venga chica. chica venga.

i am not even sure where to begin at this point. one week in clinic. one day at a cooperative farm helping harvest beans. multiple classes about nicaraguan culture and health care. and the brigade ends in a couple of days.

the clinical experience has been extremely humbling and inspiring. learning how to triage effectively based on the resources available is a cultivated skill. we have seen such a wide range of patients and although the health care is free and available to all, there is a huge health disparity between the services that could help and the resources we have to work with. i am extremely impressed with all of the doctors that we have worked with and am grateful to have their perspective on how to treat everything from congestive heart failure to fungus, stings and bites to extreme dysbiosis.

one of the aspects that makes this model work is that there are doctors (naturistas=naturopaths) who live and work in this community full time. thus the model supports development of health in alignment with the values of the community, instead of imposing external values on an existing system. if you want to learn more about NDI, click here for a link a to short movie. or here for their website. the movie was mady by tony, who is a film student from arizona and has moved here to work with NDI. he has been our medical translator and general detail coordinator. and the movie is about how naturopathic medicine is a sustainable answer to a problem. it may do a better job of showing pictures and giving an idea of what i have been doing than i am able to do in words.

in part of our service to the community, we went and worked on a cooperative farm just outside of town today. many people from this island work in the country for their primary employment (when it is available). the average nicaraguan makes $2 a day. the coop we went to is owned by the poorest people from various villages on the island. they each have their own plot, and today we got to harvest beans! i am sure we looked slightly ridiculous out there harvesting and giggling, and i doubt we were the most efficient workers...but it was great fun! there were lots of instructions from the nicaraguans who took us out there...chicas chicas, venga venga. then they would point to another row that we needed to harvest. i hope they enjoyed giving us instructions as much as we enjoyed playing in the mineral rich dirt!

we are finishing classes this afternoon and tomorrow, and i look forward to the upcoming days!