Day 1

Estamos en Nicaragua!

We spent our morning in our seminar learning all about diseases, pharmacology, medical spanish and how to take vitals/patient care process. Our team consists of 14 students and we are all from Univ of Alabama or a Texas university! I have four roommates and our room is pretty nice complete with a working shower and toilet! Before lunch, we were split up into groups where we each created a presentation about assigned a medicine or some diseases and their definition, symptoms and treatment. After lunch, we presented our diseases/pharmacology and then had a medical spanish lesson. We had about an hour of free time before we left for a quick tour of Managua. One thing that I love about these ISL trips is the spontaneity. During our city tour, we found random zip lining and of course, I couldn't say no. Only 2 guys and 4 girls took advantage of this but we had a riot. The course had three parts. For the first one, Joann and I went with one of the guys who ran the course. So for the second one, I went upside down! (picture not included...but I swear it happened). The third one I flew solo. We all loved it and it was definitely worth 264 cordobas (12 US dollars).

We had dinner in a cute little restaurant about 15 minutes away from our hotel. Being a vegetarian in Nicaragua will be quite the adventure! I will have to be creative with my meal choices and I am very, very thankful for my special k bars I have packed.

Overall, we have had a great experience so far! We have had great weather and I have already made some wonderful friends. Tomorrow morning we will be up at 7 am for breakfast and then at 7:30 we will head into the community to do some house visits to find some people that are in need of medical attention. My friend Nick and I have the opportunity to meet up with a sorority sister of mine from TCU on Wednesday. She is a nurse down here in Managua and wants to show me some of what she does. We will stray from the group that day and see her clinic where she will be providing medical care to special needs kids (on this particular day) and we get to help out!

Excited for the week to come!