Nicaragua 2008, Week 1 Team
Nicaragua 2008, Week 2 Team
Friday, February 1
¡Hola!
Like I said yesterday, today we had a half day clinic and saw about 100 people. Our clinic today was a two room school, 20x20 at the most. Afterwards, we and the boys here spent a couple of hours at a nearby beach. Although we got ripped off, being charged almost $70 just for 12 sodas, we all had a fun time. When we got back we had dinner and sorted the leftover medicine. Tomorrow is our free day, and we are going to the Mombachu Volcano (some are chosing to go to the town of Granada) and do the zip line! After that we're going out to eat and then spending our last night here in Nicaragua. I'm sure we will all be sad to leave, but happy to be home and see you.
- Katie Ishler and the Week Two Team
Thursday, January 31
¡Hola!
Right now I'm sitting in the "boys house", while most people are outside playing cards. Today we sadly left the orpahange at Jinotega and drove down to the orphanage here in Los Cedros. On the way we stopped at a market for a couple of hours, and arrived here at about 5. Tomorrow we are going to have a half day clinic, and then spend a couple hours at a nearby beach. The weather here in Managua is much warmer than in Jinotega, its probably somewhere in the mid 80s right now (sorry about your freezing rain..).Some people were surprised that the loud and frequent noises weren't coming from a bird, but from tiny geckos scurrying around. Hope things are well and we are all thinking of you.
Katie Ishler and Week Two Team
Wednesday, January 30
Hello Again,
It's almost 8:00 and we just finished another long day. Today we saw almost 250 people! Usually we only see people with tickets, but since we had so much extra medicine today we saw as many as we could. Tomorrow we are heading down to the other orpahange in Los Cedros, Managua. We won't be having a clinic tomorrow since we'll be traveling, but we will have one on Friday. Today after our clinic we drove into town and picked up our coffee order, and went to Pali, the Nicaraguan version of Wal-Mart. I know we'll all be sad leaving the kids here, it's so easy to get attached to them. I'm not sure if there will be internet access in the other orphanage, but I will write again when I can.
- Katie Ishler and week two team
Tuesday, January 29
¡Hola!,
Its around 9:00 and we're all exhausted from a long day. Yesterday we went to a town called Pueblo Nuevo, and were able to use the left over medicine and serve a little less than 200 people. The weather was very warm, but also very windy. We were able to work well as a team together, and people were very happy and grateful to see us. We gave out some prayer shawls both yesterday and today to older women, and they loved them. Today we went to a town called Asturias and helped around 150 people. We still managed to serve to the best of our abilities with the leftover medicine we had. We were all very pleased to see when we came back to the orphanage that our medicine had arrived! Leanne Corbin from the orphanage in Managua spent hours dealing with the customs officials, and we were able to finally get our documents signed and our medicine approved. This will make tomorrow and Friday's clinic run very smoothly. Francis, Marvin, Irma, Angelica are all kids from this orphanage who have been coming to the clinics with us to help translate. Francis has been with me up front in the intake, writing down peoples names, age, and translating their symptoms from Spanish to English. I wouldn't be able to understand the long names without her! Dave is also working in intake, and Francis enjoys making fun of us when we say something incorrect in spanish. Today there were two patients in particular that stood out. One little boy who was around 4 had an abscess on his head that had been there for only a couple of days, and my mom, Caryl Waite, had to open it with a pocket knife! Also, the very last patient we saw was a lady who had fell and had a stroke two years ago, paralyzing her left side completely. We were able to give her a splint, and are sending her a cane so she can walk.
Tomorrow we are heading to a town north of Jinotega, and are planning to see around the same number of patients. After the clinic we are going to a coffee mill to pick up our coffee order and enjoy some cheap but delicious coffee (hot chocolate for me please). Tomorrow is our last day in this orphanage in Jinotega, Thursday morning we are traveling back down to Managua to another orpahange that has teenage boys and infants. It's only 9:20 and half of us our in bed right now! I will write again as soon as I can. Everyone sends their love.- Katie Ishler and Week 2 Team
Hello,
It´s about 7 here and we just finished eating dinner, which to my surprise did not include rice and beans...but our breakfast this morning did! We went to a church service in Managua this morning, which had a lot of singing and was very fun. Afterwards we got on our bus, an old yellow schoolbus, and drove to the Nicaraguan version of Mcdonalds ¨Tip Top¨ to eat. After that we got on our beloved bus again and started the journey to Jinotega, where we are now. It took us about 3 hours, and were very pleased to see that the roads have been paved! That makes the bus trips faster, and much less nauseating. We were able to get some left over medication from the orpahange in Managua, and are now sorting it. Unfortunately about half of it has expired, but we think we´ll have enough for the clinic tomorrow. We´re all very tired, I´ll be surprised if anyone makes it past nine tonight! Tomorrow we´ll take a 45 minute bus trip to the clinic site, and we´re expected to see around 200 patients. Even though our medication was taken away, we have been told that it´s okay for us to do the clinic tomorrow by Leanne, who is the head of one of the orphanages. Hopefully we won´t be told tomorrow that we can´t do it, so say a prayer! The kids here are great and so friendly. One little boy in particular, Pepito, loves giving massages and hanging upside down from your waist! I will write again tomorrow evening, hopefully with good news!
Hasta Mañana,
Katie Ishler and week two team
Saturday, January 26
Hello everyone.
We literally just walked into the hotel at Managua minutes ago, people are still situating their baggage right now. Unforunately, our medicine got confiscated at the airport. Apparently we cant get the medicine until someone from the Ministry of Health brings certain paperwork, and were hoping that happens by Monday. Although that was very dissapointing, we are all here safe, which is the most important thing. Its around 85 degrees out and very humid. Im still trying to figure out this keyboard! If you couldnt tell I havent found out how to get to the apostrophe yet! haha. Tomorrow we are going to a church service in the morning, and then traveling by bus to the orphanage in Jinotega. I need to go help get everything situated, but I wanted to let you know that we are safe! I will write again as soon as I can.
Katie Ishler & Week 2 Team