Meryl is return

Heidi and I picked her up at the airport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L4fltWl9-A

Heidi said leaving a bag unattended in an airport in Israel is a good way of having it exploded by security.

Jeff

Grananda

First of all, Granada = heaven. It is my favorite place so far in Nicaragua, and I feel slightly guilty saying so because it is very touristy (aka lots of gringos, different foods, streets are clean) but it was really beautiful. It is the oldest Spanish colonial city in Central America and there were great churches and cathedrals. This is us at a lookout over a lagoon that connects to Lake Nicaragua. (Still not sure how a lagoon is different than a lake but enough to look it up). Don't let this picture fool you, we were hotter than ever, it was over 100 and I was sweating sunscreen!




Fabulous market where Allison secured her hammock.



Happy Hour! Two mojitos for $1.25. You know what that means.




Cathedral. For the Jesus lover in all of us.



Time is running out and I am sad! Only a month left. I was going to travel up Central America but those damn Hondurans are having a coup so I think I will instead go down Costa Rica and Panamá. Maybe dabble in Columbia. Mwhahaha.

Rancho Grande

This week we went to Rancho Grande, it was the most rural place we've been yet. I forgot my bed net, and that was the biggest mistake of my trip so far. The hotel was very...interesting. Let's just say that the ceiling wasn't exactly flush with the roof, so there was about a half foot gap where bugs and critters of all kinds could come in. Allison had two lizards in her bed! And the backyard of the hotel had three pigs and plenty of roosters, so sleeping was hard because of the noise and the most intense fecal odor I have ever smelled. So the first night I tried to sleep under my blanket but it was so hot, that I ended up kicking off the blankets in my sleep. I woke up with bug bites all over my face and something bit my lower lip and it had swelled up to a huge blob. I had to go to the health center for antihistamines. So needless to say, I searched Rancho Grande up and down for a bed net, and I found this one for only 150 cordobas ($7.50). Best investment ever. Moving on...



The first day we went to the Casa Materna. I am so impressed with these! There were five women there, the director said there are usually 10-16. We couldn't interview three of the five because they weren't 18, they were mostly in the 14-15 range. Note the bed nets above the beds on the right :D The Casa Materna had a common room, and then a big dorm style room in the back. It was more run down than the Casa Maternas in Matagalpa and El Cua, but definitely functioning which is what matters. Our interview with the director was interesting. We learned that they are having trouble getting the high risk women to come to the Casa Materna because their husbands won't let them. Women receive health information at the Casas, about pregnancy but also about family planning (which is critical given that many women have 6+ kids and that so many are teen pregnancies). The director said that men don't like their wives to have this information. Also, the Casas can't house a woman's relatives due to space, so women feel isolated and lonely and for that reason don't always like to come. I thought the guarantee of free housing, food, and access to a hospital would result in all women wanting to come to the Casa Materna regardless if they were high risk or not, but turns out that is not the case at all.



The first day we also went to the Centro de Salud. This is where women from the Casa Materna go to deliver. It is about a five minute walk. There is one birthing room. When I was there, two teens were in labor. They looked remarkably calm and in control. The birthing room as you can see is incredibly basic. They don't use pain killers or have a lot of technology, so it's basically the exam table and then the basic gauze, sterilizers, etc. The second picture here is a 'birthing kit.' Inside was forceps, a cord cutter, etc. As you can see from the rusty bins, they are re-used and very old. But the equipment inside was clean and sterile and that's what's important.








This is a picture of the street right outside our hotel. This was a really cute town, aside from the hotel experience, it is my favorite town yet. It was very tranquil, very few cars and most people used horses. Plus, the animals! There were pigs and chickens running through the streets. Lots of piglets too like the one of the right. Very cute even if they did smell.
Animals just wander freely, and the hotel had lots of stray kittens stalking the lizards on the walls and baby hens. This one joined us at the dinner table. Overall, great week! I got 9 interviews done. So far what I have found is that women don't use formula because it is not sold in the rural communities and because it is way too expensive. Instead they use cow milk, which might be even more dangerous than formula because it is unpasteurized and apparently gives kids parasites. This weekend me and the ladies are going to Managua and then it is off to another rural community on Monday.

Cool things I learned today (Meryl)

I asked my Spanish teacher (after going off on how I hate all the cat calls on the street!) what foreigners do that offend Nicaraguans and this is what she told me:

1. Wearing flip flops in public. Nicaraguans just wear them in the house and particularly just in the bathroom. When they see all the foreigners, who mostly wear flip flops, Nicaraguans are offended and think it's gross and dirty. Whoops!

2. They get offended when we put on insect repellent because it implies that we think their country is diseased. She said that if foreigners think the country is so diseased, they should just go home.

Interesante!

Updates from Nicaragua (Meryl)

So far we haven't made much progress on the projects. There was a lot of miscommunication between CARE Atlanta and CARE Nicaragua and so our projects were redefined several times, and I think this last meeting on Friday was the last about project changes..hopefully now we can get the ball rolling because there are only 9 weeks left! Although we spent the entire week 8am-5pm in the CARE office, Wednesday afternoon we were invited to join on a trip to Jinotega. It is a semi-rural community 45 minutes outside Matagalpa. The ride there was intense. The road infrastructure is terrible; there are giant potholes everywhere that engulf the whole truck. There are also a lot of hitchhikers, horses, and very small children playing on the side of the road. The latter surprised me the most. We are talking very small children! Most were entertaining themselves by throwing rocks at cattle or climbing trees. We drove by coffee fields, through the mountains, across fields. It is very, very beautiful. Jinotega is a very chill city like Matagalpa, there are lots of bikes, motorcycles, kids running around, and people walking. We only stayed briefly because we were just dropping off some files, but next week we are supposedly going out into the intervention communities for four days. I am excited to see what these are like!

Saturady Allison and I went on a 7 hour hiking trek from Matagalpa into the surrounding foothils. We kind of did a semi circle around Matagalpa. It was intense, but worth it. We hiked through lots of coffee and plaintain farms. I hadn't ever seen either of these plants so it was awesome. It really is a lush and tropical place. Smiles from abroad! :D