Now what?

Wow so here I am back at Duke and getting back into things.  By no means am I settled in yet but it is truly amazing how much easier is it to get used to the luxurious life in the US and be spoiled by it.  I found myself getting upset already that my wireless internet connection is finicky when I was lucky to get internet for an hour in Nicaragua. I am back to paying 10 dollars for a meal and paying a drink what would be a meal in Nicaragua.  I haven’t spoken Spanish in a long time.  I no longer say Gracias instead of Thank you, Or “Puedo..” to ask for permission.  I haven’t gotten up and sat on our porch in the wind, talked to a parrot or a nun, picked a mango from a tree and eaten it, bartered at the market, picked through Gallo Pinto and sour tofu cheese for every meal, or heard a “Chiquita bonita” either.  And I honestly no longer feel guilty not finishing my food, eating delicacies like cereal, or taking really long, warm showers.  I miss fluttering through the hospital hoping to find Martita the crazy nurse that will make me laugh or Harold to give us advice or Veronica to answer questions. I miss making my own schedule and figuring out what to do with my time and resources.  I miss not having to be anywhere on time.  I miss walking places.  It has been really hard to come straight back to Duke (after the conference of course), so I haven’t yet processed everything.  I am just hope that as I am forced back into this culture, that I will not forget what I learned, saw, and experienced this summer- that I will not conform to the “Duke” culture.  The first night in DC I was upset because I wanted to go back to Nicaragua, where people are happy with what they have.   In DC, the very first night we heard 2 incredible presentations about how these kids built a back-up power generator for one of their many secondary projects in Tanzania (we made posters).  All of a sudden, I was thrown back into the comparison game.  I felt the pressure to be as good as or better than everyone else.  “I just want to go back to Nicaragua,” I thought.  Maybe it is because in Nicaragua, I couldn’t be compared to anyone there because I was so different.  Maybe it is because Nicaraguans don’t compare themselves to each other.  Either way, I liked it, and I want to continue that perspective here at Duke.  I also want to keep the big picture of life and of the world rather than get caught up in which library to study in. No, I can’t refuse food at a restaurant if they give us too much so that they will give it to poor Nicaraguan people.  But I can be thankful that I had so much food, volunteer to help feed the poor in the US, and not take more than I will eat at a buffet so it is not wasted.  I can’t change the country, but I can change the way I live my life.  I’m struggling to determine how to keep my perspective of the world, when my world for the next 6 months is a bubble known as Duke campus.  How do I use what I learned this summer to have an impact?   I don’t know.  But I am going to try.  I would love to use my new Spanish skills to volunteer somewhere (at church, in the hospital) so I also would remember how to speak.  I would love to set up a good equipment donation method online to create communication between donors and donees.  I am worrying that instead I am going to get caught up in my world of studying, swimming, and hanging out with friends (with some med school apps in there).  And then what did the summer accomplish?  What did I change?  Hopefully the lessons I learned will last longer than the 2 months I was there.  I hope that I left the hospital a better place than when we came- I do think so.  We cleaned the neonatal room and fixed the incubator.  I learned what I wanted to do with my life- be a doctor for sure!  I do see things differently now- I am thankful for my incredible education; I appreciate the amazing and numerous opportunities I have growing up in this country with a supportive family and friends; I see that the world as big and has a lot of problems but also a lot of people willing to help, work hard, and love everyone; I realize that most people deep down inside aren’t that different from each other- want to love, be loved, and provide for their families.  Just walking around during orientation now, I don’t assume as much as I used.  I saw a woman moving in a car of stuff by herself, and I really thought she might be going to school herself despite her age.  I see people of different races and don’t immediately stereotype them or think of them as different than me.  I heard the housekeeping workers speaking Spanish and considered joining in.  So even though I haven’t sold my car and apartment and given all my money and clothes to poor people in Nicaragua, I still feel a lasting impact from the summer.  Who knows what God’s real purpose of the summer was? I think that the most important thing now is not to try to live like a Nicaraguan here in the US as that is not possible or intelligent, but to apply the lessons of the summer to my life here- not valuing material possessions, being thankful for what you have, taking time to visit with family and friends and God too, showing respect and love and kindness to others, working hard because you should, thinking about other people over yourself (how to help other people).  It will be a long process to transition back to the fast-paced life at Duke and not miss the quality time in Nicaragua and it will take a while to process everything that happened there.  When people ask me “How was your summer?”, I honestly don’t know where to start or what to say.  “Absolutely amazing” is usually how it goes.  And it was.  I hope that I will always remember it- I know I will at least every time I eat rice and beans.

People make the world go round

We were called Nicaraguans today in the hopes that we would be convinced to stay!  Everyone has been so nice that words can’t even describe it.  This entire experience has blown my mind- words and pictures can’t describe everything I have seen, heard, learned and experienced.  I will absolutely without a doubt miss this place when I leave on Thursday.  As much as I enjoyed Costa Rica, I truly consider Diriamba, Nicaragua my home away from home.  Nicaragua has so much more culture I think that Costa Rica, which is very Americanized with more tourists and Gringos.  Here, I don’t just look twice but actually stare when I see a fellow Gringo.  No wonder everyone looks at us funny here!  We have also been much more involved in the culture here as we live and work in it as just 2 Americans in a town of Nicaraguans.  The people have welcomed us with open arms.  I am so thankful!

We now have a nurse (who’s poco loca) named Martita that yells “I love you” when I walk down the halls, runs up to us and latches arms to walk down the hallways, tells us the latest phrase she learned in English which must be from an entertainment show today’s was introducing a blind date contest, and tries to teach us bad words in English.  Last Tuesday, the adorable receptionist Veronica took Rita and I out for ice cream at the Eskimo shop across town- bought us both banana sundaes which were beyond heavenly!  She sits with us, waits patiently as I ask my millions of questions (slowly because they are in Spanish of course), answers them, gets us permission into the operating room, finds people for us, and even calls all the stores in Managua for us.   Tomorrow, we are going with the other receptionist to Jinotepe to some place but we don’t know where because we can’t understand her Spanish.  We will see.  It is the thought that counts.  The anesthesiologist even asked for our email addresses.  Harold, the technician, answers all of our questions and teaches us whenever he can.  Cheyo, the maintenance man, waved to us as we passed him on his bicycle in the street!  When we were painting the wall, another maternity nurse named Ruth came in to talk to us despite the awful paint fumes to give us advice about how to best do it- aka with a roller rather than a brush.  All of the maternity nurses now know us, smile when we walk by, and try to translate Shannon into a Spanish name.  The closest they got to was Susana. “Sh” sound is not common in Spanish, so no one can say my name.  Rita is much easier.  I tried saying “Shannon like Shaquira”- didn’t help.  The women in the laundry room that wash all of the linens (some in a machine which is quite the novelty, some by hand, and all hung out to dry) say “Buenos Dias Bonitas” we walk by.   The cleaning lady and X-ray technician smile and say hi, and the ayudantes who work in the little store “pssssed” at me today as I walked by to get my attention.  We were riding the bus home from Jinotepe one evening, and the lady sitting next to me works at the hospital and just started talking to me.  When we went around asking all the nurses for info just about the hospital and their needs, everyone was very willing to talk to us.  We have not gotten to know the doctors very well as they seem to always be running around doing something and going somewhere.  Haven’t figured that out yet either since there are not many patients.  The nuns are also always busy, especially Sor Ligia, but we haven’t seen much of them in the past week or so.  And those are just the people in the hospital!

Outside in the town, there are many others too.  Beginning with my stellar family that inspires me beyond reason.  I’ll start with of course, La Doctora, as she is kinda the boss yet never around much.  She is cute, super fit (kinda intimidating when she wears a sleeveless shirt with her high heels), and walks with attitude.  She definitely knows her stuff medically and is always working hard either in the hospital or in the pharmacy or even in the house, all day every day except for Sunday.  People sometimes give me a hard time when I say that I want to have a family and practice medicine.  Heck, this lady reared a daughter as a single mother, practiced as a pediatrician, ran her own clinic and pharmacy, cared for her mother and niece, and still has time to lift weights at the gym, put make-up on, do oatmeal facials, and watch her novellas.  Talk about a role model!  No wonder she walks around like shes important!  The daughter Eulysa, I’m convinced, should be the next Ms. Nicaragua.  She is honestly just beautiful inside and out.  She is studying international business at university, hopes to learn 4 languages and travel the world.  In her spare time, she makes her own adorable jewelry and clothing.  She is just the nicest, cutest girl ever! She is super busy herself too as she is of course very popular with her friends, but she spends every afternoon and weekend working in the pharmacy with her mother.  They are very close, share a room and everything.  She calls her mother her “everything.” The grandmother is also cute. She yawns loud enough for the entire world to hear and shuffles around the house in her slippers, so I always know where she is.  She spends most of her days either in the kitchen cooking or in the chair in the living room, watching TV, sleeping, praying, or talking to her many visitors.  Every morning and evening she cooks us breakfast and dinner to which we hear “Café esta servido!”  Every time we enter the house, we know we are home when she says “Adelante, pase adelante” with a smile.  When she was younger, she cooked 500 Nacatamales (a traditional Nicaraguan dish with rice, meat, onions, peppers, cheese cooked in a leaf) a day to earn money for the family.  Incredible!  No wonder she is always feeding us!  She likes her café con leche, her block of strange white sour crumbly cheese that looks like Tofu, and crunchy bread (pan tostada) that looks like fingers.  Despite the fact that we kept trying to return the cheese to the fridge without her noticing, we appreciated her care.  We have asked for directions to cook some of the meals, but know that gallo pinto won’t be the same without her loving preparation.  She has a brother that visits multiple times a day that we call grandpa.  He took us to his farm where he grows corn, beans, and rice last Saturday.  Via motorcycle!  So fun!  He always says hi to us- no matter what, if we are walking down the street, if he has a cigarette in his mouth, or he is watching boxing on the TV.  When I was trying to salvage a rotten mango this afternoon, he went into the yard and picked some new ones from the tree.  It was literally the best mango I have every had!   Grandma also has many friends that come visit- one of which is also the cutest little thing in the world.  She also brings us mangos, guavas, and amazing hugs!  Even in the streets, she will come over to give us a hug as she lives across the corner.  She doesn’t say much as she knows we don’t understand much but makes lots of motions, such as dancing or hugging or shivering, and great high-pitched sounds.  There is also Carla, the maid, who is a small little lady with gold teeth but a nice smile none-the-less.  She is always working tirelessly hard- from the morning until the afternoon cleaning, cooking, and washing clothers.  She made us the best lunches ever!  The envy of other students with such variety as the family insisted that we come home from the hospital for lunch. Multiple times I tried to wash my own, but if she saw me, she would come up and not take them from me- even if it meant staying an hour late at work. She would just shake her finger at me, nod her head.  She then goes home and does everything over again for her 3 children and mother.  She speaks and acts with such timidity and humility- speaking only when she must, quietly, and when spoken to.  She gives a new meaning to working hard witout complaining!  (she has been doing that since she was 9- school during the day and working at night Lastly, there is Maria Feliz.  She has been our best friend here and honestly an angel to us.  Her family lives in the US, so she knows pretty good English which has been super helpful with communication and translating the other family members.  Her mother is a sister of La Doctora, but she was reared in Nicaragua in this house by the grandmother.  She is always happy!  She also knows everyone in the town!  She is the person that you want to be around and want to walk down the street with as she yells Adios to everyone we pass.  She takes us when she goes out to buy milk; she took us the first Sunday to her family birthday party; she sits with us on the front steps to talk to passers-by; she took us to church with her and let us sit on her small group; she brought us to the park; she took us with her to her cousins wedding; she introduced us to all of her bazillions of cousins and even dieing grandmother; she even took us to the beach with her boyfriend and his sister and bought us a picnic lunch and dinner.  I just can’t appreciate her enough.  She is so kind and thoughtful- a joy to be around.  She is always making us laugh and have fun- from always wanting to dance and doing it wherever even if it’s a cell phone ring, always telling the story of us “Bailando en la calle” and then telling us to dance despite the audience or situation (including the middle of church small group), watching Indian dance videos and bellydancing, scaring me by knocking at our door and hiding, yelling “Entonces Chicas!” from somewhere in the house, prank calling people’s cell phones in the other room.  She is the only one that will sit down and the table with us to eat.  She even bought and made us Flan, the desert.  When other people ate it all, the next day she bought some more and made it just for us.  She cares for everyone- even the man that she saw on the street with cancer and now invites over everyday to talk, all of her family members that she visits and talks to so often, her boyfriend of 10 years that she calls her love and wants to marry despite his past and her family’s disapproval.  What I admire most, though, is her devout faith in God.  She leads a prayer group every Monday night for women, walks around praying for the sick every Thursday night, is always talking about praying to God and asking for wisdom and strength.  As the sick man said, “Linda persona.”  She truly is beautiful. She doesn’t care that she is overweight and even jokes about it, yet tries to eat healthy and take good care of herself.  None of the past years have met her, and if she holds true to what she says, she will probably be married within the next year, so the next years might not either.  We just lucked out!

Then there are the people in the town.  Lilliam in the gym across the street- my little 5-foot tall Spanish personal trainer that I will always remember saying “Chano, Quatro y douze, quatro y douze.” The first day, I walked in expecting to just use the equipment but instead found myself doing 3 types of leg press in her kitchen while sweating profusely much to her enjoyment, then collapsing onto my bed in pain. She gave me new exercises everyday and taught me new words in Spanish everyday.  She gave me a hard time for missing a day or skipping an exercise.  She would put on more weight or add another exercise.  She became a tough coach and friend.  Her helper, the young man with big muscles and wore the “Southlake Carrol Shirt.”  The couple from Jersey that own the internet café and are relatives of Maria that invited us to their wedding despite the fact that it was just her family members in her family house with the lawyer.  The quirky gal that owns the internet café down the street that always kicks us out when it gets late and tells us to be careful as it is dangerous.  The larger lady at the libreria that told me to hold my money carefully and gave advice about paper.  The adorable Italian father from the church that was supposed to come for lunch but forgot.  Our little friend Veronica, who is 13 years old but acts like a 30 year old, coming for church prayer group but then staying to dance with us, coming the next day and doing pilates on the TV, even walking arm-in-arm proudly with us around town during the parade.  Roberto, Maria’s 36-year-old cousin who teaches English at the town’s private school and was at first I thought super nice visiting every day and asking how our day once.  Then he began asking if we had children, husbands, or boyfriends.   I began to think otherwise when he then asked when men we liked and responded to our answer about personality with “No not like that- what type of men… like Hispanic.”  The next night he asked if he could take us out on a date.  When we stopped talking to him as much or hiding when he came over, he kinda got the hint.  All the random people we ask for help on the streets for directions or advice are always willing to help out.  The mango lady that sold cut up mangos across from Pali for 5 cords or 25 cents.  Then the real mango lady that sold full mangos 12 for 6 cords at the corner by the market.  The lady that works at the smoothie place with curly hair and patiently smiles while I think what delicacy to order.

Last week

Ok I am not writing from my huge apartment back at Duke, but I realized that I never finished up my blog from the summer.  Sorry to leave you hanging for so long.  I will just give you a quick overview of my activities last week and a half before we left to go to a 24 hours conference in Washington DC with all the students in the EWH program- Nicaragua, Honduras, and Tanzania.  Then I came back to Duke to start with freshmen orientation!  Crazy!

So Monday, we walked into the hospital and found Veronica at the desk.  She asked if we wanted to watch a surgery, so we said sure of course!  We ended up watching 2 gall bladder removal surgeries as both women at gall bladder stones.  It was crazy because the doctor removes the entire gall bladder, which is a dark maroon color, and then the helper girl cut it up to remove the stones for testing.  Inside, there are these marble-sized yellow balls.  No wonder they hurt!  The first surgery went smoothly. Then in the second one, right after the surgery slices open the women, the power goes out!  No joke!  Everything turns off (except for the monitor that we brought because it has back-up battery so we could see her stats).  But everything else went off- lights, ESU knife, anesthesia.  But no one panicked.  They just stood there and waited probably about 5 minutes for the back-up power generators kicked in.  The hospital has 2 back-up power generators run on diesel that provided for the entire hospital- one for the OR, the other for the ER.  The thing is though that someone has to go start the generators when the power goes out, so it takes a while.  Good thing that there really aren’t any machines that need immediate power like breathing machines besides the anesthesia in the OR and the anesthesiologist is there.  Then the finished up the surgery as if nothing happened!  Absurd!  They did cancel the rest of the day.   After that we wandered around the hospital checking things out and went to go talk to Harold for a while because he was back from vacation.  He was very patient with my Spanish and understand me when I spoke incorrectly (which was the entire time).  Then we couldn’t do a whole lot with equipment as there was no electricity, so we actually finished making our posters.   In the afternoon, we went to the store and bought anti-hongo paint for the neonatal ward.  That night, I was sitting out in the dining room attempting to write some things, and Maria Feliz and Julissa came out to talk.  I just was really impressed by both of them- their perspectives on life and the good sense they have.  Maria wants to wait until she has graduated and worked before getting married despite the norm there.  Julissa was telling me how her mother raised her by herself, so they are really close now.  Her mother is her “everything, her life” she said.  Wow!  What a great role model for her to have!  It was fun sitting around the table talking to Julissa about where in the world she wants to visit.  I felt like we both have the world at our fingertips and its amazing!  Tuesday, we worked on the neonatal wall!  We scraped off the mold and painted the first layer of white anti-hongo paint.  I can’t believe the mold.  So gross! In the afternoon, Veronica the receptionist took us out for ice cream at Eskimo.  She is so adorable and sweet!  She bought both Rita and I a banana sundae each (which was heavenly but so rich that we could barely finish) while we got just a single scoop of the month on a cone.  I can’t believe how nice it was!  I was truly touched.  Wednesday, we painted the second layer of anti-hongo paint in the morning and then went to the paint store to buy the sea green paint that we needed to repaint the wall to make it look like the rest of the hospital.  In the afternoon, we painted the first layer of green overtop and it looked really good but smelled really bad. We also put up or good health posters around the emergency department!  That night, we also caught the Doctora in the kitchen and had a really great conversation about healthcare.  I have been trying to figure out why there are no patients in the hospital and no funding/equipment.  She explained to us that although all the services are free at the hospital, the medicine is not.  So many of the patients that need medicine to treat their illness wouldn’t go because they can’t afford the medicine.  Also she said that many people don’t have time to be sick because they need to work in order to earn money for food to survive.  I asked about her pharmacy and private clinic, and she said that those have had very few patients lately especially because of the economic crisis (which I guess is affecting everyone even the people in Nicaragua!)  She also said that Jinotepe, while the city is smaller than Diriamba, is the capital of the province, so it has more amenities than Diriamba, such as a larger hospital. When we took a tour the last week, Rita and I were amazed!  They had literally 7 incubators in neonatal, and 10 in the maternity.  We have one right now!  I couldn’t believe the discrepancies in equipment from Jinotepe and Diriamba!  Doctora explained that the government funds the hospitals based on their size, which makes sense but creates a bad cycle for the smaller ones.  They can’t get more money to buy more equipment or treat more patients, so then they can’t ever get bigger and can’t get more money.  She also mentioned that there is a problem between the government and the religiousity/ congregation of nuns that runs the hospital.  The government got mad, and forced Luxembourg, who has helped the hospital a ton through a 5-year cooperation (donating equipment, setting up computers and internet in the office, making maps and fire escape routes) to quit helping.  The feud might also explain why they don’t have a lot of funding and then why they don’t have a lot of doctors or doctors in the afternoon as they can’t pay them enough to keep them around.  I never asked why the doctors work there in the first place then if most work at a private place in the afternoon.  My guess is that they have to work part time in public medical care, but I don’t know that for sure.  All interesting huh!  So patients will come to get care if it is something that is must be done in the hospital like having a baby, or it is fast and can be fixed without a long time in the hospital or expensive medication- such as diarrhea, fever, pneumonia.  Also I saw mostly women and children in the hospital, probably because men didn’t want to take the time off to be sick and parents just ignored their own sickness yet were more willing to take care of their children’s health. The rest of the no-patient mystery is just day by day fluctuations, as Monday the next week there were 5 C-sections so it just depends.

Also Wednesday afternoon, Michelle and her mom visited which was fun.  They inspired me too, because we showed them our room full of equipment, Michelle had some ideas for some of the equipment.  Her mom, when we showed her our room, made a comment about “how our training as engineers probably did not prepare us for this,”  which motivated me to remember why we were there.  Our first goal was the equipment and the second was these other things (even if they might be more fun to me).  So we were motivated on Thursday to return to our equipment and see what we could do.   So Thursday morning, we finished up the wall with a second layer of green paint!  And then cleaned up the room that was now very green and smelly.  We then went back to our room and asked Harold about all of our machines.  We tried a transformed on one incubator, which flashed on and then off.  When we asked Harold about it, he didn’t want us to even mess with it.  He said the others were much more important and newer and better so don’t even look at fixing that one.  Ok, we took the hint.  We tried to look at the Dopplers some more, but really didn’t get much inspiration.  We then tested the incubator that they claimed to work but was missing a sensor.  It did work perfectly!  It has a sensor to measure the air temperature, just not one to measure the baby’s skin temperature, so you would have to manually take that.  But other than that the machine worked great, so I didn’t really see the problem with using it considering the severe lack of others.  In the afternoon, we walked around the hospital, interviewing people to find anymore unused or broken machines as well as to determine what the common problems were at the hospital.  We heard from the ER nurse that diarrhea, fever, pregnant women, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and the flu were the most common problems.  We heard from the pediatric nurse that dehydration, respiratory problems like pneumonia and asthma, diabetes, and gastro-intestinal issues from bad water are the most common problems.  The most common surgeries are C-sections, hysterectomies, gall-bladders, and hernia removals.  This was fun talking to all the different people in the hospital and all the different areas.  We made friends with the head nurse in the maternity ward, who explained to us the giant book where they write down all the births in the hospital as well as how they used to use non-disposable syringes before the year 2000.  She also pointed out to us a pulse oximeter that they use for babies that didn’t work well and a suction for babies that didn’t work.  On Friday, we determined that the pulse oximeter worked for Rita but not the nurse because the nurse had nail polish on.  We also figured out that the suction worked perfectly, but the nurses did not know how to use it because you had to keep your finger over a hole to create the pressure for the suction.  We wrote instructions, taped them on, and explained them to her.  The next week, the other nurses claimed that it didn’t work, so we then explained them again to them, and the nurses seemed satisfied.  Friday morning, we spent all morning calling different supply companies in Managua, as we were determined to find some spare parts!  We needed the heater lamp for the Olidef incubator, 4 surgery room light bulbs, and 2 light bulbs for a blood analyzer.  We thought we had some leads, but none proved fruitful except for Casa Sarria who we already had trouble with.  Another store said they could order them but they would take at least 2 weeks and about $400 for the heater lamp.  Not happening!  So we went to Managua after lunch hoping that we would start there and then see if they had any advice.  We had no idea where we were going, but some how ended up finding the store.  They had everything we needed including a man that spoke English, and all the bulbs.  Unfortunately everything was too expensive to buy all together, but we gave us a bit of a discount, so we were able to buy the heater lamp, 1 operating room bulb, and 1 blood analyzer bulb with the money we were given by EWH.  Perfect!!  We were so thrilled!!!

That weekend, we decided to spend with the family at home.  Maria Feliz took us with her boyfriend and his sister to the beautiful beach just 30 minutes away!!!  Her boyfriend drove and they bought a picnic lunch and dinner for us all on the beach.  We even got to watch the most incredible sunset with orange, pink, purple, yellow… gorgeous!  The beach was so deserted- one restaurant but no other buildings.  There were boys that lived that that raced horses down the beach and surfed in the waves.  Rita even got to ride a horse for a bit.  We went swimming, but the currents were super strong so we didn’t venture far.  Sunday, Grandpa took us on his motorcycle to his farm where he grows rice, beans, and corn!  The motorcycle was a blast!  It was interesting though because he has a helper who lives on the farm with a wife and child in a one room building made of cement, with a stove that consisted of bricks with a rock on top and spilled smoke throughout the place, with a bed that was wood with a comforter on top as the mattress, and literally 2 chairs, a soccer ball, and a radio.  It was interesting to see all the different levels of living in Nicaragua from my wealthy family to this.  It was nice to stay home and get to hang out with the family too!

Monday, we were so excited to use our spare parts!  We also heard that there were 5 C-sections and we were dying to see a birth!  So we first went in to surgery, where Doctora Fernandez was too to catch the baby when it came out.   The surgery was so fast!  All of a sudden there were 2 people instead of 1, and the mountain that used to be her stomach was flat.  It was awesome!  The baby came out, blue, and kinda gross but not too bad.  Doctora grabbed him and wiped off his face, then he started to cry.  She took him than out of the room to check him out, but he was totally fine!  Turns out the mother was 20 and this was her second C-section.  Crazy!  Glad I don’t have 2 babies at age 20!  Anyway, after that we went back to our room.  We got Harold’s help to install the heater lamp on the Olidef.  Turns out we would have done it completely wrong because it is not like a normal resister that use put into a circuit.  You have to run the current both ways, so it will get stuck and then the energy will turn into heat.  We installed it, got the nurse to check it out, and she said it worked like it used to!!!  We doubled the neonatal’s incubator capacity!!! The nurses and staff were super thankful for the incubator as well as the new wall!! They immediately cleaned it and wanted to put it to use.  They discovered though that one of the sides was supposed to be moveable but wouldn’t because it was rusted in.  We tried really hard to fix it, but just couldn’t.  Bummer!  That was not important at all but just a matter of convenience.  We then installed t the blood analyzer lamp, so the lab had a working blood analyzer.   I also had a great talk with Maria Feliz about the culture of marriage and motherhood there.  She explained how things were much worse outside the city were the people did not have as much education, which is probably like it is everywhere.  I expected her answers to be a lot worse than they were, but really it wasn’t that different than the US.  I also talked to Carla, the maid who works endlessly hard.  She began working at age 9 while going to school, yet school didn’t really change her life at all which surprised me.  I thought that everyone who had an education could have a future, but not necessarily.
Tuesday and Wednesday were our last 2 days at the hospital, which we mainly spent talking to people- nurses, doctors, staff.  We asked questions about the hospital and its needs, about their lives, about working there, about living in Nicaragua.  Wednesday we ran around taking pictures with people and then passing them out.  We also made an apple pie for our family.  In the end though, we received more gifts than we were gave I think.  Martita gave us a beautiful wood carving, Grandpa gave us an elephant candle holder, Julissa gave us hand-made necklaces that she made herself, Gilda gave us each a rose, Lilliam from the gym gave us her music to copy, Maria Feliz and her boyfriend took us out for Eskimo ice cream and a drive around town.  Everyone was absolutely incredible and I am seriously going to miss them all!  Martita and the anesthesiologist have already emailed me.  I gotta figure out how to write back in Spanish!   We were really sad to leave, but so thankful for all the wonderful people that we met!!