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.