Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mid-service Training

Two weeks ago I was at a retreat center outside of San Jose for a week for Mid-service training. That means that we have completed over 1 year in our sites. The week was dedicated to sharing stories and best practices with other volunteers to learn from eachother. It was great catching up with eachother and hearing the amazing things that everyone is doing. We also had medical exams and got our teeth cleaned!

I can´t believe that I have less than a year left. It is going to be hard to leave my host family and my town, so I better cherish the time I have left. The picture is of all the Rural Community Development volunteers in Tico 18 and our boss, Chris, who has left us to go to grad school.

Thanks to all for the support you have provided over the past 15 months. And those of you who want to come visit better start planning soon because time is running out!

Kelsey

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Medical Mission

At the end of May I had a different type of volunteer experience. US Air Force doctors and nurses from bases throughout the US came to Pavon, a larger town only 8 km from me, to host a free health clinic. My fellow PCV, David, and I were asked to help out during these 3 days. We ended up translating for various doctors that did not know Spanish.


The first day I worked with 2 dermatologists and saw many different skin problems! Luckily I am not grossed out easily, because I saw some crazy rashes, infections etc. I also learned that yeast infections of the skin are very common! It creates a white circular skin discoloration and looks a lot like sun spots.


The second and third days I worked with the gynecologist and lost all embarrassment as I had to ask people about their sex lives, periods etc. It was overall a really fun experience and cool to do something completely different for 3 days. A ton of people from my town came, including my host parents, so I guess I was also directly helping people from my community too.


This is a really great program of the US Air Force and they definitely helped out a lot! The ophthalmologists were giving out free glasses, the dentists were pulling teeth, and all doctors gave out vitamins and lots of much needed, expensive medicine.


Here are pictures from the clinic:



The whole crew


People in line waiting for their turn



More waiting outside of the exam rooms


Helping out one of the dermatologists



David working in the pharmacy



Me with the two main coordinators

Water, Water Everywhere

On May 15th the national water company of Costa Rica, AYA came to my town to dedicate the water tank project. This ceremony marked the end of an 11 year struggle to obtain potable water, 24 hours a day in the houses. Only in the last few years has there been an aqueduct system, bringing water to houses from a well in the center of town. And in November 2008 the water tank was completed, which meant a constant stream of water all day.


When I got here a year ago, we had potable water in our house, but not all the time. The water committee would turn on the pump to stream water from the well to the houses at 7 am every morning and it would last only 2 hours. During that time, each house had to store as much water as they could in its own personal water tank. Needless to say, in a house of 6, the water we stored during that time did not always last the whole day. Many times during my first few months here we would run out of water around 7 or 8 pm.


Finally in November, with the completion of the water storage tank, we now have water all the time. The water committee still only turns on the pump for a few hours each morning, but that water is now stored in the large tank and is distributed to all the houses throughout the day. It is nice knowing that there will still be water to brush my teeth every night!


Even though the town now has an aqueduct system and a storage tank, there are still many members of the community that only use wells. Unfortunately the cost of water is just too much for some families that don’t have steady income. Hopefully in the future everyone will recognized the value of potable water and connect to the aqueduct system.


Here are pictures from the dedication ceremony:

The Water tank

Members of the committee who worked on the project for 11 years


The school kids at the dedication