Feb 4 - Jonathan - Kickin' It Chlorine Clean

It feels like we’ve been here a long time, but it hasn’t been more than a few days... Already, I feel like we’ve been getting the true Nicaraguan experience. It’s been very different from Costa Rica, and that’s what I was hoping for.

Maybe it has to do, in part, because we’re in the middle of nowhere, too. The nearest “city” is about a half an hour by car. We don’t have cars, though. Our half-an-hour to hour-long journey every day is by bicycle. On dirt roads. Some of which are flooded over. None of which are smooth. One of which was blocked by a fallen tree this morning.

The clinic where FIMRC has set up shop is impressive. It’s a really nice facility, and rather than owning it, FIMRC partners with it. They provide us volunteers for public health initiatives, such as the first aid training that we’re doing. Speaking of which, our day-to-day life is basically the following: four hours of training locals first aid twice a week, two or three mornings of preparing said training sessions, three afternoons of Spanish class per week, and a few random half-days of other activities.

Sorry this is random, but I keep remembering other things I was going to include... Spanish class, for instance, has been good. We’ve had lots of practice talking. Viniette, as many of you know, is a wonderful card game. It has a gazillion rules, but it’s a lot of fun. In our first class, we spent a lot of it playing Viniette. Sounds cush, right? You try explaining the most complicated card game you’ve ever played before to a person in another language... another person who doesn’t really know how to play card games.

Another cool thing that we got to do was go out with local community health workers to distribute Abate. Abate is a chemical that they distribute in tea bag like “bolsitas” to put anywhere there’s standing water to prevent the reproduction of mosquitoes. It was cool to see locals interacting with locals, working hard to improve their communities. And it was cool seeing how they recognized all of the random houses on a street, and never got lost, despite no street signs and no addresses.

We’ve had to be pretty flexible with things here. Things change. People don’t show up. Food doesn’t get prepared/served on time. Or, most recently, we have to kick it chlorine-clean. Translation: no power, and thus, no water. So, we’re sitting in the dark right now. Luckily laptops have batteries... So, even though it’s too dark to read or play cards or anything else, I can type this entry, and save it to be posted the next time we go to clinic... Friday? That’s all for now. I’d better go jump in our pool (which has green water, by the way), so that I can truly kick it, Chlorine Clean.