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.

The Multi-Use Growth Chart

Warning: This is a post about babies!

Sometimes at the clinic, babies need to get weighed to make sure they are growing at a good rate. Naturally, this is a 4 person task. One to put the baby on the scale and move the weights around, and 3 to watch the baby be cute. Here is one example: First, a large baby boy was placed into the scale and he noticed that the doctor was moving the weights, so he started slapping them, probably trying to help. Some med students began dangling the baby's growth chart in front of him to try to distract him so that the doctor could adjust the weights. The baby was amused for about 0.3 seconds, and then resumed beating the weights. Next, students gave the baby his growth chart, optimistically hoping that he'd try to read it and gauge his progress, or perhaps more likely, that he'd be distracted chewing on it long enough for the doctor to measure his weight. Instead, the baby took the growth chart and began using it as a tool to beat the weights on the scale more effectively. The growth chart had to be confiscated, but the little boy was eventually wowed long enough by some shiny jewelry to be weighed. Bling-bling!

Powerless Clinic

Welcome to the health center in Sutiava (also spelled Sutiaba; "b" and "v" are the almost the same in Spanish), a neighborhood in Leon. The clinic opens every morning at 7 AM. It usually loses power by 7:15 or 7:30, but lately we've had power until 8:00 or even 8:15 AM once! There also is no water until about 3 PM in the afternoon or later, at which point, the clinic is already closed. The lack of power and water have been widespread problems in Nicaragua due to rising energy costs and lack of electrical power capacity since January (some people say since Feb, May, last year, 5 years ago, or forever...not sure who is right). Doctors and med students do what they can given the conditions. They have solar-powered calculators that work pretty well next to the windows. I think that the lab at the health center has its own generator. When it rains (happens a lot now since it's the rainy season), it sometimes gets too dark despite the abundance of windows, so the doctors and med students work by candlelight. Public healthcare here in Nicaragua is free, although medications are not. The clinic tries to give out samples if they have medications, but they often are undersupplied.
I've spent most of my time in pediatrics learning with the medical students. They're a friendly and helpful group. Most of the patients are little itty-bitty babies and toddlers. Whenever we get a baby that's like 5 or 10 days old, I'm always thinking to myself, "Wow, I've lived in Nicaragua longer than this kid!"