Greetings from Matagalpa, Nicaragua! This is Judy Klevan posting tonight. Many of you who are reading this have been to this city in Nicaragua with us on previous trips but others may be trying to visualize the sights that we are experiencing.  Here are some things to get you started:  Matagalpa is a medium-sized city in the mountainous central region of Nicaragua.  It is the rainy season now which means that there is daily rain, interrupted by brief episodes of torrential rain.  Yesterday the rain came down from the sky with more force and volume than I have ever experienced, even during a heavy midwestern thunderstorm.  It was so loud on the tin roof where we were working that we could not hear each other speaking. With all this rain, the area is green and lush and muddy.  Along the curvy roads there are beautiful flowering plants, great expanses of coffee plants and, traveling at breakneck speed, there are crazy colorful ancient buses overloaded with people and produce.
We are working in the small village of Le Grecia, which is about a 45 minute drive from our hostel.  First we drive on a paved road and then on a dirt road.  Each trip is an adventure as we always encounter a new obstacle in the road.  Today there were several- a herd of bony cattle being led by a small boy, then a spare tire which had actually fallen off our lead vehicle, finally a group of men airing out a big tarp in the middle of the road.(why not?)
In the community of La Grecia, we were greeted by helpful community members who worked along side us as we set up our stations to begin the second day of health and literacy assessments. Our electronic data base collection system was quickly activated so we could begin seeing the families that were waiting.  Our team is dream-team composed of La Grecia community leaders, La Grecia secondary scholarship students, our Nicaraguan interpreters, students from UW-L, Viterbo, Notre Dame U., UW-Madison, and U of M. Measuring heights and weights is a UW-Lacrosse professor, while reading glasses are dispensed and literacy measured by our Spanish speakers.  Two Gundersen-Lutheran physicians and 1 Indiana University pediatrician see patients and 1 radiologist/techie-nerd makes sure the data does not disappear into cyperspace!  It's an amazing demonstration of cooperation where everyone has a role and is focused on making the process a success. In 2 days we checked over 200 people for diabetes, anemia, hypertension and malnutrition.  We gave reading glasses to all who needed them, enabling them to finally take advantage of the adult literacy programs in their community.  Also importantly, we evaluated women's access to contraception and cervical cancer screening.
It was a wonderful day and we went home in the rain, dodging livestock and potholes.