La Carpio

We had an interesting day in La Carpio today. La Carpio is a shanti town filled with nicaraguan refugees that fled to Costa Rica during their civil war. We went to La Carpio to present charlas on gum disease, fever, pain medications, diabetes, hypertension, and wound care. We had a very large group to present to today and overall all the charlas went very well. We had fun with a couple volunteers and disclosing tablets. Steven and I tried to explain it would stain areas in your mouth pink that required more attention when brushing your teeth, however I think they were still surprised afterwards. After our charlas we went back to the Costa Rican humanitarian foundation's main building. During a play written by the women of La Carpio dark smoke entered the room. There was a tremendous amount of smoke and ours eyes began to burn. Steven and I went outside with Gail, a couple house over and further back into the town a house was on fire. There is only one road into and out of La Carpio and it was blocked by a fire truck. We had to walk out of the town to get to our bus and as we walked out people were coming up to Gail to tell her a girl was burned. It was frightening, but at the same time it was grave situation. There are no fire hydrants, the houses are mainly made of wood and cardboard, and everything is connected. It was a grave situation and I hope everyone made it out ok.

Lunch at Volcano Poas

This is a casado tipico de carne. Anywhere in Costa Rica this is usually your cheapest meal option. It even includes a fresa bebido (strawberry drink). The plate includes rice, yuka, plantains, beans and salad.

Volcan Poas

Yesterday we took a day trip to Volcan Poas, an active volcano about an hour from San Jose. The national park was beautiful. Unfortunately we arrived 10 minutes too late because we were constantly fighting the clouds in order to see the active crater and the volcanic lagoon. Volcan Poas is a stratovolcano.
There are two crater lakes near the summit. The northern lake is known as the Laguna Caliente. It is one of the world's most acidic lakes. The bottom of this lake is covered with a layer of liquid sulphur and plums of sulfur gases rises from the crater and burns your nose and eyes. We also hiked to Lake Botos, the southern lake of an inactive crater, which last erupted in 7500 BC. In 2009 Poas was the center of an 6.1 magnitude earthquake that killled 40 people. The volcano sits on a large fault line, so the water on the right side of the volcano travels to the Caribbean while the other side travels to the Pacific ocean. We caught glimpses of both the lagoon and the park through breaks in the clouds. On the way back to San Isidro we were able to stop at a lecheria and milk cows. I also had the chance to feed 3 hungry baby cows. I had a great day.

On Sunday in San Isidro I had the chance to go back to the weekly farmers market. I bought a large pineapple, 2 bags of coffee, fresh strawberries, and nice ripe tomatoes. Unlike farmers markets at home everything is extremely cheap. I got everything for less than $15 including two large bags of fresh organic coffee. I bought some of this coffee three weeks ago and its all I can smell when I walk into my room. During the farmers market they were also offering rides in the Costa Rican carts with oxen leading the way. It was very picturesque with the mountains in the background.

San Jose

This afternoon we took our learning experience outside the classroom with an action packed trip to San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica! Our adventure began with a crowded bus ride to the capitol. When we arrived, we were instantly greeted with the rich history the city had to offer. The architecture in San Jose was heavily influenced by European countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and England. On our way to lunch we passed THE post office of Costa Rica. We also walked through "avendia central" or "central avenue", the heart of San Jose. The streets were packed with people and hundreds of venders trying to sell us everything from lottery tickets and burned CDs to clothes and snacks. We ate lunch at 'Casano Tipico', a peaceful escape from the bustling streets of San Jose. After lunch we visited 'El Teatro Nacional' or 'The National Theatre' which was very beautiful and decorated with works of art that dated back hundreds of years. It was a wonderful learning experience and I hope I can visit the city one last time before I return to the states.

Clase de espanol en San Jose

Today we had spanish class in downtown San Jose. We stopped to have lunch Casona Tipica and Steven had some fun in a mascara of an old Costa Rican president.

Hospital Tour

 

Today we went on a tour of a national public hospital. The name of the hospital is Hospital Mexico and it was the first hospital constructed in Costa Rica. Costa Rica decided to name the hospital after Mexico after they receiving much help from the northern country. Mexico allowed Costa Rican residents to attend medical school in their countries because 40 years ago Costa Rica had no hospital let alone a medical school. Mexico also helped fund the building and helped with the design of the structure. This is a public hospital, which means that all services are payed through the Caja or national insurance. Costa Ricans automatically receive Caja once employed or if someone in their family is employed. Overall the hospital was not so distant from public hospitals in the United States. The facility, which was built 40 years ago has reached its capacity. It felt very crowded, especially in the emergency room. The emergency room sees 3,000 people a week and while only 80 are admitted the halls ways were lined with hospital beds with very sick people. They had three trauma rooms that they squeezed two people into at a time (which is a little scary). Overall, there was a lack of technology and hand sanitizer in the hospital. In the United States hospitals have a hand sanitizer inside each room and several in the hall ways. The hand sanitizers we did see in Hospital Mexico were empty. There was also a lack of privacy for patients in their rooms. For example, labor and delivery was just an open room with 6 women in labor all out in the open. They also don't do any epidurals for labor. I didn't catch the reason, but I think it is because there is a lack of anesthesiologists. We also got to view the intensive care unit, which was very similar to the intensive care units at home. It was the only area that was air conditioned in the hospital and very clean. The biggest problem with the Costa Rican health care system is that there are not enough specialists or hospitals to treat the public. If you need to see a specialist and you don't have private insurance you may have to wait 6 months to 2 years for an appointment at Hospital Mexico.

La Fotuna

This past weekend we spent a wonderful weekend in La Fortuna. We saw the volcano Arenal upon our arrival on Saturday. We also visited a waterfall and were able to swim under the waterfall. The water was FRIGID, but it was a blast and a beautiful sight. Our Sunday began with lots of rain, however, when we finally got out to the canopy for ZIP LINING the weather was perfect! I apologize, I don't have photos from zip lining on my phone. After zip lining we spent some time with the indigenous tribe 'Maleku' and then returned to our bus on HORSEBACK! Later that night we visited Baldi Hotsprings for an evening of fun in the water. Our night was capped off with an awesome buffet at the Hotsprings. On our way back to school, we stopped and visited the largest 'carreta', or ox car, in the world!

2-weeks gone

This weekend marked the half way mark of my rotation in Costa Rica. I felt both happy that I have made it this far, but also a wave of home sickness has come upon me. During my other trips that lasted more than one week, I often felt homesick after only 9 days. This trip is much longer than 9 days, but it is extremely busy. You really never have any free time to yourself. There is always something to be done whether its spanish homework, working on charlas for la Carpio, MBA homework, trying to talk to needy family members at home, taking a 30 minute bus ride to your pharmacy, and rushing to get lunch during break. There is not a wasted minute in the day and by the time you go to bed you just don't want to think anymore. So naturally this is my only time I'm able to call and talk to my husband. He gets off so late from work and I just want to go to bed, but I miss my husband so I stay up a little later to talk.

At two weeks I notice that I have begun to think of things I miss from home. I miss my cats and dog more than anything. I miss sitting on my couch with the heat turned on, under two fleece blankets, and two cats sitting on my lap watching HGTV (who knew it could be so chilly in San Isidro at night). Steven says he misses driving most, but I like the simplicity of walking almost everywhere. It only becomes annoying when I really want to go to the mall or some other place and I realize a taxi will be expensive, the bus stop is not really that close, and I need a second buddy to go with me. Let's see...other things I miss

• my own comfortable bed and pillow
• drug names that I recognize (there are some off the wall medication names in my pharmacy)
• diet coke (it's expensive here)
• green beans (I've had my fill of black beans and rice)
• my closet
• my full length mirror (so I know what my outfit looks like)
• my wide selection of shoes
• wifi 
• real ketchup
• I miss being alone (in the united states I had so much time alone, quiet & peaceful, but not here)
• salad
• sanwhiches from Panera
• real cheese (like cheddar or swiss-the cheese here is just strange)

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about my experience thus far, these are just things that I miss. There are several aspects that I love about Costa Rica including the people, the fresh fruit, the amazing weather, and of course the spectacular beauty of the country. I have three more weeks in Costa Rica and I will be sad to see them fly by. My best recommendation to keep your mind off home is to have something to look forward to each weekend. For example, the last two weekends I have had trips to Manuel Antonio and Arenal. I have no trip planned for this weekend except for a possible day trip to volcan Poas. Currently, all I can think about is when my husband will get here and will he be able to find his way to San Isidro? Will he have time to meet mi familia tica? It really exciting to have the opportunity to show someone what you've been doing for month in another country. I have not previously had that opportunity and I look forward to it now. I saw amazing things on my trips to Europe and Belize, but I feel like I could never express the importance of my experience through pictures or words. I'm looking forward to my next two weeks in San Isidro and hope that they do not go by too fast.

 ELEC

Frutas y Veduras

 la inglesia de San Isidro