Tales of a Traveling Maymar: The Miracle of Life

Hola Chicos y Chicas!

I began my volunteer placement at Regional Hospital Santiago in Jinotepe last week. I started off in the laboratory and ended up staying there all week. The lab was different than a hospital lab in Canada would be (or how I assume it would be based on the labs I have seen) because the technology used is decades behind what we have. However, this technology is what North America used to have and so it does the job. Rather than having one area to take blood samples and another for the lab technicians to carry out the tests, people actually went right into the lab to have their blood taken. Although I'm not 100% sure, I was under the impression that all of the lab staff are capable of taking blood samples, which makes for an efficient system. I spent most of my time testing creatinine and glucose levels, but I did a few hematocrit tests (I even tested the hematocrit level of my own blood!). Most of the people in the lab were really nice to me and still talk to me when I see them in the hospital halls. However, there were two students in the lab and I felt that they were not happy that I was there. I don't blame them either, because I felt I was taking away from their learning experience.

I spent Monday and part of Tuesday in Pediatrics. It was rather boring... I've come to accept that most of what I'll be doing at the hospital is just observing, but there just isn't much to observe in Pediatrics. The nurses take vital signs and give medications a few times a day but other than that, there is nothing for me to do or watch. There are also student nurses. They were nice and taught me to take vital signs. Some of the other nurses let me inject medications into a few kids too. I had to inject a syringe filled with 10 ml of solution into kids less than a year old. I've never been injected with 10 ml of medication at once but according to their screams it really, really hurts.

On Tuesday afternoon I hung out in Labour and Delivery. Nicaragua women are incredibly strong and could teach us a thing or two about pain. I saw three births! Two boys and a girl. All very adorable, but their heads appeared to be oddly shaped. This morning I saw two more births, but I spent most of the morning studying Spanish and waiting for the action to begin. I could go into details, but I won't to spare anyone with a weak stomach. I thought it was cool and I learned that I am not squeamish at the sight of blood. Watching births was amazing but I have quickly realized that this “volunteer experience” is not going to be what I was anticipating. Sure I am voluntarily spending my time in the hospital, but I expected the hospital to actually need volunteers. They don't, or at least not at the moment. They are functioning fine without volunteers. I think volunteers who are fluent in Spanish or actual doctors or nurses would be of some use, but as I am neither, all I do is watch and do a few tasks while the person who normally does the task watches me. I know having expectations when experiencing a new thing can be setting oneself up for disappointment, but my expectations were based on the definition of the word “volunteer” for the most part. The hospital does need help, but not mine. They need money and supplies. For example, the nurses in Pediatrics keep solutions for cleaning surgical wounds in used pop bottles because they don't have anything else to keep them in. The remainder of my expectations are based on the experiences of other volunteers I know. I have heard stories from/about others in medical volunteer placements, but they were at the San Jose Hospital in Diriamba. I am beginning to think that part of why I am not having a great time has to do with my hospital. Thus, I am going to go to Diriamba with David tomorrow to see how he interacts with the patients and staff, and to see the differences between the two hospitals. If I like the San Jose Hospital, I will switch placements.

I am sad that it seems like I won't get that awesome feeling of helping others and accomplishing something that wouldn't have otherwise happened but I will learn from this experience and there is value in that. I am hoping to see some surgeries soon (I was sent to go watch one but apparently I'm not allowed to at Santiago hospital...) and will have seen enough medicine by the end of the month to help me decide whether I want to apply to Med school after my Masters or not. However, a part of me does wish a health and medical placement was not an option here. Other placements, such as teaching English in schools, are real volunteer experiences, but mine has not been thus far. Another option would be to keep the placement as an opportunity, but let people know it is more of a learning and job shadowing experience than one of volunteering.

For anyone still reading after I babbled on about my placement, now I'll tell you about where I went last weekend. There are three new volunteers now and it's been a lot of fun having more people around. On Saturday, David and I went to Masaya to go to their famous market. I'd heard that the market has the largest selection and cheapest souvenirs in the country. The selection was large but I found the prices were not necessarily that great. I want to go back to Catarina now because there was nicer and better priced things there. As a whole, the Masaya market was HUGE! We even got lost in it a few times...

Then we headed to Masaya Volcano Park. The entire park is actually an active volcano that used to be a lot taller. There is currently one active crater but another area of the park could technically blow at any time. The view from the top was interesting, though I couldn't stay there long because of the sulfur dioxide the crater was omitting. After sunset, the other volunteers arrived and we were able to have a night tour of the volcano since we had a large enough group. The tour started off with a trip into one of the volcano's caves. This one just happened to be inhabited by thousands of bats. I used to love going through the Bat Cave at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) when I was younger. The real thing was better, but little more scary and definitely dirty. The floor had a nice coating of guano (bat feces) and the moisture from the ceiling slowly dripped on me. As we walked into the cave, the bats retreated due to the shine of our flashlights. Once the group was all together, everyone turned off their flashlights and bats swarmed all around us. They didn't fly into me, but I could feel them close by and hear their wings flapping. We headed to another cave which was much longer. Once at the end, our guide stopped and began to tell us the significance of the cave. The area in which we stood was where children used to be taken to be sacrificed. Their bodies were then thrown into the active crater to appease the gods and prevent an eruption. It was considered a great honour for a family to be able to have their child sacrificed. The third and final stop of our tour was to a look out point. From here, I was able to see the flickers of the glowing magma deep inside the crater.

Andddd I spent Sunday relaxing on the beach! I find myself constantly forgetting what time of year it is because I am in a hot climate and am not in school!

Thanks for reading this really long post and hopefully I'll have some better things to say about volunteering soon.

Maria

ps- 2 strange things about working in the hospital - I often see stray dogs wandering the courtyards, and most of the lab techs and nurses I have met are shorter than me (didn't think that was possible did you?)