Adios y Hola

So I just got the airport 2 hours earlier and there is free wireless!!!  Yeah it is so nice to use my own computer!   Yes, so it is a transition weekend- leaving Costa Rica and coming into Nicaragua.  I am actually really sad to leave my family here and the country too.  My family was a mom and her two daughters, one in university and one who was 10 years old and adorable!  She gave me a “I love you” card when I left   I really liked the family and house.  It was small compared to others where the whole extended family lived together (another had 18 people!)  which was really fun because then we really got to know the family and practice our espanol as well!  The country of Costa Rica is wonderful too!  SOOOOO beautiful.  San Jose is in a valley, so everywhere you look there are these bright, colorful houses against the green landscape.  Gorgeous!  The people are generally friendly too.  The food was also good- lots of pineapple, mango, and papaya.  Me gusta!  We definitely lived in the capital city, which was a pretty big city and similar to other American cities in terms of lots of young people, very international, pretty dirty, crowded, lively.  It was interesting living and studying here in this city and then travelling to the smaller towns on the weekends.  I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I’m a city girl.  The weekend trips were amazing!  I loved doing all these fun activities outdoors!  Last weekend we went to La Fortuna and Volan Arenal.  About 8 of us did the same hike up the crater lake!  I think that was my favorite thing too!  Some of us swam all the way across which was so eerie because in the middle, you can’t see anything!  We were literally swimming in a cloud!

In terms of culture, I was surprised here when talking to the family by the large amount of infidelity among the men that has left many families as solely female and many very young single mothers.  Most of our host families did not have fathers, especially among young people and the generation right above us.  Similarly with that, PDA is not frowned upon in public places such as the mall or bus stops.  Family is also super important to them as most extended families still live together or close by.  My host family all lived on the same street, even the divorced father and his parents.  The children don’t leave the house until marriage, so even when going to university, they live at home.  Our host girl lived at home and went to university only 3 days a week.  I do like how important family is and the respect of elders.  I wonder if this will be similar or different in Nicaragua. I am going to a small town of about 33,000 people which I sincerely look forward to just as a difference from here.

Classes here have been good but I’m not sure how useful.  Spanish definitely, medical instruments, we will see!  I have learned so much Spanish- 3 different tenses and sooo much vocabulary.  I hope that I will be able to at least get my point across within conversations.  I am by no means comfortable, but I am sure that next month I will be practice all that I have learned and hopefully won’t have to think so much. Our lab consisted mostly of taking apart medical equipment that we brought, which was very interesting but perhaps not super educational. I am so worried that when we show up at the hospital next week, we won’t have a clue what we are doing.   I am without a doubt much better prepared than when I left, so that is really all I can ask for!  I really look forward to hopefully giving back and helping people though!  I think this last month I gained a lot more than I gave, so I hope this month I will be able to give more.

The hospitals that we visited here in Costa Rica were really nice.  They were very equipped in terms of medical equipment with X-rays, ECGs, ORs, ERs.  We went to one hospital in San Ramon and another in Tirialba.  All of the staff that we met (mostly technicians, mechanics) were very knowledge and took great pride in their hospital.  The one in San Ramon even had a butterfly garden and made their own compost! The staff gave us tours of the hospital and even explained the medical system in Costa Rica as it is mostly public and government controlled under the social security system.  I am glad that we visited though so we could see what some hospitals looked like in different countries.  It will be interesting how different Nicaragua is from this too.

The other students on this trip have been absolutely amazing!  Everyone is so incredible- interesting, intelligent and so caring!  I am really going to miss them, having so many people to talk to and travel with.  I hope that everyone in Nicaragua can travel together on the weekends.  I’m really going to miss everyone in Honduras though and I worry about their safety.  It is going to be hard to go from having 26 other students around to just Rita and I, but I hope that it will give us more opportunity to interact with the community then instead of each other.  I look forward to Diriamba and seeing another place, another culture, another family, and another hospital.  I’ll write soon!  Hopefully others will join on and we can hear from them too!

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