6 Days Without a Shower

We apologize for the lack of pictures that this post will (not) contain. The three of us are currently in Jalapa, Nicaragua in an internet cafe owned by one of our interpreters, Lester. It is quite small, but is larger than all the other places in town which only have one computer. I guess its probably what you should expect from a town where the owners of the hotel shut off the water for over three straight days to save money. Not exactly the best way to please your guest but thats poverty at its finest. Needless to say we made it six days without a real shower. Maybe that doesn´t sound very impressive but given the hot weather and hard work that we´ve been doing, its a hell of an accomplishment that we didn´t die from our own stench or some disease growing on us. Prez got a really bad ear infection which had progressivly gotten worse since being in Tamarindo. The doctor on our trip gave him drugs (Vicodin) and antibiotics. I think he is finally feeling better.
The first two days here we spent out in rural communites doing medical surveys for the University of Minnesota. On average the homes were no bigger than our dorm rooms at school, housing anywhere from 8 to 14 people. Most had little or no access to food, much less a bathroom/outhouse because the soil is too sandy. More stories to come about the surveys later. In addition to going house to house and asking questions, we also put on a teaching clinic. Chris talked about dental hygiene while Prez and I demonstrated the proper brushing techniques with a large model of teeth. The three girls with us from Olaf had to talk about Cervical cancer. A topic we nearly escaped...I´ve had just about enough talk about PAP smears this week (one of the main reasons the medical team with us is here). Side note: one of the doctors with us surgically re-implanted a womans uterus yesterday. Apparently it was hanging down between her legs. Looser than a wizards sleeve.

Yesterday and today we were able to be manly and bang shit on the construction site with Don. In short we were able to put the roof on a 20 x 90 foot school. 24 rafters.. its more impressive to see than write about so I´ll save that for later. Don almost died four times yesterday by falling off the roof.

For those of you who can´t quite grasp the full picture of Jalapa, let me paint you a quick picture and the photos we put up later can help reiterate them:

-The hospital disposes of all their waste in a pile in the courtyard behind the hotel. This includes used open needles, bloodly gauze pads, and any body parts/fluids removed during surgical procedures. To top it all off they burn the pile daily so animals won´t eat it. Biohazardous wastes don´t sound particularily appetizing to me.
-Most people don´t have cars here so many get around on horse back or move their stuff with the help of two oxen and a cart. One has a hard time of stepping around the massive piles of poop all over the street.
-People have few appliances in their homes and therefore cook with open, wood fired stoves. The air is polluted and smoggy beyond belief.
-To buy liquor tonight Chris rode on a motorcycle to a builiding with a window. There he had to ask for the booze and the lady in the window gave it to him. Talk about not being able to window shop!


Thats all for now..
Gotta do the Jalupe Hustle

Adio,
Luke