Day 4

Good morning! This is Irene and we are at the start of day 4. Apologies for missing a day, but the last two have been quite busy. We started our health assessments Tuesday and continued them yesterday. We saw approximately 130 people the first day and then another 170 or so yesterday. Two amazing days of organized chaos! We have had the rainbow docs and the dentist with us the last couple of days and it has been delightful to work alongside them. Our computer guru, Mark, set up an amazing computer network and with ipads we were able to enter our assessment data as we went. Who would have thought that we would be able to have electronic medical records in a remote mountain village in Nicaragua? The Rainbow Network scholarships students were amazing in their work with us. They helped at every station, helped the flow of individuals waiting to be seen and were integral to our work.We had a bit of a later day as we then stayed after we cleaned and packed up to leave so that we could have a follow up meeting with the Rainbow staff and the community leaders.We gained  so much information on individual health, community health and literacy levels. Several adults were so excited to get reading glasses in the strength they need, and the smiles on their faces when they could see the pictures on the card were priceless. Many told us that they would now attend the adult education classes because they would be able to see the work!  The scholarship students sent us off by singing two songs to us, getting some of us a bit teary. Meeting the community members one on one as they came through the stations is wonderful.

We didn't arrive back to the hotel until about 6:00 and discovered to our delight that Dr. Candido and Dr. Lissette, our doctors who visited us in La Crosse for Ultrasound training were coming for dinner with their families at 7:00. We had a lovely time with them. Dinner here is always a 3 hour event, especially with such a large group, waiting usually about 2 hours for the food after we order it. With a tired and hungry team, this can be challenging but all in all was lovely to spend that much time with our Nicaraguan friends.

Signing off for now, the team is starting to gather for breakfast. Off to Santa Marta again to do some more community assessment and to get to know it better and to Santa Celia to be with our friends and do some crochet classes.

peace,

Irene