The good, the bad, and all the in between

Ok so in my last post I commented that it had been an eventful day and it was time to sleep. Little did I know that sleep would bring a huge CENTIPEDE into my cot to bite me at 4:30am as I woke to pain on my inner right arm and the sound of something flying around either in my room or outside (I hope outside!). After approximately 2 min of sensing something was in my bed and looking around, I pulled my lamp out and turned it on to find a centipede under my chest. I screamed and woke up Kayla and Felicia. My entire body was shaking and I was so afraid that it had bitten me. It was wigging out on my bed and we tried to kill and capture it. You would be amazed how many terrified MPH students it takes to secure a centipede at 4:30 in the morning. We had strategy, adrenaline and all those great things to go with a bite with inflammation on my arm. While the girls held down the centipede (which btw looks like a scorpion) situation, I ran out to wake Leonel. Thankfully his brother Max was awake and I ran out to him saying I got bit/there is a bug in my bed/look at my arm/ is it poisonous all at once. And all of this was said in spanglish for sure…I mean who even knows how to say poisonous in English at this time of day? You know how when you have a stressful/traumatic event happen in your life you often forget moments of it? Yeah that’s how my convo with Max went. He was heroic! He swooped right in picked up the “animalito” as they call it here and took me to the bathroom to wash the wound with soap and water. All the meanwhile, Leonel is now awake and Chevo (who apparently lives across the road as we found out later in the day) had come over around this time as well. They all were checking my arm, looking at the animalito, and looking for a cream to put on the bite. They were very calm as was I at this point. I am not one to overreact to insect creatures typically, but I have already been freaked out by the night here so I figured a little screaming was in order. I asked Kayla about how to ask if it is poisonous in Spanish and she could not think of it either so we asked Max if I was going to die (um not the best word to use but at least we got to the point). No telling what these people think of us! Haha  The answer obviously was no. So Max put Neosporin on it (so nice) and I went back to my cot and sort of slept for a while longer.

When I woke for the day, Leonel asked if I wanted to ask the doctor at the clinic about it to be safe. I was like OF COURSE!! I am so glad he was not questioning the poisonous effect of it at 5am! He also reported the earthquake was a 5.7 magnitude 90 miles off of the coast! So he took us to San Rafael Oriente to the Mayor’s office to meet with the Mayor. The Mayor then drove us around the corner to the health clinic to meet the doc. The people here are very weird about us walking. It is a very safe town where we are and the people are getting to know us. We all really hope they will allow us to at least walk around the square which is smaller than a football field at some point soon. So we meet with Doctora Milna Campo. She is a young, late 30’s ish, doctor who runs the clinic and spoke with us about the health of the population in San Rafael Oriente (SRO). Side note… Leonel pulled out the animalito to show her what bit me and she screamed! Ok so it moved a little, but I was not happy that she screamed too! She asked me about my reaction, if I had numbness, trouble breathing or swallowing (all no), and was surprised that I did not go into anaphalectic shock (UM. Wow. yes so am I!) Positive of the day!

Let me explain a little more about the composition of the town. Four Cantons make up SRO of which one is Santa Clara. The cantons are small and they are made up of casarillos which we are visiting with the promotoras during out house visits over our time here. Dr. Milna runs the main clinic which is separated on the inside by area; vaccinations, injections and treatment, pharmacy, maternal health, etc. We learned that the leading cause of death in 2010 in SRO was kidney failure. The people here suffer from diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol most frequently.  Also in 2010 we learned that 26% of the 273 births in SRO were due to teen mothers ages 12-16. The clinic has posters all around about health tips from pre-natal care, mother and child nutrition, to dengue and rabies. Another great tidbit about SRO is that they have a yearly vaccination campaign for all dogs in the spring. Vets go out into the community and vaccinate all dogs. I really like this idea. We made friends with a little girl, who was maybe 4, while at the clinic. I asked her name and told her ours which she repeated non-stop and kept pointing at posters wanting us to take a picture of it and of her. She was so adorable. (A pic with her will be posted on here among others when I get to the Mayor’s office again)

I don’t think I ever quite explained our housing and farm situation as well as is necessary for you to understand. The farmhouse where we live is a house of sorts. It has 4 walls and a roof on every building. The reason that we are one with nature is that 1. We live on a farm, 2. We must move between buildings to go to other places like the potty, and 3. All the roofs have spaces between the wall and the roof itself so there is no way to keep things from entering in addition to needing to keep latches on the doors open at night to allow airflow. Behind our room are 2 smaller rooms where Leonel and Max sleep. To the right of our room is the eating cabin. There is also a kitchen cabin, a bathroom with a large shower (very nice), and an old school bread maker. (Pictures of all are coming soon). As I said earlier, we now learned that both Chevo and Silvia do not live on the farm but across the road in other houses. However we do have 3 dogs to keep us company and up all night. Conan is the 1.5year old boxer whose name is pronounced so coolly with the Salvadoran accent and then there is Poter (poh ter) and Nikita. Felicia informed me that Poter is named after Harry Potter! They are all very friendly dogs who have grown on us as we have grown on them.  Also there are barracks, a latrine, and washing station in front of our room, closer to the road, where the police come and stay when they are in town. This morning after making our house calls in a different casarillo, Doris introduced us to 3 of them.  Oh, Doris and David are the promotoras that we go around the town with. The first night the police arrived, the 3 of us were on the porch doing a workout aerobics video…no telling what they think of that! I bet we looked hilarious!

Oh and most importantly I must tell you… WE HAVE BEDS!!!!!! Leonel surprised us with 3 brand new beds to sleep on. Good-bye cots hello awesome mattresses!!!!!!!! The bed is so comfy and beautiful. I teared up when I saw them. Leonel is so generous and honestly one of the kindest people I know. We were so giddy, all laughing and celebrating and hugging. It was glorious! And then it rained which is unseasonable for this time of year but beautiful too. The timing could not have been better. The rain smelled wonderful. It only lasted for a short while but it was nice to have. So I enjoyed my night on the bed although the fear of the previous night’s events kept me from sleeping well! 

Nicoley

PS more on the morolique cheese. I told Silvia how much I like it and we had it for dinner again last night (ahhh delicious)