An excursion to Granada

I got the chance to go to the historic city of Granada for a few hours. Here are the pictures: click here

Ten things I have learned so far in Nicaragua

1. Truck tire ruts make convenient trails for sewage to run.

2. There are very few diapers, so you stay naked or go in your pants.

3. Most Nicas under the age of 3 are terrified of gringos (i.e. me).

4. Those Nicas will generally scream less if you recruit another child to follow you and hold your hand.

5. It is not an insult to say, “oh you are so fat!”

6. If you have a scale and a measuring tape, some children will assume you are trying to give them a shot and wail accordingly.

7. It is impossible to eat too much rice and beans, and you can eat them at any meal.

8. Electricity and a satellite dish in a 10x10, corrugated metal, dirt floor shack is not unusual.

9. Old bed springs make great fences.

10. It is acceptable behavior to honk wildly and yell out the window to women walking down the street (i.e. me).

A trip to Leon

Yesterday, we went to Leon. It is one of the oldest cities in Nicaragua and was primarily built by the Spanish. It was great to see more of Nicaragua, even though Leon is the hottest city! We took one of the local buses from Leon to the ocean, which is about 20 minutes, but on a bus it ended up being an hour and a half. Just getting on the bus was an adventure, there were so many on it that we had to climb up through the back door (its an old american school bus) and fight our way forward. There is not really the concept of "personal space". When we got the sea, it was beautiful. We got to eat at a restaurant on the beach and then walk along the beach and the bay. I got to be a tourist, which means I took lots of pictures: click here to see them

Children do the darndest things

It has been an eventful week. We have completed 37 surveys so far, and I am happy with our pace. My role during surveying has become to play with the children so they are not terrified when I try to weigh and measure them (besides answering any questions that come up). There was one little boy (a tiny 3 year old) who thought it was hysterically funny to try to tickle my feet. But of course, when I looked at him funny or tried to tickle him, he would scream and run away. This went on for about ten minutes until he somehow stumbled when he was running from my hand reaching out to him and ended up with powdered milk all over him. Which we all thought was pretty funny. After one of my translators (Shyanne), was finished with her part of the survey, he tried to rub the tattoo off of her arm, and when it didn’t work he just rubbed harder. He couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t come off. When it came time to measure him, we wandered across the street to find a straight post to measure him against. When I walked back to where I had left my scale, there were several women crowded around it weighing themselves, giggling, and saying, “you are so fat!” “muy sexy!”. This, of course, made us all laugh hysterically.

Our survey team has an addition, the daughter of community health educator that is working with us. She is probably five or six, and she sticks by my side, always holding my hand, leaning on me or helping me get out my measuring tools. She tries to carry the bag with the scale, but it is quite heavy. I think her presence has made the children generally less scared of me measuring them. Sometimes they think I am going to give them a shot!

I may also be surveying another village that is closer to the project HOPE base, and much poorer than Audilio Blanco. It may be somewhere that Project HOPE starts working. So I will go and see what the situation is and make a map of the area.

And the surveying begins!

Today is my third day in Nicaragua and I have been busy. We went out into the village, Audilio Blanco, where we will be doing the needs assessment and the follow-up surveys from the diarrhea intervention. Project HOPE’s doctor, Melba, introduced us to the Community Health Educators (CHEs) in Audilio Blanco and they agreed to help us with our surveying. When they go before us and explain why we are there, the families respect us more and it goes smoothly. Audilio Blanco has one dirt road that has sewage running down the middle of it. The houses on one side of the street were built by Project HOPE, and are cinder block to the waist, then wood, with a metal roof and cement floor. Many of the other houses (on the other side of the street) are pieced together from whatever could be found and have dirt floors. The first surveys went ok, but the 2 year-olds screamed bloody murder when we tried to weigh them. We have decided that tomorrow we will weigh the mother holding the child and subtract the mother’s weight. Hopefully that will work better! We will go out to the village again and survey all day tomorrow.

I am staying at Project HOPE’s base, and it is beautiful. It includes dorms, offices, a clinic, a dining room, library, and houses where missionaries and some staff live. The buildings form a square, and we have a lovely courtyard in the middle. I took some pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.599727061776.2055933.177502257&type=1&l=8f8da2e880

I'm leaving, on a jet plane...

Did you know that Nicaragua is the second most impoverished country in the western hemisphere? I will be on my way there on Sunday. To prepare for the work there, I have developed a needs assessment survey that we will administer verbally in each household. We will be doing this in a neighborhood called Audilio Blanco which is close to Project HOPE's base (the organization I am going with). It is a community that all of the houses were built in cooperation with Project HOPE. We will be gathering the data in order to show the need for a daycare and feeding center. I will be involved in lots of other projects as well, I will let you know as they happen.

Please pray for my last preparations and saying goodbye to my husband for a month.

New Project in Nicaragua

This summer, as part of the internship for my master of public health program, I will be working in Nicaragua with an organization called Project H.O.P.E. (their website is www.pjhope.org). I will be working on several exciting projects. The first is a needs assessment for a daycare and feeding center. The daycare will be instrumental in helping mothers work and keeping teenage girls in school. I will also be doing follow-up research on the effectiveness of an intervention that taught mothers how to take care of children with diarrhea, a common condition because of poor water quality. Diarrhea is a leading cause of malnutrition among these children, and it can affect their physical, mental, and emotional development. Some other things I may be involved with are free health clinics, Community Health Educator (CHE) visits, a program to educate young new mothers and children's ministry. I am looking forward to these projects, because this is the type of work I would like to make a career of. I appreciate your support, and I could use your prayers. I leave June 10th.