Nicaragua con EWH (Verano 2013): July 2013

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Day 66 7/27/13 (Final conclusions of the last official day of EWH and a little bit of self-motivation through other’s inspiration)

Today was waking up in the nice hotel in Managua. I could sleep until like 8:40 AM and then get up and take a hot shower. A HOT SHOWER! Literally my favorite activity of the day so far. It was so hot that I had to turn the heat down on the tap. After that Dan and I headed downstairs to get breakfast and met quite a few of the other members of our group Jack and Soorya and then Lucas and Ringo showed up. Dan and I had a multicourse breakfast with a fruit course, toast course, eggs and B&R course and coffee. After all of that I chilled and talked to some people and heard about their stories. I also had an interview with one of the board members and talked all about San Carlos and gave them some ideas for the program (a parts supply chain and brushes for centrifuges). Dan and I also talked to Alex about forms. So far the morning has been pretty slow. Just a nice relaxing day up before presentations. Lunch was good (mean, salad, bread, juice) and then presentations were fantastic. So enjoyable and relaxing. We also had some fantastic speakers (very inspiring material). After all of that including some great tips and even a food sampling, we had finished everything. Yes everything. Literally the program had finished. 66 days after I stepped off that airplane back in Managua with a head full of ignorance I was sitting back in Managua; having finished my journey across the continent, through towns large and small, through hospitals well maintained and not, though troubles and easy fares, through everything. Now I sit here after dinner and after hearing quite a few interesting conversations about life and future etc and all I can think is that I’m ready to go home. Ready to head back to all those failed experiments of mine. Ready to go to all of those missed opportunities of mine. Ready to go back and actually try to make something with this life of mine. I’ve got something I need to do. I don’t know what it is yet, but I can feel it’s coming. It’s going to be huge (or at least I hope as much). I want something to do for this world that’s world changing; something revolutionary. With my luck it won’t happen, but I can try. We’ll find out I suppose. Anyways, doesn’t look like anything major for the time being (the small time blogging about a day in the life of an average small town Oregonian boy in Nicaragua and trying to find something to do with his life and tinkering with small time electronics projects is not anything Forbes worthy). In all seriousness, I’ve got some serious work to do before I can ever hope to achieve anything. So why not start now? I’ll be turning 20 in a little over 2 months and it’s a time for change. I’ve sat through too much these 19 years. I’ve futzed around thinking the naïve teenage idea that I can wait with my life to work hard. It’s far time for some serious work. For some serious thinking and for some serious change. Let’s just hope I can follow through to see something come of it. Tomorrow’s blog will be much less self-centric I’m sorry (more review of the trip oriented (so I suppose that’s a bit more self-centric for a day or so (sorry))). I don’t really need to keep dragging all of you through this with such selfish visions. I should be helping others as well and I’m trying for that in everything I do. Apologies. So with that I’ll write the final chapter to this journey of time, space and mind I’ve had in Nicaragua. It’s been a whirlwind journey filled with just about every experience I could imagine here. I just hope I can sum it all up in one final entry. With that it’s 11:10 PM. My flight is at 12 and I’ll be leaving here at 9 ish. Take care everyone. Thanks for sticking this out with me and I can’t wait to hear from you all again. Take care!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Day 65 7/26/13 (I got sleep?, scrambling to get ready, getting scrambled eggs, catching the 8 AM bus, riding in Vin Diesel’s Nicaraguan father’s taxi (not officially confirmed) and a classy hotel in Managua (the last stop in Nicaragua))

So the day sort of continued from like 3 in the morning and then I maybe got some sleep before it was my 5:50 AM alarm. I turned the alarm off to my credit but then passed out until 6:40 AM where Dan asked across the room if I thought we could still make the 8 AM bus. I said yes and jumped up to shower and tell Sol we could use a quick breakfast. The power was still off at this time so I had to take a candlelit shower (with a solitary candle sitting on the sink). It was kind of interesting and felt somewhat medieval or something. Dunno. Anyways breakfast came up quickly and was avocados and egg whites, B&R, scrambled eggs and bread and milk. Very solid meal. After that I had to finish packing the last of my bags (laptop bag and LL Bean suitcase) as we were going to head to the bus station at 7:30 AM. We asked Sol if she could get us a taxi, but it never showed up, so Dan and I legged it over there in the rain. We got to the station around like 7:40 AM and the nice bus for Managua was sitting there just waiting to leave at 8. The ride cost 150 Cord ($6) for the 6.5 hour endeavor northward. Anyways we had said goodbye to the family and thanked them for everything. The ride was actually not that bad. It seemed to go by quite quickly (as 20 minute and 40 minute naps helped to erode the 6 hours). It wouldn’t be a complete Nicaraguan adventure if we didn’t have some minor problems, so at one point the bus even had some engine trouble, but they fixed it or duct taped it together and it worked fine for the rest of the trip to Managua. The trip also featured music (every song seemed to be about love, heartbreak, wanting women or a combination of all three). The bus was one of those old greyhound buses without air conditioning. But the windows opened so there was quite a breeze if need be. The only real complaint I had about the bus was that the legroom was the smallest I’ve had one any bus like that and that made it slightly uncomfortable. Otherwise I can’t complain as I made the trip from San Carlos without issue and am now in Managua. The bus stopped at this bus station that seemed to be way the heck on the far side of the side (Northward I suppose) as we passed the airport and then drove for an additional 20 minutes +). After that Dan and I grabbed our bags and got a taxi for like 150 Cordobas for us both to the hotel where we’ll be staying on Saturday night (with the group) and tonight on our own. The taxi ride to our hotel took a good like 30 minutes almost (O.o as we trekked a good ways back towards the airport and down these side streets to find the place which seems to be like an old rustic place with an upscale flair to it). The taxi ride was pretty legit as the dude was cruising through the streets and taking some turns with ease and dodging potholes at speed. It was sick (somewhat like Fast and the Furious in places). Anyways there’s also a security guard at the gate to let folks in so security is top notch here and the interior is like this old marbled place with nice staircases. We talked to the receptionists who were trying to figure out a room rate as they were confused about us being here a day before we had a reservation (tomorrow night with EWH). Anyways I think one of them called the owner (named Carlos) and he came strolling out front (nice dude who speaks English) and he gave us a pretty good rate of $50 for the two of us to have this huge room for the night with breakfast included and of course blazing fast wifi. This works for us and we paid them and went upstairs to this sick room with 3?!? beds and a nice bathroom with a hot shower (A HOT SHOWER!!!!!!!). Anyways we’ve been chilling since then, trying to figure out what we’re doing today for food (last food at 7 AM) and it’s now 5:41 PM. Today has been a god day all things considered. Looking forward to tomorrow and finishing up this shiznit (and presenting 30 things you could have been doing if you hadn’t contracted Dengue tomorrow). I will be writing two more entries on this blog (tomorrow’s and Sunday’s, so I’d like to thank all of you out there for taking the time to chill and read this blog. Hopefully you guys have learned something (either about fixing equipment or about how not to do something here) so far! Keep up the fantastic work! Peace!

Day 64 7/25/13 PART 2 (Calzone, PowerAde or Gatorade?, more holes in the wall at the hospital, puffing up a chair seat and fixing the arm, buying more chain, heading back to the clinic to close autoclaves and give out manuals, dumping tools at the hospital and then heading to the Koama)

So where was I? Yes lunch. Very important. Anyways so Dan and I ordered the pepperoni and salami calzone to split and the Holland chicks (Lelou and sdfjhasb? Don’t know her name) ordered a normal pepperoni, green olive and caper pizza. We sat and chatted until the food arrived and I tugged at the water I was drinking (I would’ve ordered a PowerAde since I was massively dehydrated, but it cost 37 YES 37 Cordobas (unlike the 20 cordoba cost at the hospital). Plus the menu said it was Gatorade. Fail. Anyways We ended up talking about a whole range of topics including what the two had thought of the hospital while they both had Dengue at the same time (they were in agreement that it was one of the worst experiences ever). They also then proceeded to talk about many of the flaws of Nicaraguan mentalities: the lack of incentive to try hard at public work (the story was about a plastic surgeon working on reconstructing a man’s face after an accident, but the surgeon didn’t work as hard doing the public work at the hospital as opposed to his clinic), bad shift hours (it sounds like doctors do these awfully long shifts at the hospital all in chunks of four days and end up wasting like 2 hours in the morning each day), not enough follow through on projects (things getting started and never finished (which is true as it would take us days to get something done through the staff at times (getting bulbs for instance))) and bad care of objects not their own (the story was of a doctor’s house that was built in 2002, but was trashed and nothing was working because they never kept up the place). Personally I don’t want to generalize these much more than these incidents because I don’t have the bid data to support these conclusions for all the people (as I know many Nicaraguans that don’t follow these stereotypes). Anyways I also hoped online and worked a bit more on my translation of the manual and FBed a bit. So it was a pretty solid lunch although we stayed quite late until like 2:30 and then paid and left with the two girls. They walked most of the way back to the hospital with us and then wished us well and safe travels before heading off in their own direction.

Back at the hospital it was time to knock out those last 3 holes and get this chain project finished. Dan decided he wanted to drill the other hole above the one I had already drilled and put in the top bolt, so I let him. After some more tedious measurements and checking of measurements Dan drilled the hole and it was a bit off, but we managed to correct for it and got the bolt through without too much issue. After that Dan put the two holes on the outside of the wall for the other two bolts. I then went inside with all the tools and shifted those friggin hospital beds around until I could think about drilling the holes. I had taken measurements and then drilled the bottom hole (which pretty much nailed the exterior hole. BAM! I then measured the top one and tried the drilling, but ended up missing by almost a centimeter +, so I had to make an adjustment for that and then finished the hole without issue. After that we cleaned out the holes and put the bolts through without further issues. Dan then went to Constrúmas to get the chains and more washers and nuts (because we put 4 washers and 8 nuts on each set of four bolts (1 nut and washer per side and then 1 extra nut to hold on the chain on the outside). In the interim time I filed down the ends of the bolts to enable the nuts to twist on (as the cutting process had rendered several of the bolts impassible to nuts). Meanwhile the alarm for the oxygen tanks (being filled with liquid oxygen in a different close by area had decided to turn itself on with its irritating whining. Anyways I was doing fairly well as I would file the end down and then cut a notch in the top to make a starting thread. I would then clean the threads with the nut before moving on. I did about two of these and then I decided to go to the shop and grab the ear protection to try and drown out the annoying constant buzz of the alarm. I also decided to fix the chair in the laboratory at some point through the afternoon (as Dan had already done the one in the ER). So I grabbed the duct tape and headed over to the chair to grab the foam and put the foam down and then tape the entire seat. This actually worked quite well as I managed to cover the bad area and I had enough duct tape to basically cover the entire seat nicely and the seat was much better afterward! BAM! Fixed!

The chair before FOAMIN' it

The foam to be added (also the ghost water on my lens)

Chair is finished

The lab techs also loved the new chair and were quite thankful (as this is where patients sit to have blood drawn and whatnot, so I’m sure the patients were also happy). Meanwhile Dan had been working on the chains and it was going quite well. The lady wanted me to fix the arm on the same chair (as it was broken and being taped on) and initially I tried to put in some identically sized bolts before realizing that the required nut inside the arm was missing. I then almost gave up on the project and went to file more ends of bolts. A little later I went back to the workshop and tried some screws which also didn’t work, but I wasn’t quite content yet, so I went back and found some slightly larger bolts and they fit perfectly! SO BAM! FIXED THAT ARMREST! Basically all it needed were those and now it’s tight on there (except for the broken front part, but I can’t really fix that)! After that I had to make another run to Constrúmas to grab two more 6.5 foot chains because the guy at the store had not cut them for Dan in his last purchase. After trekking there and buying the chains I said Dan and I would be leaving San Carlos tomorrow at 8 and said goodbye and thanks to all of them there. I gave the chains to Dan and then headed to the centro de salud (after quickly running back about 1/3^rd of the way there to the hospital for some pliers) because I wanted to fix the autoclave (put the case on) and teach the folks how to use it and give Guillermo the manuals. Rigo (the lab tech) actually called me to see if I was going there and I said yes and got there like 15 minutes later. Upon arrival I caught the guy I needed to teach this morning at 9:30 and showed everyone in the room how to use the autoclaves (Guillermo, Rigo and that guy). I also gave Guillermo the manuals and thanked him as he thanked me for all my work at the clinic. I still have to work more on that manual and send it to him, but it’s good for now. The guy I had to teach seemed a tad annoyed with me, but I think it was because it was like 5:30 on a Thrusday. Anyways after putting the case back on the unit (and maybe breaking two of the screw holders too) I headed to the hospital for one last time. I also thanked the director again for his help and he was quite thankful. Popo wanted us to leave all the tools at the hospital for him to use which was fine as it saved us from having to lug them around and back to the States. Would’ve liked one of the two DMMs, but hey next time. I did grab the programming base for the PICAXE that was going to be left there (two of the actually) as I don’t think they’ll be doing anything with it really as there is no IC. After that Dan and I said goodbye and thanks to Popo and clocked out at 6 PM. BAM! Long day of work achieved! Secondary chains project completed (Dan and Popo had worked on enlarging the chain links to fit better on the bolts while I was at the centro de salud). So basically we are done! That was crazy amount of work today, but we finished basically everything we set out to today! After that Dan and I felt elated to be done and ready to head back to the States right now (darned presentation is still in the way, but that’ll be tomorrow’s 6.5 hour bus ride). Anyways back at the hostel I packed up everything and realized I can make it back home with just my LL Bean carry on (leaving the other bag here in Nicaragua (saving me $25 for the checked bag)). Anyways we’re taking the 8 AM bus so we have to get up around 5:50 AM and be at the bus station by 7:15 AM. I chilled for a while and typed up blogs and then we had chicken fillet, B&R, avocados and egg whites, coke, a salsa like thing and tostones. So tasty! After dinner we chilled a bit more until like 10 ish when we headed to the Kaoma (we took a quick walk past the Champra which was so dead the lady wasn’t evne collecting money outside it). We didn’t even have to pay a cover tonight either at the Kaoma! We walked in and it was much less smoky than before (I could breathe!) and we headed to the bar after I stood awkwardly in the corner for a bit. Interestingly enough we actually met Marlon there! He was just chillin’ at the bar with some of his crew and so we were pretty good from then on. I also saw one of the SILAIS women form the centro de salud there too, so it was a good time. Basically Marlon got me a PowerAde early on when we arrived and got Dan a Toña and we talked to him for a bit. It was karaoke night again so there wasn’t all that much dancing which was kind of a shame. I had hoped our host cousin would come dancing tonight, but she didn’t unfortunately. Anyways I never at any point through the night as I never asked any woman too in the sporadic dance times. Marlon got pretty drunk through the night and then got really set on me dancing with the SILAIS woman, but at that point it had entered the “only karaoke” portion of the night it seemed and I left before it ended at like 12:55 AM (I have to get up in like 5 hours). A couple of interesting things throughout the time there from 10 to almost 1 was that Marlon seriously offered us cocaine. We never saw it but he and this other duded went outside and disappeared for a bit and then came back (and we don’t doubt that is what he did). Marlon was also hilarious as a drunk; just wobbling around and being kinda crazy and having short term memory loss. I also talked to this dude about Nicaragua and he thought it was sick I liked Gallo Pinto and his mom lives in CA in San Fran. Dan is still at the Kaoma (and it’s 2 in the morning (O.o)). I headed home to sleep a bit, but that’s not possible at all. Also it’s presently thunder storming out (which is pretty cool, but I hope the power stays on). Looking forward to tomorrow and glad that I’m finally done with work! I had a fantastic time working here in San Carlos and enjoyed the challenge and new adventures of every day. In total we fixed 20 things in the clinic (most of which I fixed myself as Dan had Dengue) and 31 things in the hospital and did the secondary project of the adding 6 chains around 3 clusters of oxygen bottles, so BAM! That is a ton of junk fixed. Sure we had devices we couldn’t fix, but those were usually something beyond our skill levels or our resources. Anyways it’s been real keeping you guys updated each day about fixes and repairs and whatnot. I’m going to finish out these next few days on the blog just to say I covered everything, but I think the next few days will be less exciting (although I am quite looking forward to the States again). Peace!