First day of work

Altagracia is the second town on ometepe, population about 10,000.
It has a small medical centre which houses a couple of doctors and a handful of nurses.

All secondary health care happens a boat ride away in rivas - just what one would want during a difficult labour!

So my first day I reckon I battled through seeing about 10 patients. second day I had seen 12 by lunchtime which was much better and I think the doctors a the clinic thought I may have been some use.

My spanish is barely passable to manage a consultation, but manage we did and that is not a bad starting point. So long as the problems are simple then I reckon I get to the right diagnosis. One of the ¨real¨doctors keeps an eye on me and lets me ask lots of questions.
Questions usually relate to which antibiotics they stock in the clinic. Not much is the usual answer

The problems people come with?
chest infections, urine infections, worms, pregnancy checks, machete injuries, PID, arthritis, gastritis.

Reasonalby standard GP sort of stuff - apart from the machete injuries

Today I saw a boy of 8 who had cut off the end of his finger with a machete.
A lot of the household farm work is done with machetes so injurues are reasonably common.
Another lad of 18 managed to cut his lip with a machete - wasn´t quite able to ascertain exactly how he did that.

Its been pretty difficult starting out but that was what I expected.

My spanish is getting better every day now that I am down on the island so I´m optomistic that things will be getting easier

A word on where I live

Ometepe looks a bit like this.

and it seems to be made mostly of volcanoes

The centre vocationale cristiano (vocational training centre) is run by two wonderful ladies called elizabeth and anagalis. They feed me three times a day.

The CVC looks kinda like this

and this is our room

and our neighbours place looks like this

Brendon´s new girlfriend

She´s called toña and he´s been out with her every night since we´ve been here.
In fact he´s popped across the road to meet her now.
He seems to meet her wherever we go.
I´ve got to be honest- sometimes she is pretty much attached to his lips.
The first phrases of spanish that the boy has learnt out here have all been about toña. How he needs her, how important she is etc.

I´m half expecting he is going to try to take her home with him

Top 10 ways to travel in nicaragua

No 1. Family bicycle. This invovles señor pedro peddling, señorita pipita sat across the cross bar, and baby pepe sat on the handlebars.

No 2. The internationally approved minibus. To be seen all over the world. the samll 14 seat toyota minibus. 24 people and a few empty crates in the last one i was in. I´d love to know the most any of you have seen in one of these contraptions.

No 3. The intercity coach. Worth a mention for the tradesman who come on the coach at each stop. I did expect to be offered a bit of bread or a cold drink. I was perhaps expecting a young man to make a sales pitch from a box of midicines, something for every ailment. I certainly wasn´t expecting a preacher man to give us 20 mins of bible exposition, and then start selling pens. You see all of our professions can find a role on a single coach journey!

No. 4. The good old fashioned oxen and cart

these lads have lost there cart and are being taken home by roberto on his bicycle (he´ll then be picking up roberta and baby robertina to go out somewhere)

No 5. Not even sure what this is called?

to work or not to work....?

Well that has been the question for the last week. not a choice but a predicament. I´m still not sure whether my nicaraguan medical registration has been completed yet. A variety of forms to be signed by a variety of people in a variety of towns, you ge the idea.

One day I´m being told there´ll be no work going on till jan 5th, the next day I´m told I´ll be working without a break.
So I´ve come down to the island of ometepe, hopefully paperwork will be faxed through and hopefully I´ll get to work in their paediatric clinic, general medical clinic and emergency room. I get the impresssion that the emergency bit operates as and when it is needed.

So things are finally getting going. I´ll let you know what its really like when I´ve been there a few days

a more informative blog.......

is to be found at www.brendantquinn.blogspot.com
brendan is my travelling companion and writes useful things about the country we are in and what we are doing. So if that is what you are looking for then you now know where to go.
I read it to check where we are going next........

exam results

The internet tells me that I passed the dch. Now i'm told not to believe everything I read on the net - but this story made me happy so I've chosen to believe it.

so thank-you for those of you who put up with my grumpiness while revising / taught me / gave me time off work / made me cake.