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Blogging is not a strength we possess. Jen says, "you take everything I ever loved and you blog about it."
Tuesday: we missed the bus and caught a pickup truck headed west to Leon with another woman who had also missed the bus and who had also caught the pickup truck, except earlier than us. Jen was wearing an apparently inappopriate dress (que elegante!) based on all the eyes and calls we were getting as we bounced around in the wind of the open truck bed. Jen affectionately named herself "the slut of Leon". Whitney only lost her balance once and body slammed Jen in the back of the truck. No one died. On the bus ride back we saw the same woman we had ridden out on the truck with and it was incredibly exciting for all of us.
Wednesday: we went to a school to give a talk and do a production for children about hepatitis A but it turned out to be a roomful of adult females. They asked about many things and laughed at each other when one of them was wrong (Hepatitis A is caused by a parasite). When Alexita described the appropriate bland diet for diarrhea, a woman asked what she should eat if she didn't have diarrhea. At the end of the show, we handed out fat-soluble vitamin A and Mebendazole while Jen and Whitney tried valiantly to make it clear that the people should not go home and take as many of the pills as possible. One each everybody, one each. Besides not being able to say "r's" it is also difficult for Whitney to say "parasitios". This night we went in to Leon to talk to Julio's English class in English. David got a list of "typical Nicaraguan food" which we have been trying as we find them.
Thursday: Regular day at the clinic. Laundry day - Alexita did her laundry by hand for the first time and we did a purge of our living quarters. In the evening we learned to salsa whilst the boys were at the beach picking up the found car keys. We had considered going to salsa that night but did not. When they returned we sat around in rocking chairs and rocked with fervor.
Friday: the four of us medical students went around with Richard to see three adult patients to whom we gave acetaminophen; acetaminophen and calcium carbonate; and calcium carbonate. We recommended that one of the three come to clinic on Monday. Spoiler alert: he didn't make it. Alexita was very concerned about the 83 year old woman who had had a dislocated right hip for the last 8 years and slept on a cot at night with towels for pillows. We had a fiery discussion in English on the appropriate treatment ranging from comfort care at home (read nothing) and a trip to the hospital in Leon with a physical therapist home evaluation, surgical hip repair and a permanent care giver. She was doing better than the other 82 year old woman who said that she would be dead by the time we came around again to see her. Wow, I just took a dark, dark turn. That night we went in the city and rented a car. Ale bought a nacatamale for our breakfast after a woman on the street forced her to buy it for 30 Cordobas ($1.50 by airport exchange rates).
Saturday: we woke up and made a breakfast of scrambled eggs, cut tomatoes, banana, coffee and nacatamale. Tulio came to work and we gave him some nacatamale and coffee. He said this was a day he would never forget. Next we set out for Cerro Negro. As the roads did not have good signs and we did not have google maps we traveled directionally which means we turned east sooner than we should have. When we asked a local woman there where Cerro Negro was she told us we had to go out to the main road and asked for a ride in the direction we were going because it would get her closer to home and she could show us the route. We took her and she got us to highway 26. From highway 26 we did not know where to turn south. At one point we asked some people traveling west (we were going east) which way to the volcano and the three guys pointed in different directions. One guy offered to go in the car with us althought he was trying to go the opposite direction than we were (surmised from the bus stop where he was standing). We followed their directions and ended up in another village. There a local told us we were lost (he was right), another did not know how to answer and the third directed us to a dirt road that turned became narrower and narrower before it turned black. We ended up a 3/4 mile from backside of the volcano (not the front touristy side) and decided we would go as far as we could go starting at noon. We climbed for over and hour. At the point where it became 50 degrees steep we took turns leading so that the followers could step in the stair like footprints of the leader. The leading job became increasingly difficult as one advancing step took three because of gravity. Damn it, gravity! At times we were scrambling with feet and hands on the increasingly hot black sand (100 degrees?) First in a pair and then singularly we fell off until only David was left to hobble to the top. The voices of joyful tourists floated to us tauntingly clear in the wind. When he arrived within 50 feet of the top, where the grade lessened, he was so sick with the effort that he was lightheaded and nauseous. Rather than die on the spot or make us dramatically rescue him he came flying down the volcano (cue video). We descended with empty water bottles and broken hearts but with some semblance of success (namely blackened legs). We traveled by car to Somoto without further consultation on direction. In Somoto we stopped at a gas station for recommendations for a place to stay and received a recommendation for a guide instead (the store owner's brother). We found a place to sleep with the four of us in a room and decided on a guide when we figured out the hike included swimming and a boat.
Sunday: Somoto Canyon. Alexita and Whitnita have gallo pinto while those with the sickness just have coffee. We meet our guide at our hostel and drive him to the canyon. The start of the hike was a visually underwelming walk on a dirt road and a through a field with a rich history of the war between Nicaragua and Honduras. The field was once a no man's land of guaranteed death. Then we made it to the canyon where we traveled by walking, scrambling and floating in the water and on shores. There were places to jump in from a height and much to see and photograph. See pictures. After the hike Alexita wanted very much to ride a horse the 2K back. There were 3 horses and a donkey and Whitney rode the donkey because she had not ridden one before. The donkey disproved, probably because they were about equal in size - see picture. We then had lunch at the guide's family's house and it was incredible. On the way home we stopped at a fruit stand where a man offered Ale a mango to eat to see how good it was. While we harassed her in English with questions about how good it was and whether or not we should buy some she was speechless. Everyone there laughed at everyone else. We made it home at a reasonable time with our snacks "we have enough snacks to get lost for three days and still gain weight".
Monday: we went to Leon to return the car and had it washed at a local house that washes cars - efficiently. Jen and Whitney made the four o'clock bus where Jen sat in the armpit of a polite Nicaraguan who had recognized us gringos and offered her a seat. Alexita and David went to talk to a Nicaraguan veternarian about how Ale always wanted to be a vet - I mean about a scholarship. Santiago came to see David and when David and Ale returned we had a great discussion in Spanish.
Tuesday: clinic again. Regular day. Alexita wished we were making more a difference in some way such as helping Dr. Somarriba see more patients than she normally would in a normal clinic day. After lunch Ale, Jen and Whitney went by bus with Ben, from an organization that is working on gardening projects in Chacraseca and which bring in high school and college aged kids to work on these projects with local people, to sand some bunk beds so the gringo children will not get splinters. Ale shut the room door with the key inside so we texted Julio to have him call La Casa and have them open the room door for us. We then walked 2 hours home. At dinner we talked about the ***t that stinks here. New blog entry!
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