El Ultimo Dia de La Clase de Español y La Clase de Tecnica

Hola!

I honestly can't believe it in 6 more days last month I was just getting arriving in Managua anxious of the adventures to come and all the new knowledge I would acquire. I have met such great people, learned so much and regained and improved my spanish. I am more informed and aware of the types of commonly donated Medical Equipment, common problems experienced in the Developing world and the social problem of Medical Equipment donation.

Next month, I will be in Chinandega, Yes! *Gasp* the HOTTEST City in NICARAGUA, with my Amazing Companera Kaityln and i am so excited for what is to come and the potential to make a change, learn even more and continue to improve my spanish.

During Class, Group 4

As happy as I am to begin to transition into el proximo mes/ the Next Month, I am sad to be finished with the first month. My Spanish Teachers: Carla y Maria Elena, were just amazing. Both had different styles that appealed to my different learning styles and despite my timid, nervous, and frustrated moments during spanish class I am soo very grateful for all their help. I hope this is the beginning/ new-beginning for my spanish journey and hope one day I can be proficient and that my knowledge of spanish with be advantageous i my future career plans whether in Medicine and/or Global Health.

Iyad y Britanny's "skit"

Also a Big Shout out and Thank You to Dr.Iyad Obeid and Brittany Zick our amazing Professor and OTGC (respectively), who have been so amazing and helpful during this month. Thank You Britanny for all your mini-pick-me up and life lesson sessions. You are my Engineering-Life Big sister! Thank Your hard work, all the Yoga sessions and laughs and for just being another great addition to our overall atmosphere of the program. To Professor Obeid! You are amazing! I speak for all of us when we all wish we could have you as our professor then Engineering would be a lot more fun, enjoyable and easier to understand. I know all that you have taught us will be so helpful in the next month and I hope to share with you success  stories. Thank You for all the amazing and hilarious stories!

All in all, I am so pumped for the next month!

The party today was so much fun! After brief lessons, where we had to in spanish give our opinions about What is Pride? If what is  inside is the best part of a person? and learning how to give advice in spanish using the subjunctive, it was time for FUN! First each hospital group prepared a skit in spanish about a possible scenario we would encounter while at our respective hospitals! There were many mimicking our Friday hospital visits with cleaning fans! Few about defribillators, which Kaitlyn and I did. The backstory is that for the Defribillator section in our test book, for the "Minimal Testing" portion it advised us to buy a recently killed pig and test the defribillator not the Pig. Let me leave you with Kaitylyn was a pig at some point in our skit lol! Also shout out to Raj and David with their Ultrasound skit!

Raj y David, Ultrasound Skit

Nick y Ellitot y Yinka, Re-soldering fans skit

Piñata

After the skits we moved to the balcony space where there was ballons and snacks and CHOCOLATE! i was pumped! Each Level had picked an act from a hat so we had 2 singing, 3 dancing, and 1 acting group.  The first group danced to  Party Rock, 2nd Sang "I want it that way", My group, don't ask why sang "Talk Dirty to me" by Jason Derulo, The other groups the Mackerena to Bailando by Enrique Iglesias. After we played common games like pin the tail on the horse, there was a piñata! And there was this interesting game where one person is blindfolded and feeds someone else Baby Food, I participated in both ways, Yummy!

pin the tail on the horse

Mayella, one of the teachers dancing

Yummy!

Last Lunch!

Then we ended the day on an more serious EWH note. We had our last lecture, which was on Motors. For the final lab and most of the labs this week, we things we will need to do/encounter next month. Today we practiced interviewing workers to identify Needs that can be used as Senior Design projects at Duke for Dr.Malkin, the founder of EWH's Class.

After Lab, we made it over to Road House and watched the remainder of the First World Cup Game between Brazil and Croatia (3-1) Im pumped! Cant wait for Super Eagles-Nigeria and England's Game!

Great Last Day :)


---Adios :)

Midnight Volcano Tours(Masaya)

¡Epa! (Hey!)

This weekend has been so amazing so far! Today I went on the Midnight Volcano Tour in Masaya. The larger group wen to San Juan de Sur, while Betsy, Brittanny, Kaitlyn Shruthi, and I stayed in Granada for the weekend. After spending a day at Laguna Apoyo and not being in the water i didnt want to go on another weekend trip by the water.

In the morning after breakfast, I met up with Brittany and Betsy to do some sightseeing and walking around. First stop was the Mi Museo that had ceramics and antiques. The Museum was not too big so we were done quickly. It also had a outside patio that was really nice and it was cool that some of the pieces being showcased were for sale. 

After the museum, we went to the famous Chocolate museum, which we found out was connected to Hotel Spa granada. The museum just a small corner of the room, with the history of chocolate starting with the spanish, then the Europeans, also the process of making chocolate and chocolate fun facts. There were som Cacoa tress in the center of the hotel, which was cool.  We were a bit sad there were no free chocolate samples and we did have time and probably the funds for the chocolate making class. 

Later on the day we met up with shruthi and Kaitlyn at the Travel agency and boarded a AIR-Conditionted bus to Masaya. When we first got there we had to cheek in with the park ranger then we started driving through the volcano. WE got out at first to see some of the lava and all around you could see how the lava had moved. we then drove further to the first viewing point. Apparantley some of the volcanoes here, including the one at massy emits Gas. There was also an interesting story about the cross that was on a hill. apparently there was someone don't remember who, that thought that the volcanoes were the door to hell and he wanted to baptize/christen then so he built a cross  there. The pictures of the cross during the sunset were beautiful. There were also so many parakeets and other bird species. I remember learning parakeet in spanish class and i really didnt know what it was even in english when the others figured it  out but hey! I do now.  from there we took the bus further and then climbed to the highest viewing point. At times it was a bit scary and hard to climb up as well as go back down. 

Finally, we went to the caves. The first cave, we were able to walk inside about a good 10mins to a certain point until it was no longer safe/ prohibited for tourist. We saw some bats hanging. I was so happy we were given flashlights and helmets because a) i could have walked into a bat b) there were numerous times when i hit my head hard on the ceiling.  we then went to the other cave where most of the bats were. It was pretty dark now so they were leaving the cave. There was a boa, trying to and successfully caught a bat as they were flying out. We then tried what our tour guide called an "experiment" where we all turned off our flashlights and the bats started coming out of our opening of the cave and one flew right above my head. IT was pretty cool and disturbing at the same time.

It was really cool tour and i got lots of cool pics. Im pretty tired and going to sleep nervous and anxious for tomorrow when we go Ziplining. I already paid so i guess i can't back out now! As my best friend kindly reminded me 2014 is our year to be "Brave" so I have to conquer my fear of heights!

Todos es Tuani

Tuani- Cool, Groovy :)

Hola amigos!

As the weeks have become more routine, theres not much to update on but this week has been quite eventful and will continue to be.

Lunches:

Update: I am much better now although i don't know what caused my momentary sickness!

       

Kate and I were able to fix our power supply but I don't think it works anymore. We also  experienced more hardships in Lab later on this week. On the positive note its just preparing of for lots of troubleshooting in the next month. Espero que en el proximo mes estara mas bueno.

At then end of the week in spanish, our weekly presentation was about our expectations and plans for the next month, which is something i have been thinking about more as it approaches quickly. 

All in all Im not expecting anything specific however  I hope and know at the end of the whole experience it will have been
worth it and i will have learn soo much and i have already met such amazing people and pushed myself to conquer some of my personal fears. 

Specifically I hope kate and I's experience at least epitomizes the ideology of " Low Hanging Fruit" and we are able to fix some simple user errors, or mite problems. Also improving my spanish. We also plan to meet up with Nikki and Shrtuthi who are the closest to us and go to Leon and hopefully we see  others too during that month.

Friday was the usual Hospital Visit. Although it was a longer day i was less tired and we all had task to do but not much to complete towards the end of the day. I was in the Fan and AC cleaning group and i also cleaned an Air compressor. Im glad we get to see/do a different task each week its a new experience and whether it Fan or a Centrifuge its all good learning and applicable knowledge and experience.  The best part of the day was when the  Fetal Incubator ! YES  Fetal INCUBATOR! Group successfully repaired the wiring problem due to part of the circuitry being burnt and the previous workers not being attaching new components but wiring incorrectly! IT was really cool because Fetal

Incubators, Warmers and Lights were some of our lecture topics this week.  Also in Lab we made and Incubator Temperature alarm systems.In my eyes one groups success is all our success and i am happy we got to do a service for the hospital and have that learning experience and see our class knowledge be applied "on the field" and turn out successful! When we arrived in the morning and i saw the Incubator I just knew something good was going to happen! I am very happy and I think it really captures what EWH and this experience and their mission is all about :)

Preliminary stages of our Incubator Temperature alarm circuit

On a less serious note. Im really happy with my exercise regime here. Although i have not been running Im back to doing Yoga and Zumba is going really well. In yoga we are learning more challenge poses and its so rewarding when I attempt something and i am even able to do it to a certain extent. I think thats whats soo cool about yoga its all about you and your personal intentions and how you challenge yourself. I hope i get to do more yoga back in the states. This week i did Zumba twice and I'm loving it! The more frequently you go the more you pick up some of the moves and they are easier to do although the footwork can still be confusing lol! I definitely see the benefits of zumba when we went dancing.  Friday night Leila and I went to zumba and then met up with everyone else to hang out and then we went dancing. Shruthi and I danced with some Nicaraguan girls and had a mini conversation in spanish introducing ourselves. They were very nice and taught me some steps and even complimented our spanish! :)

This weekend, the majority of the group is going to the Beach in San Juan de Sur but I and Shruthi, Kate, Leila, Betsy, and student Brittanny are going on a Midnight Volcano tour in Masaya on saturday and ZIPLINING  on sunday. o_0- what did i get myself into?!?!?!

Pictures from this weekend to come!


:) Adios--

Somedays are successful and Others are Not & Today is One!

Variable Power Supplies

After a long and eventful weekend I think we were all a bit Knackered. Luckily today Spanish was laid back and quite fun. In first half we reviewed the Simple Future and Present Progressive. We even went out by the park and observed and said what people were doing in spanish. With our second teacher we played games such as taboo but in spanish, which was fun! We had denomico, and played spanish shards which is always fun!

Lunch was good today but during class My body felt warm, which i confirmed with a friend. After lunch i didnt feel so good maybe i had eaten too fast. I later found part of the reason for my discomfort. During lecture i was drinking water hoping to feel a little better. At first i though i had swallowed down the wrong pipe and i started coughing and bent down to not make a seen then i was breathing weirdly through my nose and all of a sudden I THREw UP! For those of you who know me well this rarely happens and its pretty serious if/when it does. I was so shocked and embraassed luckily Shruthi who ate with me knew i was not feeling well and wasn't shocked and helped me. I had to go home and change my clothes. Britanny bought me popsicles and cold drinks in case it was a overheating issue that caused my sickness.

Lab unfourntately did not improve the day. We were adding to our preious lab circuit for Power supply and we had to connect series of resistors a Regulator and capacitors to our Diode bridge. That proved more difficult than said. The circuit components are so small and the wire is so thick and big and we had trouble twisting and connecting the wires and components to form the nodes. In some cases prongs of the parts broke off. When we first assembled it we found out front the instructor check we had assembled one part wrong and in fixing that some parts came apart. Having fixed those problems we tried to test our circuit and connected it to the AC power and it sparked and one of the prongs on the regulator burned off! Kaitlyn and I were pretty fed up and defeated but in the end we persevered and soldered the rest of the parts together and fixed and exchanged nodes and components. The lab in two days for fixing batteries we will have to use this circuit to test things so we need it to work. We hope when we test it, it will work! Fingers Crosed. Picutres of the WORKING circuit will be posted by the end of the week :)

We got home right in time for dinner and Surprise! Theres a new couple from Winsconsin, a couple the woman being a spanish teacher brought her class to explore Nciaragaua. I didnt speak much and ate fast so i could lie down. Now I'm at the Garden Cafe!

Time for Homework and may be some reading! :)


Adios!

El fin de Semana: Poste de Rojo ( Treehouse Hostel)

Hola!

This past weakend was all types of fun! This friday was Mothers Day! Being that we went to the hospital on thursday we still had class in the morning. During Lunch, we picked up the bouquets we ordered for Snra.Bernada and Snra.Fatima. After school we went home and gave them the flowers and Earrings we had got for them. I think they were pleasantly surprised and appreciative. I an my roommates really do like their family and have been so great and we are so thankful to them for opening their house to us and treating us so well. Unfourtunately we didnt stay long. We packed up and met up with the rest of the group to go to Poste Rojo,Tree House Hostel was located.

Cows!

We took the same bus that we took to Mombacho-the volcano. The Bus was much more packed this time people were hanging on the outside doors due to overcapacity. They yelled out our stop and we got off. We walked through open-land/residential areas following graffiti signs on trees and then some signs to the hostel. Then we had climb up some more to get to the tree-house. Basically it was a mini-hike and I broke out in a sweat!

Signs!

We made it but 6mins Hike more! lol

Last Stretch!

Bridge to the Hammock Deck!

My first impressions wow! Very cool! This tree house literally is a standing structure in the Middle of the forest! It was nicely decorated with writings from past travelers, there was a bar. On our way up we passed the rooms/Dorms. At the top there was a long bridge that led to the Hammock-Deck, another sleeping option. Above the bar was the dining area.

Upstairs by the Dining Area

Getting comfortable on a Hammock!

Most of us opted to sleep in the hammocks for the first night. For dinner, we had SHEPARD'S Pie, I'm guessing because of the British volunteer worker, i was happy. We all went to the hammock deck most people were playing a game i talked to few people who were also on the hammocks. Sleeping was interesting. One thing i failed to realize was the lack of blood circulation to my lower extremities sleeping in an inclined position. Also we were basically sleeping in the open with the surroundings of the deck open to the forest. There were many interesting noises at night and early in the morning. I was happy to be alive haha.

Hammock Deck

Casually Brushing our teeth in the middle of the Forest!

Morning!

Ready for the Day!

We woke up due to sunrise and the nearby chicken/Rooster around 6/7am. I had a Breakfast sandwich which was good but i was worried because the hostel didnt collect payments rather kept a tab and everything was priced in dollars! After breakfast we were picked up by 5 Tuc Tucs and headed for almost 1hr journey to Laguna Apoyo.

All Aboard?!?!

All of us in Tuc Tucs!

Getting Closer!

Morning!!!

We went to the Monkey Club House, a hostel itself that opened up to a big portion of one of the sides of the lagoon. The lagoon is said to have been created by two volcanic eruptions and was in the middle of both volcanos. The hostel was quite nice, they asked for a entry fee of $6 and they had beach chairs, kayaks, a bar for food, which you paid separately and wifi. Being scared of swimming in deep water due to my childhood traumatic experiences i didnt venture out too much in the water but i had fun nonetheless and so did the others. I opted to not eat mostly because i didnt have much of an appetite which worked out well in terms of managing my terminating funds. The other group of people who went to the Butterfly camp early saturday morning met us at the laguna and we all headed back to the tree-house together,where we met the others who arrived today. Basically everyone including Brittany and the new Coordinatior for month two, Matt.

Everyone! (Bad picture sorry

Laguna Apoyo

I hung out with some of the girls on the monkey look out deck a fews feet away from the tree-house. For dinner we had Spaghetti!

Late Risers

Bridge Selfie

After we conversed by the bar, there were some new travelers from Australia and the Same German girls from the night before. We all then headed to the Hammock deck and played more games. Soon most people headed to the deck while those who wanted to stake claim of their hammock and were tired stayed back. I decided to sleep in the hammocks again for the price and what the heck? I had to make the most of the experience! I wont say i regret it but the second night was painful! Although i had my blanket and torch from my phone and my bottle of bug spray! My knees really hurt  when i was sleeping and i woke up almost every hour by 4am i was ready to leave. Once others woke up i got ready and headed by the main part and waited for more to wake up. We were all ready to leave around 9am. Most of us had very little money and hoped to take the bus home but with the inconsistent schedule and not knowing the exact bus stop, when a tuc tuc with a reasonable price stopped by we took it. We got back home around 11am, which was nice since we still had almost a full day.

Adios!

Bye!

 

Back at home Snra.Bernada was still away so Snra.Fatima made us lunch, which was new! We had Nacatamale(Wrong spelling probably) its another typical Nica Dish. Much like any other tamale it was we wrapped in Banana leaves and had rice and some type of meat in it but was delicious.

We then tried out a new cafe around town called The Garden Cafe. It also has a patio like our house and two Hammocks! Haha-ah! I will be taking a leave of absence from hammocks!
They also have a library and i took advantage and found some books to read and i got to borrow them. I definitely will be coming more often to read. I was also very product with my homework and other things and i got to read so i was happy.

For dinner we had a delicious rice dish with chicken and vegetables mixed in and Snra. Bernada was back! AND we have a new couple. Bo and Ryan another married couple from phoenix. Bo is a Lawyer and Ryan a High School Englsih teacher. They seem nice. We were happy to see Snra.Bernada and when introducing everyone. Snra.Fatima described herself as like our Grandma and Snra.Bernada our Mum! Aww we are a part of the family!

Now Im going to try and finish my book and head to Bed since theres school tomorrow!

-Adios!

Nicargua is NISE NIAAZE!

Week 2 and Reflective Thoughts

I can't believe its coming to the end of week 2. Everything really is going well. I think this week was all about settling into our lives in Nicaaragua as well as having a routine. There wasn't much new things although i continued to take pictures of my meals.

Weekly Meal Pictures:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Friday( since Hospital was on Thursday)

On Monday this week, i went running in the morning, which I'm really proud of myself but I AM OUT OF SHAPE! And the Heat definitely is not a great addition. I hope i can run at least once or twice a week while i am here and hopefully incoperate that when i am back at school. Yoga is going Great! I can see  myself getting more flexible and i was able to do or partially do some poses that i would have never imagined i could do. I think everyone as a whole is really proud of their progress and we are enjoying pushing our bodies and finding out what we can do. This week almost all of us did yoga including the boys this time, which was cool. This Wednesday, I was able to go to Zumba with Eva, Emily and their host sister as i missed it last week. It was really fun, and actually a bit tiring and it was a Hot room soo we were all sweating profusely. The instructor was a man and MAHN does he haves some moves. He actually put all the women to shame! It was really when i knew one of the songs because my roommate from last year Marissa(Miss you!) used to test out her Zumba routine with me in our room. Unfourtunately no picture evidence but when i got back i was very tired and sweaty and laid down for like good 30mins.


This week in Spanish, we are having more involved conversations and its really cool how we are able to have engaged conversations. I must admit i am a little more reserved in class than i usually am. I think I'm just still readjusting to remembering all my vocabulary and all the tenses. One of the days of class we had to talk about our religion and what our religion believes, when we go to church, pray, and rules etc and it was really interesting to learn about everyones religion especially when talking in spanish. We also learnt some Nicaraguan Histrory and its very interesting. Last week on our way to the hospital our professor was in the same cab and told us some Nicaraguan history about William Walker,an American who tried to take over the Nicaraguan government. I got to share that in class since no one in my group knew the story. It also goes to show how distrust of Americans is ingrained in tther past/history. I only learnt spanish for 3 years-my first three years of High school- and its been 4+ years since I've had a class or tried to speak spanish so Im quite proud of myself and look forward to constant progress especially next month in the Hospital. I do have to do a better job or remembering and making time to learn all the spanish vocal for the tools name and i do have a PDF from school on triaging in spanish, which could come in handy.


In regards to class, we have learnt so much. We had labs/lectures on Blood Pressure, Fluid Pumps, Pulse Oximeter, EKG's  and Defribalators all this week. Fun Fact, EKGs are the most common only donated Medical Equipement in the Developing world.

FlashLight!

In Lab we made Flash Lights and  Power Supplies. On another note, what i have learnt from all the reading is, first and foremeostly Manuals-presence or lack of and the language is written in- really is makes a big difference. One of the biggest problems that occurs is user error and that is mainly correlated with not having or being able to read the manual. Another problem being power supply depending on the country the different Frequencies and voltage. Whether it is 50/60 Hz or 120/230V  affects which country receives the equipment because it may be useless. The US and Nicargua happen to have the same voltage and frequency and the people in Tanzania will see they have the same as Europe. Another common problem is the resuse of non-resusable parts which is not hygienic nor good for the longevity of the equipement.  This may be an Engineering based program but I'm learning so much in terms of healthcare and Global Health.

I am very happy with my experience although at times things may get frustrating but i really am enjoying myself and learning a lot. The other people in the program really are nice and fun people and also make the whole experience. Also its always great to be surround by  your peer who share the same interests and passions.So many here are all working on their Medical School Apps and i am so excited for them its great seeing someone else directly go through the process and in some ways i am sad and jealous but my time will come hopefully! All in Gods time and life plan for me and if not i know my knowledge, skills and passions will shine and be of greater use elsewhere. I also started doing some Graduate school research. Global Health Here i come!

Thanks for  enduring my reflective moment. More exciting pictures and recounting of weekend actives and Nicaraguan Mother's Day to come!

Happy Mother's Day(Nicaragua)

Adios :)