Un Día Muy Ocupado

This morning, I taught health lessons to two elementary classes entirely in Spanish, talked to a group of high school students about HIV/AIDS, played Blob Tag, took a handful of vital signs, gave half a dozen intramuscular injections, helped prepare IVs, drew up various meds, helped get a catheter ready and caught blood samples - all before lunch! The health classes with the younger children went really well. Marguí came with us to translate if we needed her, but we hardly did. As soon as we walked into the classroom full of eager grade ones, I knew I was ready. I didn't realize how much I missed my grade ones at the elementary school at home, so it was so nice to finally be teaching and interacting with such wonderful little people agian. In Spanish, to boot!

Our high school presentation was sandwiched between two elementary ones. We were already nervous when we walked into the grade eight room and found out that there was no projector after all; things got worse when the director strode in wearing a white habit and a stern look. She was only there for the first few seconds, though, so we were scared for nothing. While we didn't leave the high school presentation feeling as pumped as we were after the first, it still went well. We're going to try to spice it up a little bit before we do the grade seven class on Thursday.

At the hospital afterward, I lucked out in emerge with a nurse who was really willing to teach me, hence all the things I got to do before lunch. After lunch (spaghetti, if you were curious) I headed up to the centro de salud. I've practically been buzzing with excitement over the health centre for the past few days, to be honest. Brianne and John have been giving pap smears, breast exams and injections at the clinic in Diriamba, so I've really been looking forward to getting that kind of clinical experience. The other reason I've been muy emotionada about starting there is the doctor, Harold. I heard wonderful things about him from Meagan, and he was so patient with me when we met a month ago despite the fact that I could hardly string words together.

He didn't disappoint. There were a few residents or interns with him today, so he was definitely in teaching mode and I learned a few things while I was there. I tried to take the first patient's blood pressure, but he was speaking to her while another doctor/student/resident listened to her breathing, so I couldn't hear myself think with the stethoscope in, never mind a pulse! It's frustrating because I understand how to do it but I just can't get enough practice because there aren't enough cuffs for me to take one away for a few minutes and try on a doctor or a volunteer. Even if there is an available cuff, the quality is an issue - the one I used in emerge this morning was so worn that the velcro gave way as soon as the pressure reached about 120. I'll just have to keep trying, I suppose, and hope that the patients don't get too fed up with me fumbling around. I also learned how to weigh and measure patients and perform a breast exam.

The clinic was pretty much empty by about 2:30, which was a little disappointing because I was hoping for a solid day of work. Harold was having individual meetings with all of his students, so I sat with them on the bench and chatted while they waited for their turns. As I marvelled at the realization that I was actually chatting in Spanish, a couple of the firefighters came in. I was so proud of myself for being able to talk to them about their graduation (it's tomorrow) and the celebratory cookout we're helping with on Saturday.

Anyway, I left the clinic soon after that because there were no patients there and I needed to get started on my presentation about healthy eating, heart disease and obesity. It's really hard to find stats about such things in Nicaragua, but my own observation would suggest that more than half of adult women here are overweight and that almost all of them carry that extra weight around their middles, which is a bad sign when it comes to heart disease risk. I have to say that I understand, though - if I could eat things like this delicious fried donut concoction every day, I'd have weight around my middle, too!

Tomorrow, we're teaching four more classes in the morning. Because of a miscommunication with the scheduling, we're doing two before nine and then two later in the morning, which makes it difficult to go to the hospital before lunch. Brianne promised she'd be at the hospital by nine-thirty, so I'm going to do the second set of lessons on my own. That way, I get to finish my poster during the break and spend twice as much time with elementary school children! Fun fact: Brianne's a lifeguard, and after seeing me with the grade ones this morning, she suggested that I do the rest of the lifeguard training (I did my Bronze Cross once upon a time) because teaching swimming lessons is yet another way to combine health and education! I think it could be a lot of fun.