Hey guys!
So this blog is long overdue. I wanted to let you all know what we were up to while we were in Nicaragua. We spent the month in a city called Leon. It’s about an hour away from the capital Managua. My team got to spend the month by ourselves for the first time working with an organization called El Ayudante. El Ayudante started off as a home for children who came from unhealthy family situations such as abuse. Some time ago the law in Nicaragua changed disallowing children?s homes, so the children living at El Ayudante all had to be returned to their families or close relatives. The children are all still connected with El Ayudante, going there every morning before school for breakfast, and coming back afterwards for lunch (kids only go to school for a half day) and to receive homework help and participate in activities.
The first week we were at El Ayudante there was a group of nursing students from the University of Toledo. Each day we joined them in going to different communities, setting up medical clinics, and seeing patients in the morning and afternoon. The first day of clinics I helped with translating with the limited spanish I know and the help of the translator app on my phone. I wasn’t completely confident with my spanish but the group I was with was extremely encouraging in letting me know I was doing a good job. But don?t you worry, before officially diagnosing the patient and prescribing them meds, an official translator confirmed with the patient that what I wrote down was correct.
The team I was with first day of clinics.
Aside from translating, my team and I also helped out with triage (taking blood pressure, temperature, weight, etc.) The UT team also provided papsmears and health education on their importance as well as the importance of proper hand washing.
Triage table at the health fair
The remaining weeks in Leon we helped out with various projects around the campus in the morning such as painting the children?s home and scrapping paint off the floors in the children?s center from prior paint jobs. Each afternoon we worked with the students and each taught them something different. David is my team leader and he did gymnastics for several years. Each afternoon began with him teaching the kids and improving on a gymnastics routine. Caroline taught them dance, Kim taught English, Cortney taught Math, Paul helped with homework, and I taught them some basic guitar chords.
Some of my team painting the children’s house
Guitar lessons with the kiddos
We were done each day for the most part by 4:30pm. The two interns at El Ayudante introduced us to the Salsa Cubana classes that they were taking at a local spot in town. We went to a class the Monday evening after arriving and were hooked from the start. We went to beginner classes every Monday and Tuesday evening for the 4 weeks we were in Leon, and the best part was that it cost less than $3 a week! At the end of the month we all had to take a test to see if we could advance to the intermediate class (though we wouldn?t be there for them) and we all passed! It definitely helped to close out what was already a great month.
My team at salsa class
I absolutely loved the time being in Nicaragua for the month of March and fell in love with each and every one of the kids at El Ayudante. My team and I all agreed that El Ayudante is definitely a place we could see ourselves coming back to in the future.
The kids at El Ayudante
