This blog is for the friends and family of Kimberly Cook, RN who want to follow her adventures serving at Nueva Vida Clinic in Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua. Welcome!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Un Dia en la Vida

I have been here for over a week now, and am beginning to become accustomed to how incredibly different it is from home. My typical weekday is as follows:
Wake up at 6:00 or 6:30, depending upon whether or not I am working out in the AM. Work out using a Jillian Michaels work out DVD while sweating profusely due to the high humidity, although the mornings are much cooler than the rest of the day. Hop in the shower (the shower walls are composed of stone and cement, and the shower and bathroom floor is very dirty. I hope to scrub it this weekend!) Additionally, our shower curtain is basically two big pieces of plastic connected at the top, so water escapes easily from the shower onto the bathroom floor. I also hope to buy a different shower curtain this weekend at the grocery store. After showering and putting on my scrubs, I take some time to pray to refocus and surrender my day to God. Then, I make coffee (the coffee we have at the dorm is REALLY good because it is from a farm in the mountains who belongs to the farming Co-op here at Center for Development in Central America-CDCA) and usually eggs, toast (yummy homemade bread that is delivered weekly), and fruit. There are various types of fruit here and Nicaraguans are famous for their fruit juices. A couple of times a week, the women who work here at CDCA make fresh fruit juice that is incredibly delicious.

At around 8am, it is time to drive to the clinic. We take one of the three available 'ambulancias', old Nicaraguan ambulances that were donated to CDCA. Their names are 'Vieja' (old woman), '98', and '2000'. They are all basically dirty, old Land Cruisers with mechanical transmission and two bench seats in the back. Felicia, the volunteer coordinator, is teaching Leah (another long term volunteer) and me how to drive the stick shift. We are learning on the Vieja because the gears are very easy to differentiate. I did really well during my first lesson this Monday, thanks to all of my experience shifting gears while riding dirtbike on Grandma and Grandpa Cook's farm! Driving through Nueva Vida, where the clinic is located, is quite the experience. As I mentioned before, it is the rainy season here in Nicaragua and the roads are covered with potholes, many of them large enough for a truck to get stuck in if the driver doesn't accelerate sufficiently! Yesterday, it poured for most of the morning, and when we drove back to CDCA for lunch, the streets were literally flooded with water. The people had to walk through dirty, moving water that was deeper than their ankles. Of course, the kids were playing in the water pouring out of pipes in the low areas of Nueva Vida. It was quite a sight to witness!


The clinic walls were recently painted by a well-known artist from Managua, and are very beautiful. The clinic is a sanctuary for me and for others in the midst of a very poor city.
Nila (far left in the photo), the woman who cleans the clinic, makes the coffee, organizes, and makes us all smile, is wonderful at keeping the clinic spic and span despite all of the mud and dust that gets stomped in. Henri works as a medical tech in the clinic. He is a former war medic and is very talented with wound care and injections (he uses a little lidocaine to take away some of the sting). He always has a 'chiste' (joke) for everyone and keeps me laughing. He also loves to educate me about Nicaragua's past and present, the healthcare system, and Nicaraguan culture and medical sayings. Danelia(far right) is the angel of the clinic and basically runs the place. She has worked there for ten years, is very knowledgeable, and knows how to get things done. Additionally, she is a lot of fun and an incredibly sweet woman with a strong faith in God.

It is getting late and I need to get some sleep, but I hope to finish the rest of 'un dia en la vida' within the next couple of days to give you a more complete picture of a day in my life. ¡Hasta luego! (Until later!)

1 comment:

  1. I'm so excited to get a taste of your life! I hope that it will soon feel like home. Praying for you, God bless!

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