Day 34 6/25/13 (Wakin’ up early, free heart transplants in Cuba*, the coolest ultra-marathon ever, Ron’s leaving and a hardware store)

Today was the standard day. Wakeup early at like 3 AM. Fall asleep until like 6:40 AM. Attempt to get up. Fall asleep until 7:05 AM. Wake up panic and shower in 5 minutes and eat at like 7:15 AM. It wasn’t all that normal of a morning I suppose (except for the wakeup early part). This morning’s breakfast was a double egg sunny side up together in the egg white with ham and cheese (1 more egg than usual!) and some cornflakes with milk. The newbie from Massachusetts (who arrived on Sunday) was also up for breakfast although he rejected one of the eggs (Tisk tisk dude, you don’t do that) (he had rejected all the cheese basically from last night’s dinner too). Anyways Dan and I were still on time for school. Conversation was a tad rough this morning for the sole fact that I was still quite tired (remember that I pulled an all-nighter on Sunday night?). We went over medical equipment that we had written about over the weekend (as I had done phototherapy lights (which are used to kickstart the digestion of bilirubin in a baby with jaundice)). We also talked a bit about the medical system and how people fly to Cuba to get free heart and kidney transplants *(paid for by the Nicaraguan government and Cuba a bit as well) (talk about social welfare!).There also is this agreement called the ALBA agreements between Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba where these groups provide for one another and help each other out (Nicaragua supplies vaquillas (young cows to Venezuala)) and gets medical supplies and drugs (good med drugs)). Nicaraguans living in the US also fly back to Nicaragua to get dental work done because it is free or much cheaper (ivory teeth at $800 a pop (check out ‘dem elephant grillz (suitable for a baby grand or a grand baby))). We also learned about this series of marathons and ultra-marathons on la isla de Ometepe (organized by a US dude). These come in distances of 25 km, 50 km, 75 km and 100 km. The 75 km race is particularly interesting as it’s called the “fuego y agua” and costs $300 to enter (usually only like 17 people do it a year and it’s a huge tourist attraction). The race is not just running, but also includes: running several kms with a gallina (a live chicken), carrying a tree on one’s back, digging a hole at the beach (1.5 m by 1 m by probably at least 1 m), climbing and descending Concepcrace is particularly interesting as it’s called the “fuego y agua” and costs $300 to enter (usually only like 17 people do it a year and it’s a huge tourist attraction). The race is not just running (starting from 4 AM and going for 16 hours), but also includes: running several kms with a gallina (a live chicken), carrying a tree on one’s back, digging a hole at the beach (1.5 m by 1 m by probably at least 1 m), climbing and descending Concepción, swimming, climbing a tree, cutting down another tree and then carrying an egg for a while. BAM! That sounds epic though. There aren’t any awards for the first finishers, but rather just the pride of completing the arduous tasks (I would hope that someone would buy me like 4 pizzas if I did that). I think I might have to try training for that one day. Anyways the grammar was about using commands and wasn’t terribly exciting. I had to run home to pick up my engineering notebook and grabbed lunch for Dan and I, which ended up being that good pasta, B&R, a small salad and the warmed bananas that had dried out a bit. It was still a good lunch.

            After lunch was engineering that was about boring stuff like water purifiers and the resources in our book for parts and something else that couldn’t have been too terribly important. It was Ron’s last lecture and we gave him a standing ovation. Gonna miss you Ron. Alex then had us start the lab which was talking about finding needs and doing inventories and whatnot. He tried to talk to us about the forms we have to fill out and how to do them, but it started DUMPING (that was an understatement too) because it was so stormy that I could not see more than 1 block up Consulado and it was coming in the sides of the open air tin-roofed area where we were sitting (forcing us to move inside the building). We then covered the remainder of the forms and gave Ron his going away presents (a random bowl from Nicaragua and a thank you/miss you/photo card from all of us). Dan, Mark and I then went to the market to get some tools for the upcoming hospital stay. At the hardware store we got 500 grit sandpaper, 3 in 1 oil (for loosening connections), a screwdriver kit (with longer shafts to reach inside the recessed screws on outer cases) and a triangular file for renew-ing heater connections (hopefully I can get reimbursed for those parts). After that we came back to the house and went out to play some soccer which was fun although the one guy managed to kick me in the forehead by accident (when I was going for a header -.-). S’all good I thunk I canz stils peka gud so I donut have cuncusion. After that dinner was normal with some scrambled eggs and bread and what not (I also had purchased a snack on the way home of that epic good apple cinnamon jawn and this new cake that was the thickest cake I have ever eaten (just the texture was so thick with purple icing (O.o))). Now just chilling and blogging and being behind on my blog.