public children's hospital, called Bloom, where another group of students will be working. It was very large and a little more organized/ sterile than Maternidad. They had a burn unit, multiple surgery departments, intensive care units and neonatal areas. It was pretty advanced for the area. Afterward, we visited the museum of popular art. They had a lot of work from the rural areas and lots of these local "surprises" which are little wooden egg-shaped pieces. You can open them and there are painted scenes with people in the inside.
Right now I am waiting to leave for dinner at this local family's house. They are close friends of the Casa and have a lot of kids. All of the kids are supposedly really talented, musically or other stuff. I am having fun but it's still really strange here. Tomorrow we are going to the big cathedral downtown where Oscar Romero was assassinated. We will then climb the San Salvador volcano and eat lunch up there.
Got to go. I didn't read over this so sorry for the mistakes!
-Valerie
Thursday, June 17, 2010
So on the plane ride from Houston to San Salvador I had the privilege of sitting next to a father and son from San Salvador. They moved to Texas two years ago and have not been back since then. The father could not speak English but I could understand what he was saying and the son would translate anyways. The son was about ten years old, very nice and spoke very good English. I taught him how to play the "Go Fish" card game and father taught us how to play "trienta y uno" or "31". It was basically blackjack.
Anyways, as we flew into San Salvador we went over the ocean coast which was surrounded by mountains; everything was so lush green and beautiful. We landed and the airport looked like a cheaper version of a small American airport. We waited to purchase our ten dollar tourist card (we waited forever because we got stuck behind a high school church group from Ohio), got our luggage, went through "customs" haha and exited. It was like 95 degrees, beating sun, and so humid. I thought I was going to die. We then met with the other Casa students, staff and buses. We drove about 30 minutes to our houses which are in the area called Antiguo Cuscatlan. The rural area was so pretty but the civilians lived in horrible conditions. Our house is about an 8 to 10 minute walk from the UCA or University of Central America. That is where we will be starting our Spanish class on monday. These next few days are orientation and tours of the area. I am living in Casa Silvia and a few photos of it are on Santa Clara's website.
When we arrived at the Casas, we ate lunch, moved into our rooms and met the cooks and other staff. Both houses, Romero and Silvia, are very nice for the area that we are in. We have eaten all of our meals in Romero so far and it is literally two houses away from Silvia. The food is good, lots of rice, beans and tortillas. We have had these like potato omelet-like things, these fried rolled up green beans with cheese, fried chicken and fish. For breakfast we just serve ourselves cereal or bread with peanut butter. For the remainder of Tuesday we took a tour of the town, ate some awesome popsicles and played Apples to Apples. That night I took my first ICE COLD shower...it was horrible!
On wednesday we started our orientation. We did an ice-breaker and talked about rules, safety, health and the culture. We then ate lunch, heard our Community Coordinators suggestions/experiences, and watched a film on the Salvadoran Civil War from 1980 to 1992.
I will write more a little later...sorry !!!
Anyways, as we flew into San Salvador we went over the ocean coast which was surrounded by mountains; everything was so lush green and beautiful. We landed and the airport looked like a cheaper version of a small American airport. We waited to purchase our ten dollar tourist card (we waited forever because we got stuck behind a high school church group from Ohio), got our luggage, went through "customs" haha and exited. It was like 95 degrees, beating sun, and so humid. I thought I was going to die. We then met with the other Casa students, staff and buses. We drove about 30 minutes to our houses which are in the area called Antiguo Cuscatlan. The rural area was so pretty but the civilians lived in horrible conditions. Our house is about an 8 to 10 minute walk from the UCA or University of Central America. That is where we will be starting our Spanish class on monday. These next few days are orientation and tours of the area. I am living in Casa Silvia and a few photos of it are on Santa Clara's website.
When we arrived at the Casas, we ate lunch, moved into our rooms and met the cooks and other staff. Both houses, Romero and Silvia, are very nice for the area that we are in. We have eaten all of our meals in Romero so far and it is literally two houses away from Silvia. The food is good, lots of rice, beans and tortillas. We have had these like potato omelet-like things, these fried rolled up green beans with cheese, fried chicken and fish. For breakfast we just serve ourselves cereal or bread with peanut butter. For the remainder of Tuesday we took a tour of the town, ate some awesome popsicles and played Apples to Apples. That night I took my first ICE COLD shower...it was horrible!
On wednesday we started our orientation. We did an ice-breaker and talked about rules, safety, health and the culture. We then ate lunch, heard our Community Coordinators suggestions/experiences, and watched a film on the Salvadoran Civil War from 1980 to 1992.
I will write more a little later...sorry !!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Ready to go....
So I leave tomorrow at 5:50am. I will arrive at El Salvador's airport at 11:18am. They are one hour behind Milwaukee time.
I will look for the nearest internet cafe to our house. Hopefully I can find one extra close...
Wish me luck!
I will look for the nearest internet cafe to our house. Hopefully I can find one extra close...
Wish me luck!
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