Riding on the struggle bus

I write a lot about buses don't I?  Despite all my previous stories, I think this past weekend takes the cake. But first the non-struggle part of the trip.

Since we had two days off this weekend, Allison, Bre and took a quick trip up to Monte Verde--a could forest about five hours away by bus. We arrived around noon, checked into our hostel (super cute with a kitchen!) and explored the small town of Monte Verde. It's mostly a destination for backpackers, so even though it's a tourist destination, it's mostly hostels, locally owned restaurants and adventure companies. We at lunch at soda (little restaurant that cooks typical food) and the owner's two-year-old daughter brought us our silverware. It was so cute!

Now some pictures to summarize:

The trip was not devoid of work...the 3000 page Tropical Disease book also made the trip

Our hostel had a kitchen, so we got to cook dinner and breakfast for ourselves! 

We spent the evening playing cards, but went to bed at 9:00 like old ladies!

Sunday morning we walked through the canopy of the cloud forest on suspension bridges...it was a long way down!

After our hike/walk, we were soaked because in a rain forest it tends to RAIN! So we made it back to town and went to buy our bus tickets. There was a small problem, however...when we asked for tickets back to San Jose the man selling them told us there were no spots left! He suggested a different route, through another town but couldn't guarantee that we could make it back Sunday night. The only other option we had was to take a five hour bus ride standing room only. So stand we did...out in the rain waiting for the bus, eating our lunch, and then on the bus. Fortunately, there was space to put our backpacks down and sit on them. It was an adventure...a very damp adventure, but we made it back to San Jose!

Now we're back in Las Cruces doing lots of classroom work before spending a week living without electricity in a more rural area...more on that next time!

As seen on the Cedros bus

Since I'm a city girl and take the bus to and from school every day, I've had my share of interesting experiences...some have made me smile, others have made me laugh, still others have made me cringe. So here they are:

• A man carrying a trash bag full of individually packaged plantain chips who has apparently decided that buses are a great customer base. With a captive audience, I suppose he's right.
• After the chip incident, I was suspicious of anyone walking on the bus with more than a backpack. I didn't really think a drum was anything to be concerned about, but when the man carrying it decided to stop right next to my seat and proceeded to launch into a soliloquy and song about life on the banana plantations I was clearly proven wrong. 
• More soliloquizing later in the week when a woman got on the bus, stood in front and told the sad, sad tale of how she was from Chile, but shortly after arriving in Costa Rica had all of her belongings stolen. I guess I have to give credit for creative panhandling. 
• A more smile-worthy observation was the morning that two men got up to give their seats to middle aged women. 
• On the more laughable end of the spectrum is the German student (also taking Spanish at CRLA) in manpris and popped collar awkwardly trying to stand up on the bus.
• And finally on the weird end are the couples I see EVERY DAY blatantly making out on the bus. Apparently PDA is acceptable here? Let's just say it's kind of awkward when that's going on in the seat in front of you and in the seat behind you. 

Ahhh...city life. I'm not so sure I'll miss it when we back at Las Cruces.

Schedules!

To make up for my lack of posting last week and what I'm sure will be limited posting next week, here's a picture of my schedule for next week. (Because if there's anything I like more than a list, it's a schedule. 

City Life Week 2

After a long week of intermittent internet access, it is finally fixed at our house! (and yes, I am again using that as my excuse for not posting all week.)  It’s been a very full week with Spanish classes, research classes, a birthday party and a visit to the central market. Because my thoughts are scattered and I like lists, here is my week in bullets:

• I’ve finally cracked my Tropical Diseases book and now know more than I ever wanted to about diarrhea and the pathogens that cause it! 
• I'm a big fan of writing 400 word essays for Spanish class
• Sleeping 9 hours every night is amazing
• I am absolutely shocked that I have not gotten sick yet. Leftovers here get left out for HOURS and the reserved. I'm kind of wishing we hadn't talked about food safety this summer with HSM teams!
• The city life, while kind of fun, is not really my thing. An hour long bus ride on the way home for a trip that takes 10 minutes on the way to school is not my idea of a good time.
• They celebrate 60th birthdays very differently here! We surprised my host mom with a birthday party last night...complete with a DJ, flashing lights, a fog machine and lots of loud music. It was a very fun evening full of yummy food and dancing! 
• There's nothing quite like an overpriced bagel sandwich when you're feeling homesick for American food. 
• Where can you buy a scarf for $3, a pallet full of 20lb bags of rice, a futon, a kids bowling set, undergarments for your whole family and a really cute recycling bin? Why Pequeño Mundo of course! As Bre described it, it's like a Costco and a Dollar Store squished into one tiny store.  
• In a completely unrelated story, my MCAT scores are still not posted...and it's been almost a month! I'm going a little crazy. 

Now for some pictures! 

Tina, another girl staying at our house, my host mom and I

Ligia with most of her family while a mariachi band plays Feliz Cumpleaños

This little fellow was my dance partner for the evening!

Blowing out the candles

Tina, Helen and I

Highs and Lows

It's been a long week...we've only been in San Jose since Wednesday, but it already feels like a long time. Internet has been spotty and classes have been long, so I haven't really had time to update, but I thought I'd try to sum up the week in a list of highs and lows.

First the not-so-fun stuff:

• 20 minute bus rides into school that turn into hour bus rides on the way home
• Getting off at the wrong bus stop and walking for half an hour in the rain, getting soaked in the process
• The way my backpack smells after said soaking
• Class on Saturdays. booooo
• Trying to communicate with 22 other people without having a cell phone or consistent internet access 
• Water that trickles out of the shower head
• Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of time spent around people

Now the thing's that make me happy:

• Actually making it home after getting off at the wrong bus stop in the rain
• Being able to unpack and organize
• My super sweet host family
• Learning to salsa (no it's not pretty, but I know how to do it now)
• House-warming parties Costa Rican style--including a Mariachi Band playing/praying the rosary
• Grilling out on the upstairs terrace with friends
• Laughing uncontrollably about silly things
• Being able to video skype people 

Now some pictures of the happier things! (It's hard to take a picture of being lost in the rain.)

Trunk Monkey likes his new digs

yay organization!

With Allison

And Helen!

My adorable host siblings!

EBAIS visits

EBAIS stands for Equipo Basico de Atención Integral de Salud or, in English Primary Health Care Team. They are made up of a physician, a nurse, a pharmacist, a medical records technician and a primary care technician. The EBAISs serve 3,000-5,000 people each and work out of clinics strategically situated to provide accessible health care. These primary health care facilities provide basic care, prenatal check-ups, consults for chronic patients, pretty much anything you would go to a general practitioner for. They refer patients needing more specialized or advanced treatment to second-level care facilities—hospitals and larger clinics with specialists and lab equipment. From there patients can be referred to tertiary-level hospitals that provide the most advanced care. Ideally, patients are always counter-referred to their primary care EBAIS so that the team can continue to follow-up with and monitor patients. This week we visited two different clinics and got to see an EBAIS in action.     

The first visit was to Agua Buena, a small community near San Vito (the city near Las Cruces) that is relatively well developed. The roads are paved or at least graveled. The community is actually densely populated enough to have two EBAIS (teams) working in one clinics. It was interesting to see the organization, the flow of patients and to talk to the pharmacist about some of the challenges they face.  I was surprised at how efficiently the system seems to work, especially having visited “government clinics” in other countries that essentially are buildings that never get staffed.  Staffing is an issue for many clinics because the EBAIS team is so small and hard to replace if someone gets sick or needs to take a personal day, but overall the way clinics are run is relatively efficient. Because each EBAIS serves a limited community, the primary care technician keeps data on every household in the community, making things like vaccinations, health risks and prenatal care easy to keep track of.  

Unfortunately, I failed at taking pictures of the actual clinic. However the second day when we visited a clinic in the Ngöbe indigenous territory we got to walk around the garden at the cultural center that Alexis Rodriguez created to preserve their traditions, medicinal plants and language.

We walked across this very unsteady suspension/swinging bridge across the river…eeek!

Hector shows us a legume that the Ngöbe use as a coffee substitute

The area around the cultural centers

Tuti-fruiti Cornbread

Such was the general consensus on what tonight's dessert tasted like! While the food here is great--I definitely appreciate the balance that we get, there are sometimes oddities.  Every morning has turned into "guess what flavor jelly this is" and at lunch we play "what flavor is the juice?"

Anyway, on to more pertinent things than food...
Today was our first day off--we have classes or field trips Monday-Saturday, so a few of us went into town for church this morning. Unfortunately, church was at 10:00 when we thought it was at 8:00. We spent those extra two hours wandering around town and talking to Carlos who had brought us into town. we even stopped at a bakery...yum! Church was distinctly Latin American--slightly chaotic, loud, and long with great worship music and friendly people. While I'm not sure how much of the sermon I actually got, it was nice to be worshiping with other believers. 
The rest of today I spent doing readings for tomorrow and Tuesday and catching up on a little sleep. 6:30 breakfasts continue to be really early!

We are winding down our time at Las Cruces; Wednesday we head back into San Jose for our homestays with host families. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. It will definitely be a change of pace from all of us living together, but after a week of that, it might be a good thing. I'm looking forward to meeting my host family and getting to know them, but I know from past experience that it can also be a challenge--especially with linguistic and cultural barriers. If you're looking for something to pray for, my interactions with my host family (as well as with my fellow students) would definitely be on my list. My hope is that in everything I say and do,  Christ's love is reflected.