This morning started quite early at like 6 AM with
the torrential rain that started shortly thereafter. Anyways I thought about my
laundry hanging still on the line, but then I went back to sleep (I think the
host family had all the laundry moved under cover). Breakfast was some
scrambled eggs, B&R and normal other food. Work started off somewhat slow.
We were working on getting some more paint for the next IV stand. We also met
the director of the hospital who is only like 21 years old and then we met the sub
director for the hospital as well. Earlier in the morning I was anxious to try
out the pump, but there wasn’t any water in the tanks to pump, so I’ll have to
wait until tomorrow to see if it works. Anyways after that Dan and I went back
to working on the IV stand until Marlon came back with these two papers
(oversized) that were stamped by the sub director to get us 3 cans of paint and
3 brushes from the Constrúmas hardware store down by the market (that’s what I
call some administrative action there!). We went with Marlon down to the store,
but they only had the paint (the brushes are for the centrifuge, but the store
didn’t have the correct ones), so we got two cans of the dark blue and 1 can of
grey to paint the stands (hospital budget FTW!). Once we got back, we basically
worked on the stand for a bit more until Popo said we could go do more
inventory (we chose to work on the neonatal room (tucked away in a corner of
the maternity ward (in a nice AC cooled room packed with infant equipment
(radiant warmers, incubators, lights, patient monitors and some pumps)))). We
talked to the main boss in the area and he said that almost half of the radiant
warmers were bad (not heating enough) and several incubators were also broken
(not heating properly). He also mentioned that one of the patient monitors is
broken and one of the syringe pumps has a bad battery. He also said that the
two aspirators attached to the infant radiant warmers were not functioning.
Additionally, he said several of the lamps were missing bulbs and the bases
were loose. Dan and I took inventory here and then grabbed the lamps and headed
back to the shop. The lamps were simple: just add a bulb and tighten the base
attached to the stand. One lamp’s base nut was impossibly tight and stayed that
way after adding WD-40 and 3 in 1 oil to loosen the fitting. Popo even tried
that thing and couldn’t budge it (so we just ended up removing the concrete
weight in the base and tightening it a bit I think…not sure what happened to
it). I also went back to catch the names of other technology in the lab and get
some more stuff (like a syringe pump and another nebulizer (-.- rage)). Anyways
we started working a bit more on that stuff and working on the IV stand and grinding
that down to the metal base. We finished doing that and I added a quick coat of
the blue paint before we headed off to grab some lunch.
Lunch
was again at the good Italian place on the way to the market. Today the choice
was to buy a chicken pizza for 155 Cord. It was totally worth the wait (which
happened to be like 35 minutes), but luckily they didn’t burn the pizza or have
to change the gas halfway through the process. After lunch we returned to work
on that nebulizer and also work on those aspirators attached to two of the
radiant warmers. Both of the aspirators looked really good on the outside and I
tried both (and they both worked just as expected (without a hint of dirty clag
inside of them (which is what I hoped for as I wasn’t feeling cleaning one out
today))). We opened the new nebulizer (without trying it unfortunately) and Dan
cleaned the contacts on the diaphragm and then we crammed the case back
together and it worked pretty well (so we think it may have worked before this
too). It was somewhat odd to have the guy in the neonatal wing tell us all this
was broken only to test it and have it all work. While Dan was working on the
nebulizer I was back in the neonatal wing trying to install those two
aspirators again on this awkward mechanism for the radiant warmers (and it
turned out I had to open the case to get the screws back in (later seeing a hinge
I could’ve undone and taken the whole screw arm out)). I had to trek all the
way back to the shop to get an adjustable wrench for those aspirators to get them
back on (disrobing from the scrub front and putting it back on again). I also
added a second coat of paint to the IV stand and got the bottom of it painted.
We then found Barney and asked about brushed for the centrifuge which he
thought he had. We first decided to head back to the neonatal room to get the
aspirators put in place (and ended up breaking the ground cable off of the two
crimp terminal (it just pulled out) because the friggin unit dropped (and wasn’t
damaged) while I was trying to put it on). Anyways after that fun experience we
had to wait for Barney’s assistants to bring us some diagonal cutters when we
needed some pliers and then Barney put the crimp terminals back on and we got
that futzer back on the awkward arm attachment. It was pretty late at this
point, but we went back to the shop and got some brushes from Barney and made
the motion to put the centrifuge (from yesterday) back together. The motor
shaft with bearings would not go back into the housing and the commutator was
not in far enough to use the brushes (so Barney tapped the whole mechanism with
a block of wood and hammer (and then a Bioshock worthy pipe wrench) with Popo’s
help to get that back in place. Meanwhile I put all the castors back on the IV
stand (which was now dry) and one castor’s nut tried to be a pain. Eventually
they got the motor put back together and Barney, Popo and Dan couldn’t find the
other brush (which I found in my pocket after arriving back at the hostel) so
Barney cut the spring in half and put the brush (he had without a spring) back
in and got the motor working again. It was pretty late, but Dan and Barney also
worked on the motor to get the motor running (as it had stopped running, but
the brushes needed to be worn in a bit (as Barney just sanded them flat and put
them in to wear in the right way). We then had to deal with the light that didn’t
seem to be working, but then we eventually realized with Barney that the light
only is supposed to come on when the motor is stopped (aka turned on, but not
with any time remaining on the timer). It was then time to clock out at 6 PM.
Dinner was good (chicken, cheese, tortillas, una ensalada pequeña, B&R and this
onion sauce that was quite tasty on the chicken (which was also good (I really
love the chicken here))). Chilling since. Not much happening. Turns out we have
to get a ton of info on the town of Saballo (before we can go) and it sounds
like EWH wants us to get more info before we go (as we have a commitment to San Carlos
first) but isn’t exactly opposed to us going (or something like that). Anyways I
keep hearing of all the others in the group going around Nicaragua doing gnarly
stuff, while I’m in San Carlos chilling and relaxing (sleeping and dancing and
interneting and eating good food) so I’m not exactly missing the crazy
travelling around and somewhat present pressure to go hang with the group all
the time (like in Granada). Might go to the Castle this weekend and also check
out the clinic in Saballo (but the doctor/director has to finish some paperwork
before we can even work on anything there). Anyways gonna leave it there for
now. Peace!
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