Bulges in the Pants

Speaking of buses, on the first bus ride, from Rosita to Sahsa, the guy in front of me stood up to put something in the overhead rack. As he did this, his shirt lifted up, and I could plainly see that he had a handgun stuffed into his pants. This discovery was a little unsettling because I had heard of buses being robbed in Peru. The bus system there is a little different in that they have buses owned by private companies, so the buses are pretty nice. Nonetheless, bus robberies in Peru had gotten so bad that most companies have all passengers go through a metal detector screening before getting on board. These public buses in Nicaragua are mostly beaten up former school buses from the United States. Sometimes people ride on the roof. Animals sometimes ride inside along with possessions, food, crops, desks, and almost anything that can fit. As far as I can tell, there aren't any security measures whatsoever, much less metal detectors. And once you're out in the middle of the campo, ain't nobody coming to rescue you.

The discovery of the gun caused some concern and I began scanning other passengers for unusual bulges in their pants, as well as trying to determine whether this situation might be dangerous. Fortunately, this guy didn't appear to be sketchy. He had just bought a snow-cone like treat for a young girl who was apparently his daughter. Just to be safe, I asked Edgar about it. Edgar says that it's pretty common for people to carry guns in rural Nicaragua. A lot of people were involved in the wars in the 1970s and 1980s and still carry guns for protection. After all, many of these folks live in very rural areas where they don't have any police protection. That made me feel better. I guess that if no one has guns, that makes you feel safe. Or if lots of people do, then you feel a little safe too because anyone would have to be crazy to try to rob a bus full of people with guns.

We didn't have any problems. On the way back, as a matter of fact, another guy had a gun in a holster that wasn't concealed at all.

The dog on the bus goes "Bark Bark Bark"

Actually this dog didn't bark, he was just a cute puppy that rode quietly on the bus with us on the way back from Sahsa to Rosita. He belonged to one of the families riding the bus, but he thought the floors were too uncomfortable, so he took over one of the empty seats.

Ambulance

At about 2:30 in the afternoon while we were at the health center in Sahsa waiting to catch a bus back to Rosita, a patient arrived. At about 8 am, while he was cutting grass, he accidentally sliced open his knee, breaking his patella. Since he lived far off, it took 6 and a half hours for him to come in to Sahsa. He arrived to the center in a pick up truck, but many rural areas are accessible only by foot trail or house. After his wound was cleaned up a little at the health center, an ambulance arrived to take him to a hospital in Puerto Cabeza, the capital city, which is a few hours away.

Los Centros

Here are some pictures of the Centros de Salud in Sahsa. The first one is actually no longer a health center, but it houses various visitors like us. In this picture, there are some engineering and architecture students repairing the roof. The building is pretty old and needs some basics, like lighting in the rooms, so the volunteer students are appreciated.

Here is the new health center in Sahsa. You can see the radio tower on the left, which was put in by UNAN in order to communicate with Rosita since Sahsa is so isolated. There is also a sign on the left which says "Made by the people for the people!" It also says that it cost C$ 1,067,184. In US dollars, that's about $56, 167. Sometimes the government likes to put up signs, especially at health centers, that say how much the government is doing for the people of Nicaragua. I noticed this too in Mexico, where the government would have signs that tout the pavement of a road or relief work in an area destroyed by hurricanes.

Sahsa Tour

Andrew, Edgar and I did a little tour of Sahsa to get a better idea of what it is like and who lives there. Accompanied by a 10 year old kid as our guide, we went to houses and asked the residents about their lives and if they were aware of what the University of Nicaragua at Leon (UNAN Leon) is doing in Sahsa.

Andrew and our guide approaching a house.
Here is a picture of Andrew standing next to a tarp of beans. It's my understanding that the Misquito culture strongly emphasizes community. Many residents walk 2-3 hours to communal farms daily to harvest crops and bring food back to eat. Yes, they travel 2-3 hours each way, every day. They'll often do this for several weeks at a time until they've collected enough food to last a while. The residents we talked to don't harvest food to sell it; it is only used for personal consumption. Many of the families have no income whatsoever; their work is providing their own food.

Here is Andrew with our tour guide (the tall kid in the middle) and two of his friends. This is at the water purification well at the top of the big hill in Sahsa. If I remember correctly, it was built by Canadians in the early 1990s. This well is crucial for providing water to Sahsa. Unlike many places in Nicaragua, including Leon and Managua, the health center in Sahsa has water 24 hours a day thanks to this well.

Radio Radio

Sahsa has a radio station, but no phone lines or cell phone tower.
Notice the outhouse on the left. I didn't get a chance to listen to it, so I'm not sure what exactly they're sending out on the airwaves.

Housing in the Atlantic Coast

Here are what some typical houses look like in the Rosita and Sahsa areas. The houses in Sahsa have been rebuilt since Hurricane Felix in September 2007 and according to Edgar it looks much better now than then.
This first house is on the way from Rosita to Sahsa.
This is a house in Sahsa.
Another house in Sahsa.

Fake Champions in Leon!

Today as I was walking around CIDS, I saw an older gentleman with another 2003 Oklahoma Sooners Champions hat. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me. I think it might have been a slightly different style hat than the one I saw earlier, but it had the same message. Like the last hat I saw, this one looked surprisingly new, leading me to think that the NCAA might have had them distributed around here recently.

Did I say Rosita was Modern?

At first I thought this was a fake champions t-shirt because I couldn't remember the Redskins winning anything in a long, long time. And then I realized, that no, in fact, it is real, just really, really old. It is a 1992 Redskins NFC champs shirt. 1992! That's almost as old as my sister! And it still has a price tag on it! (discounted to $1.99, what a deal!) And not even a Superbowl t-shirt...this is just from the NFC title game.


Also of note in the t-shirt realm. In Sahsa, we saw a guy wearing a UNC Michael Jordan jersey. Unfortunately, we didn't feel particularly safe or comfortable taking a picture of him, but yay for UNC!

Back

Sorry for the long delay. If there are any readers of this blog still out there, I thank you for your patience. I meant to write more about Sahsa, but then work was closed for a week for Semana Santa (basically Spring Break). I had limited internet access so I was unable to post my photos. But now I'm back in CIDS and will continue to post semi-regularly. Stay tuned for more information today.

Welcome to the Rosita Airport

With heavy emphasis on the "ita" part of the name. Here is what the airport looks like, in it's entirety.


The dean of the medical school had warned us not to expect to see any buildings or anything when we landed, but I thought that that meant there would be a very few. No, he really mean that there would be no real buildings, other than the straw hut where the military guys hang out. The van in the picture is what takes you from the airport into town. Here is a picture of Edgar disembarking our plane with the runway, aka cow pasture, in the background. Yes, those are cow turds on the runway.

Turns out that the town of Rosita itself is not quite as small as the airport makes it look. It has a population of about 25,000 according to census figures, although other estimates are as high as 35,000. The main street is paved and it is pretty modern, with a musical instrument store, internet, a cell tower, and pretty consistent electricity. Unfortunately, like most places in Nicaragua, water is highly irregular.

First stop, Managua

First we went to the Managua airport. The international terminal is really posh and fancy. The domestic terminal is a little more basic. Since we were flying on such a small plane, we had to step on the scale with all of our luggage to get our weight. Here is a picture of our boarding pass for our flight to Rosita.


It's a big, plastic card. They have 12 of them, one for each seat on the plane. La Costeña is the airline we took. Here is a picture of me boarding the plane:

Outline of Sahsa Trip

Click on the markers and lines for more information:

View Larger Map

East Side

This week I'll be traveling to the Atlantic Coast, leaving on Tuesday and coming back on Thursday. It's a very rural area with a lot of poverty, in much worse shape than the rest of Nicaragua. I'll bring my camera along and take some pictures and report on it. It's very different from the rest of Nicaragua for several reasons. One, it was colonized by the British and so they don't speak Spanish there. Various languages are spoken there, including Mosquito and an English Creole. Secondly, because of the British slave trade, a lot of the population is of African descent. It should be a very educational experience so stay tuned!

Typical Day at the Office

So there I was, sitting in my 10' x 10' office in the epidemiology center on a sunny morning, taking advantage of the internet to call my girlfriend on Skype. I'm chatting with my headset and camera turned on and just barely into the conversation, a herd of people come knocking on my door. It turns out that it's the dean of the medical school, the director of the epidemiology center, and the Swedish guy who founded the epidemiology center and hasn't been to Nicaragua in 10 years and is doing a tour to see how it has come along over the years. Then of course, there were a couple other people who came with the group, for maybe 6-7 people total. I minimized my Skype window and let them in. They showed the guests the office I'm using explaining the various features, like how they have internet here. Swedish guy asked me if I'm talking to my girlfriend on Skype. I sheepishly said yes. Ironically, Meredith and I had actually planned on talking about some of my research during our conversation, but hadn't really gotten to that part of the conversation yet. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention this point in my favor to the visitors.

However, the bosses didn't really seem to mind, mostly because it was a Saturday, after all, and I don't have to work weekends. Whew!