Archive for the ‘’ Category
July 6, 2009
Hey All!
As planned, Maria, TimandJim, Dan, Darell, David, David, Cody and I spent last Saturday and Sunday in Leon, which is a colonial city near the Pacific Coast. The five hour bus ride from Sabana Grande was actually one of my favorite parts of our trip, because the route took us through the hills north of Esteli, the mountains surrounding Esteli, the plains near the coast and the volcanoes encircling Leon. Leon’s bus station was massive and overwhelming compared to our clean, neatly-organized bus station/municipal market in Ocotal. There were about fifty stalls packed into a very small sheltered market, with the vendors shouting and josteling us. It was one of those environments that I’m sure would be exciting for a certain type of adventurous personality, but just made me feel frantic. It was an adventure just navigating the parking lot that was full of minibuses, taxis and busses all trying to attract passengers or extricate themselves from the mess. It was quite a shock! Clearly, I have become accustomed to the slow, polite, quiet interactions of life in Sabana Grande. It must have been especially confusing for the two new volunteers, David and Darell, since they just arrived on Wednesday from the US, and we were already taking them on our crazy, spontaneous trip across the country.
On Saturday, we went to the beach. It was a crazy 1 hour bus ride on a dirt road. Since it´s technically the winter season, all of the summer homes were closed, but there were 5 or 6 really cool beachfront hostels open, full of Peace Corps volunteers. We swam in the ocean, but it was pretty dangerous since the rip current is really strong all along the coast, so we stayed close. Maria, TimandJim and I also walked along the beach, picking up seashells. And the Playa Roca bar sold cheeseburgers! Yummmm. After the beach, we went to dinner at a cool hostel across the street from where we stayed. Dinner was amazing, but I had a huge headache from the crazy day and the 17 liters of water that still remains behind my eardrum. I went back to our comfy hostel and slept really really well.
As I mentioned before, I found it exhausting to navigate the city itself, but since it is a touristy city, there are great hostels. We stayed at BigFoot Hostel, which had a café attached. From there, we bought omlettes, bagels and pancakes! They also had fresh wheat bread, which was amazing since I literally dreamed about MelODee bread the night before. Sunday morning, we walked around the central park and peeked into two absolutely breathtaking cathedrals built in the 1700s. I’ll be sure to upload pictures as soon as I can. This trip, I also learned that there is no reason to haul a computer, hiking shoes and enough clothing for a week when I’m just going away for 24 hours. Anyway, we made it back to Sabana Grande around 6, and we met Anna and Lauren, who are in town for the week.
This week, I’ll be finishing up the Franken-Cooker, which I hope will heat up faster than a typical solar cooker so it can be used for the autoclave. Also, on Thursday Maria and I will be going into Managua with Lauren and Anna for a meeting about a possible place to pilot test our design. So this week is going to be very exciting for the project, and I’ll make sure to update again this weekend when we return.
Take Care,
Erin
July 6, 2009
The last two weekends have been really exciting. Two weekends ago I went to Granada, the Nicaraguan city with the most tourism. And last weekend I headed out to Leon, a city known for its magnificent volcanoes.
We stayed in Granada for 4 days (the original plan was only 3 but some last minute complications extended our trip). Saturday the 27th of June, we arrived in the colonial city of Granada. We spend our first day exploring the city. Granada like almost every city in Nicaragua is built around a central park and Cathedral. We spent time shopping in the green central park and I found some good gifts (but I’m not going dispose specifics because it will to ruin the surprise). Later we had dinner at a restaurant where we ate outside at a table along the street. Although Granada is a very touristic city, it also has an abundance of visible poverty. While eating dinner no less than 10 children approached use and asked for money Just wondering the streets of Granada caused constant pulling on my heart strings In this place that generates an immense amount of money, the struggles of the less fortunate were magnified. Granada is a place where on the steps of a five star hotel you will find a wide eyed child begging for food and money. Witnessing poverty there and similar to this throughout Nicaragua has ignited within me the questions “How can these people be helped?” and “What can I do I hope that as I grow and experience more I will come closer to answering these questions and to finding my role Before leaving Granada we went to a nearby city Masaya to check out some local markets and later headed to the Laguna del Apoyo to swim and kayak The rest of our time in the city was spent sightseeing and chilling in our hostel’s pool.
Last weekend, on July 4th, we went to Leon for a day and a half. It was a quick trip but it was tons of fun. We traveled there with 10 volunteers!! Let me tell you when you walk around in a group of 10 foreigners you get some funny looks. We went to the beach in Leon and had a blast (the city is right by the Pacific Ocean There were huge waves at the beach, ones that literally knocked you over (I still have water in my ear from my vicious battle with them). We ate lunch there and I had a huge cheese burger and fries. After all the rice and beans, I think that was the best burger of my life! Later that night we all went out to celebrate the 4th of July (as you can imagine we were the only ones doing so
Now, I am back at in Sabana Grande, and I only have 6 days left in Nicaragua I am dreading saying goodbye to my Nicaraguan family and friends. I have learned so much from them all. It’s funny, at first I wanted time to speed up and now I am wishing for the opposite.
More to come,
Nat-tan
July 4, 2009
Happy 4th of July!
I am so excited to be enroute to Nicaragua on this Saturday aftenoon. I had a wave of nostalgia while packing all of my rain gear, keens, bringing the travel backpack out. Reading the blogs of the UD students who are currently in Nicaragua has been inspiring and motivating, I’m excited to head back!
I keep thinking about that quote “You never step in the same river twice”—I think it might actually be from Pocahontas—I’m willing to admit my attachment to Disney films 
I know that I am returning to the same community and will be greeted by many familiar faces, which is so comforting. However, as much as I am looking forward to seeing the familiar faces and be back in the community, I am equally as excited to experience many of the changes that are taking place! The final allocation of the SEED Award is being used to establish Las Mujeres Solares as a cooperative—which is an incredible step towards the business development! Not to mention, I can’t even imagine how much Cherling, the darling grandaughter of Maria Antonia who I lived with last summer, must have grown in one year!
Another exciting development for this trip is Lauren Dokes, Salud del Sol, Inc. Director of Finance, will be traveling with me to Nicaragua! This will be Lauren’s first trip to Nicaragua and I think it will be an incredible experience for her and the rest of our team.
It will be a packed week, full of catching up with the women of Las Mujeres Solares, the field team of Salud del Sol, Inc., and the leadership team of Grupo Fenix. We have also been able to set up meetings with people and organizations that we met last summer, such as the energetic Rotary Club of Ocotal, the Jubilee House Community of Ciudad Sandino, and hopefully we will have the chance to meet with the students from the UNI that are researching a model of the solar autoclave in Managua.
In addition to work with Salud del Sol, Inc., I also will be working with a project through the Innovations in International Health Program of MIT. The Inter American Development Bank is funding a project to teach innovative biomedical training kits to doctors within the CIES School of Public Health in Managua. For the past few weeks, Jose Gomez and Lisa Schlecht have been developing training kits including a variety of technologies to bring to Nicaragua. The goal of the kits is to demystify various medical technologies such as microfluidics, diagnotistics testing and nebulizers to encourage doctors to adapt their equipment to their own needs or to repair equipment on their own. It’s quite an exciting project and I’m excited to be a part of it!
Thanks for reading, and check back often for updates and thoughts from Nicaragua!
-Anna
July 4, 2009
Hola y Bienvenido a mi Blog!
After a year of being strongly encouraged by my business partners- Anna, Dan, & Lori, I have finally agreed to blog about my experiences with Salud del Sol,Inc. For those of you who do not know a lot about me, I am the Director of Finance for Salud del Sol, Inc. Last summer while everyone had the opportunity to spend time in Nicaragua, I was working on the forms for us to be established as a non-profit organization- a very time-consuming process that will hopefully be recognized within the next few months.
Currently, I am at the airport enroute to Nicaragua with Anna. I am looking forward to our trip and to the many opportunities we will have to network, to share our passion for Salud del Sol, Inc. with others, and to be immersed in a new culture.
Thanks for visiting, and please stay tuned for upcoming posts and pictures about my experiences in Nicaragua and with Salud del Sol, Inc.
July 1, 2009
This weekend I went to church with my host family. Last weekend it was an hour long, but this weekend it was 2 hours long. Apparently the last Sunday of the month they have an hour preaching session and then an hour of mass, I didn´t realize I signed up for 2 hours of church going in so I was a little confused. Last weekend they sang the song that goes ¨Everything I had I left by the sand there…close to you…I will find other seas¨…It was in Spanish, but at least I recognized the tune, it made me smile. There are a lot of women that go to church and everyone sings out really loud. It is really neat that there are not as many people as church at home, but the singing is so much louder. There is this little old lady at church too that doesn´t have any shoes and can barely see, but she always is really sweet, it makes me smile because she doesn´t have a lot and can barely see but she still is sweet and smiles. This weekend there was a dog running lose in the church too. It really makes me have an appreciation for church at home that I can actually understand what the priest is talking about and I am looking forward to being able to sing along with songs again at home.
This week we are supposed to be getting 2 more volunteers at the Solar Center, so I am kind of excited for more people to come.
Have a good week and a happy 4th of July…enjoy the fireworks for me!
July 1, 2009
Lori Hanna was interviewed by Nancy Scola of WorldChanging.com to describe the solar autoclave and the application to rural clinics in undeserved areas. The article highlights the solar autoclave for Nicaragua and FrontlineSMS:Medic of Malawi, Africa as two examples of social innovations that are closing the gaps in healthcare delivery.
Two projects led by US students and their international allies are helping to fill gaps in health care gaps in the Global South. Though one project involves cell phone text messaging and the other equipment sterilizers powered by the sun, they have the same inspiration: using simple technology to build on the value of existing social capital.
These innovations are developing in Malawi and Nicaragua, both counted amongst the all-too-many places on the globe where the holes in the net of public health are so gaping that many people slip right through. Numbers tell that story. Of the fifty thousand Malawians who contracted tuberculousis last year, for example, an estimated 70% of them are also carry HIV. And that’s just a small portion those with HIV; nearly one million of Malawi’s 14 million people are infected. Yet in all of the country, there are just 250 or so doctors. Nicaragua is somewhat better off, yet nearly half of all of births happen there with no medical professional in attendance. Into those breaches have, in many cases, stepped community health workers (CHWs), local laypeople who work with the local health care system, often as volunteers. The two projects profiled here are equipping those CHWs with simple, appropriate ways to shrink the holes in their country’s health care nets.
You can read more of the article at the Worldchanging website, http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//010007.html
WorldChanging.com is a nonprofit media organization headquartered in Seattle, WA, that comprises a global network of independent journalists, designers and thinkers. We cover the world’s most innovative solutions to the planet’s problems, and inspire readers around the world with stories of new tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future. We have brought awareness to issues like refugee aid, renewable energy and innovative solutions for improving building, transportation, communication and quality of life. Our readers are ready to change the world, and Worldchanging connects them with the latest ideas on how to do that.
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