A few weeks ago I went out with one of the nurses to work on census. We caught a bus out of town, and walked down the main road taking down the number of people in the house, age, type of house, if they had utilities or not, and what sorts of animals they have. We came to our last house of the day, a ranch. The family had multiple cows and 4 children. The youngest came running out of the house, practically tripping himself over, carrying an egg. He hands it to me, and says something in timid Spanish (which of course I didn’t understand). I asked the nurse later what the little guy had asked me (I can understand her Spanish because she knows to speak slowly and clearly) and she repeated how the little guy had asked that if he gave me the egg, would I not give him a shot? I guess the majority of the time when nurses go house to house its for a vaccination campaign.

I was able to view another birth yesterday. It was less emotional this time, and the mother wasn´t scared like the first. In Spanish they call giving birth ¨Dar Luz¨ which translates to giving light. Its quite appropriate really. Randomly I was stung by a bee in the middle of the delivery, (my first bee sting) although I must say I’m glad it was me, and not the lady in labor.

This picture is from today (I’m going to try to be better about taking photos) We made a roadside stop under a mango tree to give a month old little baby its polio, and retro viral oral vaccinations.



Before I came here I had a chat with a friend of mines mother who is a natural path. I explained to her that I was joining the peacecorps in the health sector. I told her how I was impressed with the high levels of vaccination that they have here. Her response to that was ¨well I spend most of my time here dealing with the repercussions of vaccinations like autism and other autoimmune disorders. (well there isn´t any solid proof that vaccines cause autism, nor is it as far as I know an autoimmune disorder) I then asked her if she disagreed with vaccinations and she said yes, and that none of her children had vaccinations, nor have they been sick. (they´re really health fanatics, exercise eat well etc etc.) I asked her if vaccines were valuable if we could eliminate diseases like smallpox, and she responded with; well if you look at trends, the diseases like smallpox are already in decline when the vaccination comes out, so we really don’t know if the disease went away naturally or it was the vaccine that did it. Can you imagine? and this lady has a doctorate to give people medical advice. If you have been exposed to a place where people, not just babies, die all the time from preventable diseases I feel like she´d sing a different tune. Even is the shots do cause autism personally I think if we can save thousands of lives its worth the few hundred that get autism.

Another thing is that this lady, her children are living in a developed country. There is a phenomenon known as ¨Herd Immunity¨(I believe that’s the name, I´ll explain). Herd immunity is when a population are immune to a disease (aka receive vaccinations) no one has the disease. So if a person goes without the vaccine in an area where no one else can catch the disease, then there is no one to pass the illness to that specific person. So in essence, this lady´s children are safe from things like hepatitis, because everyone else is getting vaccinated.

I pushed the natural path more to explain how vaccinations cause autism, and she didn’t have an answer. Its not that I have anything against naturopaths. Their work is valid. Not all modern medicine is 100% nor is natural medicine. I think the two could work together really well if the two camps would just listen to one another and not see each other as some great evil.

More on health care. In the US I think we take for granted the people to people interactions we have between medical providers and the patient. Doctors have a reputation of being impersonal and un-empathetic. Nicaragua puts this on a whole different plane. For example today a little girl was crying because she fell. Her mother said to her ¨if you don´t stop crying, that doctor is going to give you a shot¨ the doctor nodded in agreement. The threat was totally empty, but the little girl (she was probably only 3) did shut up. Maybe the immediate outcome was what the mother had wanted, but I don´t see how threatening kids with injections is good for anyone´s mental health. Also a kid crying from falling is totally normal. Adults constantly are calling their kids ¨necio¨or annoying/stupid for normal kid things, like playing, running around. I asked if necio has a negative connotation, and was told that it indeed is a negative word. So these poor little kids, the majority here in my site at least, grow up learning that normal kid behavior is annoying, making them in essence a bad person. There is little discipline here, so situations tend to escalate ending with someone getting smacked. The behavioral problems aren´t nipped in the bud, so kids learn to push their parents limits, and the parents loose patience very quickly. It’s a cultural problem that I can´t even come close to touching, nor do I feel it’s my place to so, as I’m an outsider.


Well that was all super cynical. I meant this to be a more optimistic post. I guess cynicism is a bad habit, which I need to work on breaking...
I get to come home for Christmas in 14 weeks! So for wants/needs I have requests out for the following: apple pie, peach cobbler, Spencer’s ice-cream in Milford, fish chowder, hot cocoa, and sledding, apples, blueberry muffins, Thai iced tea, sushi, apple cider, good wine, Moscow mule, chocolate cake, good company, speaking English, snow, cooler climes, exercise....oh how the list grows...

Cue the thunderstorm, time to log off! (saw a rainbow today hanging over the volcanoes, absolutely beautiful)