Bernardino

While I am sufficiently tired after today’s activities, this was actually the first day (barring the day of my arrival) that I didn’t mix (and shovel) concrete. Two nights ago, I met up with an Engineers Without Borders group from Rice University with whom I had been in email contact prior to coming down here. They are here to build a health clinic in one of the remote communities in “El Campo”—the general name of a collection of rural communities surrounding San Juan del Sur—called Bernardino. I come into play because their project is being split into two parts, since they are only able visit for a week in March and a week in May, around their school vacations. So I am going to make sure that the community finishes the foundation in the interim, between the EWB group’s two trips. (The first picture was taken by one of the Nica children in the community, who by the way, loved using my camera. The second picture is of the whole group of workers including the EWB group, Julio the foreman, Miguel the driver and general helping hand extraordinaire, a group of men from Bernardino, and some others).

Today, it was back to La Clinica, the private clinic that is coordinating many of the public health projects in the area, particularly, the water filter project that I am working on. I reviewed with Doctora Anna Patricia how to take someone’s blood pressure (the BP cuff needed a bit of repairing, but after a day with the EWB group, the engineering spirit guided me to success!) and practiced on a few people in the pharmacy and the clinic. There are two clinics in San Juan del Sur. I am still trying to understand the interplay between the two, but I know that one is public and the other is private. The public clinic seems to cater more to emergency medicine, whereas the private one (the one that I am connected to) seems to be the coordinating body for other public health projects, an adult education school, family planning, etc.

In the afternoon, I spent some more time in the clinic, and then went to the Biblioteca Movil (Mobil Library) to study my Spanish. I learned that this is a the only lending library in Nicaragua and the Director, Jane, wishes to make this a prototype for other libraries around the world. They drive into El Campo with books and allow schoolchildren to borrow, read, and then return them; their return rate is 97%--on par with the U.S. libraries. In the evening, I went to a going away party for one of the employees at the library and was able to meet others who work there still. One of my challenges over the next few weeks is going to be, simply, learning about all the projects in this town.