Day 23 6/14/13 (Granada’s hospital, fixing an ultrasound machine, Ometepe again and cuddling with a Cars towel)

            The day started at the normal time. Today was the day we were heading to the hospital in Granada. The hospital is about 15 minutes from our homestay and we stuffed only 4 people into a taxi (Lucas, Ringo, Dan and I) and departed for the hospital at 7:35 AM. We arrived at about 7:45 AM and waited for Alex to find the actual head of the maintenance. We headed to the back of the hospital and this time the repair shop wasn’t next to the morgue. The shop was about the size of my kitchen back at Hillendale without cabinets (maybe 20’ x 75’). The hospital is open air and we could walk around under the covered hallways and watch the inner courtyards filled with wash basins, dirty and clean clothes barrels and other peaceful respites from the pulse of the hospital. The technicians were three and were quite enthusiastic to have us work on an autoclave (sanitizer), castors, a power-cordless ultrasound machine and several carts. As before at Rivas, the group split and traveled out to observe and learn the labyrinth of the hospital corridors. I had on a lab coat as we were required to sport them (How goes it old sport?) as we toured around and I put on my best Bill Nye the Science Guy look and headed off (turns out my lab coat (borrowed for the day) was a women’s blouse this with shoulder poofs which no one told me until I was walking around -.-). What’s the first place one would reasonably go on a hospital tour? The front entrance, the main lobby, the morgue? How about the Red Cross Blood bank storage room? Seriously though, this hospital was kitted out with a blood collection center and blood bank. Every Monday the hospital collects blood that is stored there for transfusions etc. The blood is also collected at Managua and I think it’s sometimes shipped off to Rivas and Masaya. After this we continued into a laboratory where the technicians were testing for Dengue fever and anemia in blood samples. From laboratory to the cradle is how our tour went after that (we travelled to the baby incubation ward with babies under radiant warmers to keep them warm while they could be nursed back to health. Some of the babies seemed so tiny and I’ll probably be forever etched into one baby’s memory as I was standing there looking like a giant to them wearing the lab coat. One interesting occurrence I noticed was the plethora of stray animals (cats and dogs). Multiple cats would tear around the corridors like Glitch from Wreck it Ralph, dodging roof supports, chairs and occasionally a nurse’s leg. We also saw the x-ray room with the leaded glass about 3” thick (a much smaller room than at Rivas). After a quick snack of this grape like fruit with a huge pit and a bro fist with one of the technicians, I headed out with the group to my favorite part (the electrical room). So basically this room houses all the electrical distribution panels and these 4 big-A copper slabs (about 4” x 0.5” x 2”) coming from the large voltage lines outside. It was quite impressive (probably worth about $40 in copper easy, although have fun getting those off without insta-death from the arcing electricity). After that we headed to the adjacent room and saw the generator which was an absolutely massive CAT generator to power the hospital in case of a blackout. The guide actually started the caged bull and it roared to life with the ferocity of 10 lions; intimidating and deafening. After that we headed back and saw the morgue from the outside only, saw the isolated AC distribution to the OR wards and saw the OR rooms from the outside and also saw the supplies store. It was then time to ditch the lab coat and start fixin’ stuff! The previous group had been working on an autoclave, an aspirator (suction pump), cleaning castors, and splicing a power cord onto a power-cordless ultrasound machines. Hannah and Dan had intended to strip a new power cord back a bit and splice the cord in at the strain relief of the old cord (where it was broken). This idea is quite reasonable, but Ron mentioned that the Unit’s power distribution panel could be dismantled and this action would expose the screw block terminals (aka the long sought after goodness where power is transferred through metal “windows” where the wire is placed and the screw on top “closes” the window and establishes the connection). Anyways, Hannah and Dan were both preparing to head out on tour (after Hannah finished one solder connection of the three wires from the plug). I took up the reins and unscrewed the 10 screws to unhinge and slide out the PD panel. After I exposed this electrical spinal cord, I unscrewed the strain relief (with a massive adjustable wrench worthy of Bioshock) and removed the small 6” section of old power cord from the screw terminals and the strain relief. After stripping a couple of inches and cutting off the insulation, the new cord was ready to deliver AC lifeblood to this derelict ultrasound machine. The screws closed their windows on the new doubled-back power wires and the machine started to come together after the strain relief fit back on. Due to my incompetence I tried to reinstall the outer panel with the switches only to pop off 6 of the connectors to the back of the 3 power switches. Mark luckily helped me reattach all six and even one more that had come off when I was taking out the PD panel. After the screws fit nicely back into place, the machine was ready. At this point it was about 11:10 AM and Alex said we were going to leave soon, but I ended up plugging in the machine and it worked! We could see the ultrasound and actually watched several people’s hearts beating (including my own, which apparently to others is quite large). After that we headed out and back to Granada.

            Lunch in Granada was back at the homestay, and we had fried fish with plantains and rice and beans. IT was actually quite good! The crazy part was that we had to rush to one of the Granada bus stops (through the market) to make the “12:45” bus. We then realized that there was no such bus as there is only a 12:30 PM one. I had brought the remainder of my house special Cantonese rice from Sunday and I nommed on that while waiting for the 1:30 bus for Rivas (onward to Ometepe!). The bus ride was normal, but we pulled in at around 3ish PM (the ferry for Ometepe left at 3:30 PM) and we had to quickly scramble for a taxi to make it the 10-15 min driving trip to San Jorge and the ferries. With minutes to spare, we made it to the ferry and I quickly paid the foreigners tax (which I don’t remember from last time I travelled to Ometepe) and signed the entrance paper and breathed a sigh of relief (first breath in 15 min...not quite that bad as described, but it was pretty close) as I leaned on the ferry’s railing. The ferry was uneventful and we landed in Moyogalpa without issue. I saw Robinson and talked to him about last weekend at Johnny’s Bar (he and that girl Veronica got pretty close). The American was just as before with Bob in the lobby and Simone floating about. We (Kendall, Charlotte, Mark, Dan and I) checked in and were going to have a 6^th German girl named Marina join us, but she decided to transfer her stay over to the old Indian hostel (apparently owned by a cult leader wanted in 3 countries for making people drink poisonous suicide Kool Aid O.o). anyways, we ended up walking around Moyogalpa and reserved our bikes for the weekend (for Saturday through Sunday night). We then grabbed some Italian pizza (pepperoni and olives and a Hawaiian)at a new pizza shop on one of the side streets. The pizza was cheaper and tastier than the last pizza shop (and we had no issues with burnt pizza or gas needing to be changed. I also got to watch the end of The Immortals (movie) and most of this movie about a BA-ex-marine chick who was on a vendetta or out for revenge or something for a hit with a private company she was involved in that went wrong. After that a few of us went to the Indio Viejo (old Indian) to check out the place. It wasn’t the raging dance (or any) dance scene I had heard of, but Alex, Mary Kate, Josh, Hannah and I had a good time talking (we even talked about what animals we think we are; I said wooly mammoth for myself as there aren’t many of them (none) of them around (just in a I don’t really make all that many friends who I really hang out with and talk to often) and also because I tend to be the largest of my friends (size wise). I also feel slightly out of my time and that I don’t really have a part in society yet. S’all good though)! This was during the power outage that lasted around 15 to 20 minutes. After that I headed back to the American as I had to get up at 5:30 AM to have breakfast and head out biking to Santa Cruz (about 35 Km away). It was around 10:30 PM when I got back and all the windows and doors were locked and I had to knock and wait for the night watchmen to open the door. I bet he was a tad apprehensive to open the door (I promise I’m not dangerous unless I have a soldering iron in my hand and electronics to work on). After a quick cuddle sesh with my Cars towel (Save me from the Ghost Light Lightin’!) in my own bead in the room I passed out.