Well today I felt slightly better at wakeup, so I
think that indicated a slightly better day. Breakfast was pretty good with an omelet
and B&R and toast with the good jelly and milk. After breakfast Dan and I
headed off to work, but swung by two tool stores on the way there to grab some
supplies (a larger file, some sandpaper, some nuts for the wheelchair and some
WD-40). After arriving at work Gato and Marlon were both not there at like 9
AM, so we couldn’t get into the workshop, but that was okay as we went and
tried to do some inventory of the appliances in the baby room. We also tested
the radiant warmer again and showed the nurse what we thought was the problem.
She seemed skeptical of our solution and seemed to be saying “yeah sure” and “oh
yeah” with her words. Anyways she also directed us to two other lamps in the
room (one large surgical lamp and one smaller single standard bulb stand). We
turned on both lights, but the surgical lamp has 3 bulbs of 6 that are burned
out (we have to get the specialized 24 V 70 Watt ones) and the other light
seems to have a sketchy cord and a dead switch that is constantly in the on
position (might have to actually rip the switch out and change it (kinda sketch
having to unplug it from the wall all of the time (O.o))). Anyways Dan and I
headed back to grab some tools and this time Gato was back and the door was
unlocked. After grabbing some tools and heading back to the baby room we took
out the bulbs in the large surgical lamp (which happened to have a nice
removable panels for each of the individual bulbs (the holder for the bulb didn’t
seem to allow the leads to be separated nicely from the connection, but apparently
the other engineer just pulled them out and it worked (O.o))). We also took the
cabinet door (which had broken off one of the cabinets in the room) and took
off the hardware and put this under the scale that wasn’t level on the foam
bench (that’s at least a bit better than waterbed status). Anyways also during
this time, Barney called on us to find another diode to replace the broken
diode on the centrifuge board from yesterday (fix!). We had to desolder a diode
from an old battery backup in the locked equipment shed and take the diode and
solder it in the new board. Our soldering iron would go through stages of
working and not (which was quite annoying) and the best idea I have as to why
this is happened is due to the iron just not having great contact with the tip.
Anyways after that I reassembled the centrifuge and Barney said I hadn’t put
the motor back in the center, so I had to just shift the motor mount screws a
small amount to center the motor inside the drum. After that we turned on the
centrifuge and could clearly hear the more audible rotations of the rotor
(traveling at a higher speed). Success! After that Dan and I started working on
the electronic balance in the other room a bit (as this balance needed
calibration or something). Dan took off the front plate and thought of
replacing the cracked LCD, but it was annoying as heck to get too (nevermind
trying to find a new LCD for that model (and the staff could already see
through the cracks and use the unit)) so he just left the screen alone and
continued to take off the rest of the unit (back near the balance). The problem
as it turned out was that the balance part was incredibly dirty from dirt and
from this virtual insect colony (now defunct) that was inside of it. It looked
like a termite nest in some ways inside of the back. This could cause the
balance to register much higher as the unit is supposed to be accurate to
within 0.5 mg (0.0005 g). Anyways Dan cleaned much of that balance out while I
semi-napped (as I was still really tired and getting better). We then had lunch
with Barney and his crew (that engineer, several other technicians and that
strange non-tech dude) at that random house along a road on the backside of the
hospital. Lunch was decent (chicken drumstick, B&R, semi-hard plantains and
some pink lemonade). Lunch was also interesting because the movie Troy with
Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom and several thousand others was on the television
(in Spanish) and it had one battle before we left (and the king attacking Troy
(Agamemnon?) was uber ticked because he got driven back without Achilles’
help). After lunch Dan and I put back together the scale and cleaned all the
parts in the process. This also led to extensive use of alco-gel to clean the
plates and the glass. After that I head to go grab the old power supply board
for Barney as he needed another diode (this time in the form of two diodes
packed in a transistor (a transistor with the strangest marking I’ve seen on
it). After that I was tasked with taking apart a nebulizer (basically a pump
that mists out water or other helpful agents through a breathing apparatus).
Apparently this unit was lacking in flow and I promptly took apart the case
(including the one screw hidden under the “high voltages and electrocution. Service
only by qualified personnel” sticker). After opening the unit up, I had to
clean the entire inside as it was dusty. Shortly thereafter Dan returned from
futzing around with the scale and helped me oil the bearings on the motor (we
tried to take out the commutator, but the screws holding it on the transformer
coil started to strip using a #2 Phillips, so we decided to close it back up.
The closing back up took close to 40 minutes (and it still wasn’t
satisfactory). Basically when I took this apart, there were 4 rubber corners
for the transformer core to sit in the plastic case (and to hold the coil tight
as the motor moved the piston to move the air to the patient). Trying to get
these back around the transformer and to get the case to fit back on as nicely
was IMPOSSIBLE. Perhaps we weren’t putting the rubber jawns in the right spot
or perhaps the design was dumb, but we had to force the case closed and hold it
while putting the 4 case screws back in (O.o darn that thing and not fitting
right!). Tomorrow we’ll have to look at the unit again as it seems to only have
made the unit louder and perhaps even restricted the flow a bit (after
reassembling the case) on the nebulizer (so I suppose that’s the opposite of a
fix for now -.- // nebulizers). After that it was 5 PM and time to be done with
the day. We still haven’t met the director as he’s been sick and the two other technicians
aren’t back yet either. We still have yet to finish our inventory (although we
tried a bit with the baby room and the lab workroom). Perhaps tomorrow! Anyways
tomorrow is July 4th! WOOT! This means Dan and I can live it up on
our own down here as no one else here really recognizes it (although wait until
July 19th for Nicaragua’s independence day). Apparently we’re going
to La Champra in town with Barney and some girls from Managua (who are making
their way down here tomorrow) to celebrate. We’ll see how that turns out.
Anyways today is also day 42 (the answer to life the universe and everything!
(and also 20 more than the luckiest number ever 22! (nested references for the
win))). Dinner was good (that really really really chewy beef, plantains,
B&R, coleslaw and a coke. Just chilling now and I’ll probably try to get
some extra sleep tonight as I’ve been quite drained lately. From me to y’all
and through the medium of 1s and 0s, goodnight! Take care and peace!
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