Planning the Fourth Trip in 14 Months

Orange-fronted Parakeets

During the last week of December I will fly to Nicaragua for my fourth visit in fourteen months.   


Illness doesn't take a holiday, and my presence, I hope, will allow clinic staff in Limon to spend more family time during the Christmas festivities. All good.  


Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, recently re-elected for another five year term, stated that he expected to continue to govern on a path that is "Christian, Socialist, and in Solidarity."  The church figures prominently in his government and in the country generally.  Christmas is an important religious holiday in Nicaragua. The predominantly Catholic population celebrates the birth of Jesus with festivals, pageants, and traditional church activities.  

My goals for this trip are to provide Spanish teaching sheets for the common problems that I will see, to bring along the majority of the medications that I expect to personally use, and to establish a long term relationship with an interpreter. 


On prior visits I kept a computer file on almost all of the children that I assessed.  I prepared the files as a permanent record for the clinic chart and the recommendations portion was given to the mother as a written reminder of the instructions.  I am tabulating these records and in due course I should be able to estimate the medication needs.  


I am hopeful that some of my Calgary colleagues will again donate medical supplies for me to take to Nicaragua, and I will purchase the deficiencies between my estimate and the donations. 


The records will also serve to identify the basic problems for which Spanish teaching sheets need to be prepared.  


Finding an excellent translator is an important project.  I will pay the translator very well by Nicaraguan standards but a modest amount by ours.  An excellent physician translator relationship can make a huge difference with quality of care.  


I expect to post a blog every week or so until I leave and then daily while in Nicaragua so that the friends of Help Nicaragua Children can keep in touch.