Monday:
Usually for the first day of school, you would take out your clothes the night before, go to bed anxious and wake up earlier than usual. I will admit to putting out my clothes the night before and I fell asleep quite early. We were expected to arrive at the hospital by 8:00am and be picked up by someone from the hospital. Unfortunately, no one came to pick us up but we definitely didn’t let that stop us. We knew we were to take the #2 bus towards Coxen Hole and luckily the bus picks up wherever, you just have to flag it down. When you think bus, you think school or Dart bus, but the bus is actually a van and can get very crowded in the morning. We made it to the hospital and our first task was to meet with the director. We met with the head of the administration and explained our need for inventory making and interviews and it went pretty smoothly. Mario, who works in administration, was the first person we met and was very nice! He speaks only Spanish but is very patient with my “sometimes” struggling Spanish. At least in every department, at least one person speaks English. Here on the island, there are two languages: Caribbean English and Spanish. Luckily, I can speak both given my Spanish is basic. Luis, the technician was very nice and took us all around the hospital to each department to assist with inventory. With that, we were able to get two medical devices to start working on, manual blood pressure devices.
Our breakfast and lunches are provided by the hospital, which is amazing! The meals consist of rice and beans and meats and plantains and all good stuff. Where the workshop is located is outside the main hospital which gets unfortunately extremely hot but there’s a mango tree right outside! Hopefully we can a fan put in the workshop so we aren’t sweating bullets over our work!
After work, we had to go find a cell phone because the ones we got with our equipment do now work in Honduras. We have the SIM cards and even minutes but unfortunately, no phone. Mario took the liberty to take us to the Mall to get new phones. He was so generous enough to wait for us so he could give us a little tour of the French Harbour. I definitely plan on spending a weekend there.
We got back to our homestay and ate dinner (which was delicious). The person who cooks our meals at our homestay has a little girl who is absolutely adorable! Funny thing is she will only say “Hola” to us, but if we ask her anything else, she’ll run away. Overall, I am definitely enjoying the first work day here and I’m excited for what is to come.
Tuesday:
I had to wake up earlier than usual to walk to the ATM down the road. It was very nice outside for walking and I met someone who was exercising. We chatted for a while (in Caribbean English) until I made it to the ATM. I needed some assistance with the ATM (since it is all in Spanish, I needed help determining how much $50 was in Lempira’s). The lady at the counter only spoke Spanish so I was able to be bilingual!
We decided to have our work days from 7am – 3pm. It works out where we have the afternoon to go to the internet café and look up information for repairs and calibration of certain devices near our homestay. Today, we would be working on the blood pressure devices and an autoclave. One of the autoclaves was donated but the instructions were all in English. We decided to translate the manual in Spanish and create a quick start guide as well as get the machine working.
Wednesday
The rest of the week consisted of us WORKING WORKING WORKING! Everyone around the hospital now knows who we are and what our job is. We cannot be more grateful for the staff being so nice to us and allowing us to walk through the hospital. We still have to take precautions when entering sterile areas by “suiting up” and be courteous to the patients there and their privacy. We finally successfully tested, cleaned test ran the autoclave to where it was back into service. With Leah’s drawings and my charts, we created a quick start guide to be taped on the wall for the staff. Our trial run consisted of 4 bags of small towels which were successfully sterilized. They are equipped with the temperature sensored tape to be sure the autoclave is accurately working.
Earlier in the week during our tour, we ran across blood pressure apparatus’ that were waiting repair. Today we calibrated 2 and sent one back onto the floor. So far we are off to a great start. After a long day of work, we are able to get to our homestay, change, and walk over to the beach! The best thing to do after a long day of work! Unfortunately, today after work, I was exhausted and just went to sleep to a movie.
Thursday
Today, we did our first interview all in Spanish with our technician. I had a little bit of a problem with my Spanish reading the questions off of the computer but it was easier to try to re-word the question in Spanish with what I know and describing what the question is asking. Afterwards, I went to do a needs assessment interview with the Head of the Nursing department. The interview lasted about 30 minutes to an hour. I learn quite a bit and now we have plenty of ideas for our secondary project. We are considering 2 things but have to do more research. We also went back to the sterilizing room and ran through the instructions again with the staff to be sure they understood our quick start guide and the instructions we gave them. We noticed, however, the dials on the machine were also in English so Leah took the liberty to translate them and put labels on the machine.
Now with every device we receive, we notice the manuals (if there are any) are in English and sometimes in a completely irrelevant language like Korean or German! Part of our job here will be documenting all of the quick start guides and translations we make and created a “big book of everything” for them to have.
As we passed the ER department, the head of the department stopped us and asked us to take a look at a few of their machines. I started on the patient monitor while Leah was looking at the ECG machine. With every machine we touch and come in contact with, we must document in an excel spreadsheet to be sent at the end of the program. So far, we have listed about 20 machines! We have our work cut out for us.
I ended the day with a trip to the internet café to talk to my dad y mi novio Robin. I ended up chatting with some of my friends from home. Leah mentioned something interesting about the “culture shock”; in Costa Rica, there wasn’t a heavy culture shock because of the similarities and the resources that we available. The water was safe to even drink in San Jose where we could shower without worrying if any will fall into our mouth or on our face and in our homestay particularly, we had wifi most of the time (random times it wouldn’t work), we were around a lot more students and it was somewhat Americanized in a sense that we had similar luxuries. Here in Honduras, we are entering a new environment! I’ve never had to worry about the water to the point where I brush my teeth and wash my face with bottled water, a lot more people speak only Spanish which is good practice for me but also very different that I have to really “translate” what I want to say. It’s similar to my family’s home countries with the “island feel” and Caribbean English present in some areas but I will say I do miss my family and friends. Homesickness isn’t the place so much as it is the people I miss.
Friday
Today marks our first official work week completed and we’ve accomplished so much! Today we fixed 3 more blood pressure apparatus’ and sent them back on the floor and continued working on the devices from the ER. I am truly excited that they are sending us machines to fix! Some students in previous years said they would have to go hunt for them but luckily they come to us as well as we go to them. We have quite a bit of work ahead of us for this month. The troubleshooting techniques we learned from JJ, James, and Rick really does help keep us from taking apart the entire machine come to find out the problem is the fuse! Also, we have next week to look forward to getting heavly involved with our work!
Usually for the first day of school, you would take out your clothes the night before, go to bed anxious and wake up earlier than usual. I will admit to putting out my clothes the night before and I fell asleep quite early. We were expected to arrive at the hospital by 8:00am and be picked up by someone from the hospital. Unfortunately, no one came to pick us up but we definitely didn’t let that stop us. We knew we were to take the #2 bus towards Coxen Hole and luckily the bus picks up wherever, you just have to flag it down. When you think bus, you think school or Dart bus, but the bus is actually a van and can get very crowded in the morning. We made it to the hospital and our first task was to meet with the director. We met with the head of the administration and explained our need for inventory making and interviews and it went pretty smoothly. Mario, who works in administration, was the first person we met and was very nice! He speaks only Spanish but is very patient with my “sometimes” struggling Spanish. At least in every department, at least one person speaks English. Here on the island, there are two languages: Caribbean English and Spanish. Luckily, I can speak both given my Spanish is basic. Luis, the technician was very nice and took us all around the hospital to each department to assist with inventory. With that, we were able to get two medical devices to start working on, manual blood pressure devices.
Our breakfast and lunches are provided by the hospital, which is amazing! The meals consist of rice and beans and meats and plantains and all good stuff. Where the workshop is located is outside the main hospital which gets unfortunately extremely hot but there’s a mango tree right outside! Hopefully we can a fan put in the workshop so we aren’t sweating bullets over our work!
After work, we had to go find a cell phone because the ones we got with our equipment do now work in Honduras. We have the SIM cards and even minutes but unfortunately, no phone. Mario took the liberty to take us to the Mall to get new phones. He was so generous enough to wait for us so he could give us a little tour of the French Harbour. I definitely plan on spending a weekend there.
We got back to our homestay and ate dinner (which was delicious). The person who cooks our meals at our homestay has a little girl who is absolutely adorable! Funny thing is she will only say “Hola” to us, but if we ask her anything else, she’ll run away. Overall, I am definitely enjoying the first work day here and I’m excited for what is to come.
Tuesday:
I had to wake up earlier than usual to walk to the ATM down the road. It was very nice outside for walking and I met someone who was exercising. We chatted for a while (in Caribbean English) until I made it to the ATM. I needed some assistance with the ATM (since it is all in Spanish, I needed help determining how much $50 was in Lempira’s). The lady at the counter only spoke Spanish so I was able to be bilingual!
We decided to have our work days from 7am – 3pm. It works out where we have the afternoon to go to the internet café and look up information for repairs and calibration of certain devices near our homestay. Today, we would be working on the blood pressure devices and an autoclave. One of the autoclaves was donated but the instructions were all in English. We decided to translate the manual in Spanish and create a quick start guide as well as get the machine working.
Wednesday
The rest of the week consisted of us WORKING WORKING WORKING! Everyone around the hospital now knows who we are and what our job is. We cannot be more grateful for the staff being so nice to us and allowing us to walk through the hospital. We still have to take precautions when entering sterile areas by “suiting up” and be courteous to the patients there and their privacy. We finally successfully tested, cleaned test ran the autoclave to where it was back into service. With Leah’s drawings and my charts, we created a quick start guide to be taped on the wall for the staff. Our trial run consisted of 4 bags of small towels which were successfully sterilized. They are equipped with the temperature sensored tape to be sure the autoclave is accurately working.
Earlier in the week during our tour, we ran across blood pressure apparatus’ that were waiting repair. Today we calibrated 2 and sent one back onto the floor. So far we are off to a great start. After a long day of work, we are able to get to our homestay, change, and walk over to the beach! The best thing to do after a long day of work! Unfortunately, today after work, I was exhausted and just went to sleep to a movie.
Thursday
Today, we did our first interview all in Spanish with our technician. I had a little bit of a problem with my Spanish reading the questions off of the computer but it was easier to try to re-word the question in Spanish with what I know and describing what the question is asking. Afterwards, I went to do a needs assessment interview with the Head of the Nursing department. The interview lasted about 30 minutes to an hour. I learn quite a bit and now we have plenty of ideas for our secondary project. We are considering 2 things but have to do more research. We also went back to the sterilizing room and ran through the instructions again with the staff to be sure they understood our quick start guide and the instructions we gave them. We noticed, however, the dials on the machine were also in English so Leah took the liberty to translate them and put labels on the machine.
Now with every device we receive, we notice the manuals (if there are any) are in English and sometimes in a completely irrelevant language like Korean or German! Part of our job here will be documenting all of the quick start guides and translations we make and created a “big book of everything” for them to have.
As we passed the ER department, the head of the department stopped us and asked us to take a look at a few of their machines. I started on the patient monitor while Leah was looking at the ECG machine. With every machine we touch and come in contact with, we must document in an excel spreadsheet to be sent at the end of the program. So far, we have listed about 20 machines! We have our work cut out for us.
I ended the day with a trip to the internet café to talk to my dad y mi novio Robin. I ended up chatting with some of my friends from home. Leah mentioned something interesting about the “culture shock”; in Costa Rica, there wasn’t a heavy culture shock because of the similarities and the resources that we available. The water was safe to even drink in San Jose where we could shower without worrying if any will fall into our mouth or on our face and in our homestay particularly, we had wifi most of the time (random times it wouldn’t work), we were around a lot more students and it was somewhat Americanized in a sense that we had similar luxuries. Here in Honduras, we are entering a new environment! I’ve never had to worry about the water to the point where I brush my teeth and wash my face with bottled water, a lot more people speak only Spanish which is good practice for me but also very different that I have to really “translate” what I want to say. It’s similar to my family’s home countries with the “island feel” and Caribbean English present in some areas but I will say I do miss my family and friends. Homesickness isn’t the place so much as it is the people I miss.
Friday
Today marks our first official work week completed and we’ve accomplished so much! Today we fixed 3 more blood pressure apparatus’ and sent them back on the floor and continued working on the devices from the ER. I am truly excited that they are sending us machines to fix! Some students in previous years said they would have to go hunt for them but luckily they come to us as well as we go to them. We have quite a bit of work ahead of us for this month. The troubleshooting techniques we learned from JJ, James, and Rick really does help keep us from taking apart the entire machine come to find out the problem is the fuse! Also, we have next week to look forward to getting heavly involved with our work!
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Travel Weekend 07/03/2011
From Friday night, we all spent the night at the ALE Language school. Our flight was scheduled for 5:35 am so to be sure that we would all make the flight on-time, we would leave the school at 3:30 am and which would mean we should all be in one place beforehand. Usually on Fridays we would visit the hospitals in San Jose but since we did our last hospital visit last week, it was really a free day to do all the things we wanted to do before we left. For the students travelling to Honduras, we had to be at the school at 9:00am for a quick de-briefing. The summer institute is generating curriculum for the BMET program where they train students and engineers from Honduras in Biomedical Engineering. Do devise such curriculum; they need to know what types of medical devices are most popular in their countries. We come in by performing inventory and needs assessment forms while we are working in the hospital. This is sort of a new inventory procedure they have us doing but we needed an explanation as to how to go about performing these need assessments in the hospital. We all had a chance to go over our hospital reports and those left from students from previous years. Afterwards, since we had the entire rest of the day to ourselves before we had our last dinner with our host families, I went to Bagelmens for lunch and free wifi J. It was a chance for we to talk with my dad and Robin before I left for Honduras.
We all had dinner with our homestays for the girls who stayed in the house with me, it was bittersweet saying goodbye to Zeidy, an amazing homestay mom! We all made her a card (with awesome illustration by Anjuli) and signed it EN ESPANOL of course, a few tears were shed and we were off. Mindy, Caitlin and I took a cab because Mindy and my suitcase were too heavy to drag around using the bus to get back to school. We were one of the first ones there so we were the party starters! Once everyone got there, we all played Taboo until we were bored with it. Deasha, Maciej, Liz, Mindy, Jimmy and I went into an empty classroom and watched Insidious until most of us fell asleep.
I woke up at 3:00 am to a horrible chill and nauseous feeling. Come to find out I would be sick the entire travel to Honduras. I am very Thankful for my prayer with Cliff before I boarded the plane. Have to realize sometimes the devil works to keep me away from doing GOD’s work, in this case volunteering at the hospital. Luckily my ticket had me flying business class the entire way to San Pedro Sul ; from San Jose to El Salvador to San Pedro Sul. Because they ran out of seats in business class on the flight to San Pedro Sul from El Salvador, some of us were given a voucher! Although I felt horrible most of the way there, I still enjoyed the flight. We said our goodbyes to the students going to Nicaragua in El Salvador and most of the groups left at the airport in San Pedro Sul. 6 of us and Julien bused over to La Ceiba and after 1 group was picked up, the other two groups of us would leave in the morning.
We were able to bond with Julien a little bit and I was able to enjoy my dinner and breakfast without getting sick. The ferry ride to Roatan was about an hour and a half and it wasn’t a terrible ride. Surprisingly, some of the bus rides I have taken in Costa Rica were very much worse than the ferry ride. Of course, I prepared ahead of time with motion sickness tablets and pepto bismol but I was definitely okay. One of the employees of the hospital came and picked us up and took us to our homestay, which in actuality is a hostel. We spoke with our host mom and Leah and I took a trip down to West End to look around for a SIM card and to see what is around. Since it is Sunday, most of everything was closed but we were still able to walk around and see a few stores. We ran into a restaurant with live music in the evening and decided to come back for that! Our walk back home took only about 15 minutes which means we live walking distance to the beach! We enjoyed dinner and then spent our evening at the restaurant! What started off has a rough travel weekend ended to the sound of reggae and food grilling.
Last Week in Costa Rica! 06/30/2011
Our last week consisted of preparing each set of partners for our next journey in Nicaragua or Honduras. Our week started off with the typical schedule of 4 hours of Spanish in the morning.
Monday:
We had our typical 4 hours of Spanish. Since we have reached our final week, it was “crunch time” with our Spanish training. Personally, I feel I have learner quite a bit but still have a lot more practicing to do before I can consider myself a full “first year student” with the knowledge of Spanish you would get in the first year of any Spanish class. Understanding is not at all difficult for me but being comfortable and less nervous about speaking Spanish will be a challenge I will have to overcome. Because Leah y Yo termine nosotros power supply semana pasado, we did not have to attend lab today. This was true for most of the groups, so J.J went ahead and scheduled lecture right after Spanish class so we could leave for home right away. This was a perfect way to start off the week! In lecture, we have been continuing to cover machines you could see in the hospital but was not in the lecture manual. At this point, I am just getting very anxious about getting to Roatan and working in the hospital.
Tuesday:
Spanish class is becoming a lot easier especially being with our group! Laura is the best teacher! Very patient, laughs with us, and is always encouraging us to keep trying en Espanol with speaking with each other. We are getting a lot more conversation time in our class talking with each other. We are still learning the participios and the verbos irregulares. When Gladys came around last week to “test” our Spanish, unfortunately I didn’t do as well as I know I could. Even Leah was shocked because she knows I know a lot more and understood that I was extremely nervous. I explained to Laura that I was nervous because Gladys has such high expectations for all of us I definitely did not want to disappoint her.
The labs this week will not consist of hands-on work, but group discussion about what to expect in the developing world, our perceptions on it, and how we should act being from the U.S. It was interesting the topics we came up in discussion and things we all thought of but never went into depth about such as what standards makes a developing country “developing”? I noticed that a lot of the comparison is based off of the U.S. versus the country in question. I wonder if it is just the “American Mentality” or if the U.S. is really advanced as we say it is.
Wednesday:
Today is Brian’s 21st birthday and we convinced our Spanish teacher to have the first half of class be all conversational and the last half to watch Finding Nemo en espanol. Today is officially our last Spanish class, so we had to cover last minute Verbos and tenses and then we spent a lot of time talking with each other using the three tenses: present, past and future. We ended our class with watching Finding Nemo en espanol. It was interesting to listen and because we all already knew the dialogue in English, translating wasn’t a big problem. Our teacher encouraged us to pick up a popular book we would read or have read but all in Spanish. Mi novio Robin compriste mi libro por primero ano estudiantes de Espanol so I have been using that to practice. It had been great and passed around to my roomies back at my Homestay. So after the break, we finished our conversation time and began watching the movie. We purchased snacks from the local corner store beforehand and enjoyed the movie. Since it was dubbed, the voices of each of the characters were different, but that was a given.
Today, our On the Ground Coordinator for Honduras Julien is supposed to arrive in Costa Rica for our hospital de-briefing. Apparently, J.J had thought he had the days mixed up but come to find out, Julien did arrive. Our lab for today was taking apart the equipment some of us were shipped and getting hands on experience investigating them. They were not broken, some were brand new, but it was still a good experience taking them apart and putting them back together. Our task with the machines was to create a quick start guide for using the machines and translate them into Spanish. Leah and I teamed up with Melissa and Sam (because there weren’t enough medical devices for each group to have one of their own to play with) and first looked at a Vacuum pump for bodily fluids. It came with a manual but it was all in English which made me wonder how the hospitals in developing countries handle the translation part when receiving donated parts and equipment. We finally put it together and tested the vacuum pressure and checked all of the gauges to make sure they we working just as the manual instructed us it would work. As we tried to put the main chamber with the motor apart, we came across the problem with unscrewing it. It would not unscrew! Come to find out, we are not allowed to be able to take that apart because it is an electrical hazard taking off the covering and if we were to experience any problems with it, to send it back to the manufacture. After we put it back together, we had to ask other groups if they wanted to switch! We finally got our second medical device which was an aspirator and nebulizer. The first thing that came to my mind was the nebulizer Robin has at home. It was an experience to pull it apart but all I was a 1 printed circuit board with the fuses and some components and the fan which was attached to the motor. The motor was encased in a metal cylinder. The easy part was taking the nebulizer apart but it was hard putting the lid back on! The way it was designed made it so much more complicated than needed to be. Even James couldn’t get it back on! As we were packing up, Julien made a surprise visit to our room where we were working. After introduction, Leah and I headed home.
Since it was the premiere night for Transformers 3, some of students were going to go see it in Theaters. Usually Wednesdays is half-priced movie night but since it was opening night, the movies were regular priced at $2000 colones, which is the equivalent of $4.00! We didn’t make it to the 3:30 showing but we were planning on going to see the 6:30 showing at a theater near home. That did not happen! After getting home and comfortable, we did not plan to leave until going to the bar for Brian’s birthday. We finally left around 9 and didn’t get picked up by the bus until 9:40 pm. It was a fun night! We all just hung out and enjoyed each others company at the bar. Liz and I left around 11 because I was already drowsy from the anti-malaria medicine and I wanted to get enough sleep for tomorrow.
Thursday:
We indeed still had to meet for Spanish but our day would consist of all of us playing games in Spanish! Our classed played Pictionary with Spanish verbs and a game of “what am I”. Our teacher wrote on a note card an animal in Spanish and taped it to our forehead. In Spanish, we had to ask the rest of the class yes or no question which would clue us to what is the animal. We took our break but ended the class with playing a Spanish version of Pictionary with the cards, colors, and letters meaning a certain topic with the class who is a next level higher than our beginner class. Of course our class won but it was a little bit tricky. It really tested our knowledge of Spanish and not just verbal but understanding tenses and proper conjugation. After a night of enjoyment I was a little bit on the sluggish side. Again, our lab/lecture was us breaking into groups (Honduras and Nicaragua students). The students going to Nicaragua had their personal de-briefing per partner group and cleaned out the closets with their tools while we met with Julien and skyped Lillian, the one who is devising the curriculum for the BMET program. She explained some of the forms we are using for inventory and answered some lingering questions.
Once I got home, we all hung out and packed our things! I was still surprised to be “packing my things” to leave Costa Rica! It’s been a month already and now it’s time to work in Roatan. I am thankful at this point that my partner and I have connected very well and I’m going to truly enjoy my experience in Costa Rica! I have been truly blessed beyond reason. GOD has put me at this point at the place in this time for a reason and I can only be thankful everyday that I’m here serving him. I’m doing his work and can’t forget my purpose on this trip.
Monday:
We had our typical 4 hours of Spanish. Since we have reached our final week, it was “crunch time” with our Spanish training. Personally, I feel I have learner quite a bit but still have a lot more practicing to do before I can consider myself a full “first year student” with the knowledge of Spanish you would get in the first year of any Spanish class. Understanding is not at all difficult for me but being comfortable and less nervous about speaking Spanish will be a challenge I will have to overcome. Because Leah y Yo termine nosotros power supply semana pasado, we did not have to attend lab today. This was true for most of the groups, so J.J went ahead and scheduled lecture right after Spanish class so we could leave for home right away. This was a perfect way to start off the week! In lecture, we have been continuing to cover machines you could see in the hospital but was not in the lecture manual. At this point, I am just getting very anxious about getting to Roatan and working in the hospital.
Tuesday:
Spanish class is becoming a lot easier especially being with our group! Laura is the best teacher! Very patient, laughs with us, and is always encouraging us to keep trying en Espanol with speaking with each other. We are getting a lot more conversation time in our class talking with each other. We are still learning the participios and the verbos irregulares. When Gladys came around last week to “test” our Spanish, unfortunately I didn’t do as well as I know I could. Even Leah was shocked because she knows I know a lot more and understood that I was extremely nervous. I explained to Laura that I was nervous because Gladys has such high expectations for all of us I definitely did not want to disappoint her.
The labs this week will not consist of hands-on work, but group discussion about what to expect in the developing world, our perceptions on it, and how we should act being from the U.S. It was interesting the topics we came up in discussion and things we all thought of but never went into depth about such as what standards makes a developing country “developing”? I noticed that a lot of the comparison is based off of the U.S. versus the country in question. I wonder if it is just the “American Mentality” or if the U.S. is really advanced as we say it is.
Wednesday:
Today is Brian’s 21st birthday and we convinced our Spanish teacher to have the first half of class be all conversational and the last half to watch Finding Nemo en espanol. Today is officially our last Spanish class, so we had to cover last minute Verbos and tenses and then we spent a lot of time talking with each other using the three tenses: present, past and future. We ended our class with watching Finding Nemo en espanol. It was interesting to listen and because we all already knew the dialogue in English, translating wasn’t a big problem. Our teacher encouraged us to pick up a popular book we would read or have read but all in Spanish. Mi novio Robin compriste mi libro por primero ano estudiantes de Espanol so I have been using that to practice. It had been great and passed around to my roomies back at my Homestay. So after the break, we finished our conversation time and began watching the movie. We purchased snacks from the local corner store beforehand and enjoyed the movie. Since it was dubbed, the voices of each of the characters were different, but that was a given.
Today, our On the Ground Coordinator for Honduras Julien is supposed to arrive in Costa Rica for our hospital de-briefing. Apparently, J.J had thought he had the days mixed up but come to find out, Julien did arrive. Our lab for today was taking apart the equipment some of us were shipped and getting hands on experience investigating them. They were not broken, some were brand new, but it was still a good experience taking them apart and putting them back together. Our task with the machines was to create a quick start guide for using the machines and translate them into Spanish. Leah and I teamed up with Melissa and Sam (because there weren’t enough medical devices for each group to have one of their own to play with) and first looked at a Vacuum pump for bodily fluids. It came with a manual but it was all in English which made me wonder how the hospitals in developing countries handle the translation part when receiving donated parts and equipment. We finally put it together and tested the vacuum pressure and checked all of the gauges to make sure they we working just as the manual instructed us it would work. As we tried to put the main chamber with the motor apart, we came across the problem with unscrewing it. It would not unscrew! Come to find out, we are not allowed to be able to take that apart because it is an electrical hazard taking off the covering and if we were to experience any problems with it, to send it back to the manufacture. After we put it back together, we had to ask other groups if they wanted to switch! We finally got our second medical device which was an aspirator and nebulizer. The first thing that came to my mind was the nebulizer Robin has at home. It was an experience to pull it apart but all I was a 1 printed circuit board with the fuses and some components and the fan which was attached to the motor. The motor was encased in a metal cylinder. The easy part was taking the nebulizer apart but it was hard putting the lid back on! The way it was designed made it so much more complicated than needed to be. Even James couldn’t get it back on! As we were packing up, Julien made a surprise visit to our room where we were working. After introduction, Leah and I headed home.
Since it was the premiere night for Transformers 3, some of students were going to go see it in Theaters. Usually Wednesdays is half-priced movie night but since it was opening night, the movies were regular priced at $2000 colones, which is the equivalent of $4.00! We didn’t make it to the 3:30 showing but we were planning on going to see the 6:30 showing at a theater near home. That did not happen! After getting home and comfortable, we did not plan to leave until going to the bar for Brian’s birthday. We finally left around 9 and didn’t get picked up by the bus until 9:40 pm. It was a fun night! We all just hung out and enjoyed each others company at the bar. Liz and I left around 11 because I was already drowsy from the anti-malaria medicine and I wanted to get enough sleep for tomorrow.
Thursday:
We indeed still had to meet for Spanish but our day would consist of all of us playing games in Spanish! Our classed played Pictionary with Spanish verbs and a game of “what am I”. Our teacher wrote on a note card an animal in Spanish and taped it to our forehead. In Spanish, we had to ask the rest of the class yes or no question which would clue us to what is the animal. We took our break but ended the class with playing a Spanish version of Pictionary with the cards, colors, and letters meaning a certain topic with the class who is a next level higher than our beginner class. Of course our class won but it was a little bit tricky. It really tested our knowledge of Spanish and not just verbal but understanding tenses and proper conjugation. After a night of enjoyment I was a little bit on the sluggish side. Again, our lab/lecture was us breaking into groups (Honduras and Nicaragua students). The students going to Nicaragua had their personal de-briefing per partner group and cleaned out the closets with their tools while we met with Julien and skyped Lillian, the one who is devising the curriculum for the BMET program. She explained some of the forms we are using for inventory and answered some lingering questions.
Once I got home, we all hung out and packed our things! I was still surprised to be “packing my things” to leave Costa Rica! It’s been a month already and now it’s time to work in Roatan. I am thankful at this point that my partner and I have connected very well and I’m going to truly enjoy my experience in Costa Rica! I have been truly blessed beyond reason. GOD has put me at this point at the place in this time for a reason and I can only be thankful everyday that I’m here serving him. I’m doing his work and can’t forget my purpose on this trip.
Friday, Weekend and Manuel Antonio 06/24/2011
Friday:
I woke up feeling like a bus hit my face! Very congested and dizzy with a touch of a nasty cough. I went to bed last night feeling the same way but was able to get a couple of extra hours of sleep in today since we were going in later to the hospital. Unfortunately the power was out for a majority of the morning but we still had a very delicious and filling breakfast. Zadie, our host mom was struggling without her coffee this morning as we were all. The coffee here is amazing! I can drink it black, have it taste wonderful and not have to worry about having the gross coffee breath you usually get after your third starbucks coffee of the day. I was getting my energy back and hearing in my ears temporarily but still needed another couple of hours before I would be functioning enough to go to the hospital.
Once the power came back, we all rushed to make coffee and enjoy the rest of our morning. Today I truly appreciated the pajama nature of scrubs and was more than eager to wear them. We all left for the hospital at 11 because the bus leaves from school 12 or 12:15 and since its rush hour and we live the farthest away, we needed the hour to get to the school where we were meeting up with everyone. We were all taking a bus together to the hospital which was about 10 -15 minutes away from the school.
Their security was more familiar to the US hospital system in the sense that we had to have our tour guide meet us at the gate beforehand and walk us through the hospital. Since we were only doing the tour today, I didn't have to carry our tools to look into machines. Our tour guide was an engineer of the hospital. He told us the hospital was built around 1865 and only serves as a pediatric hospital. There isn't a maternity ward but the hospital nearby serves all of the functions of a general admittance hospital. We were warned beforehand by J.J. that the hospitals we are touring throughout our stay in Costa Rica will be much nicer than the ones we will experience and work in Honduras or Nicaragua. The hospital is about the size of children's in Dallas (but a little bit smaller of course). We looked at the heavy machineries first such as the xray machines. Our tour was all in Spanish which meant more time to practicing my communication skills en espanol. We walked around the hospital and saw different wards and was able to see their charging station. It is a room where equipment such as incubators and anesthia machines which run off of rechargable power and standard plug-in can recharge the rechargable batteries. As soon as I saw the room, I wondered if the Public Hospital of Roatan would have the same. (Possible secondary project). Our tour ended with us going into the lower level in the repair shop to see their system, tools, and how their typical day would be. They have about 6 Engineers who rotate during the week but they are not working during the weekends. He showed us one of the components to an xray and allowed us to look around at the parts the had in the shop needed to be repaired. Overall, I really enjoyed the tour and we were able to take a group photo.
Tonight, we would be celebrating J.J.'s and Gladys' birthday at a dance club called "Castros". Seeing as my energy level was low and I needed as much rest as I could get for my long day tomorrow, I decided to stay in while Mindy and Liz went out. Before we got on the bus to go home, (btw, we had to take our usual bus home from the hospital this time) we stopped by a little tourist marketplace near the museum to look at paintings. Last weekend when I went, I saw this painting I wanted to buy for my dad and Robin but wasn't sure if they would like them. My goal was to take pictures of some and show them and have them choose which ones they like best but unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures and the prices went up from $16 dollars to 30! I was not going to pay that much for a painting that was originally $16 dollars! I will just have to try again or find some in Honduras!
For the most part, we spend the evening with our host family, watching online tv and I was able to get the needed rest because we had to be up at 4:00 AM to catch the bus to Manuel Antonio.
Weekend Trip at Manuel Antonio :)
We woke up at 430 running a little bit late. The rain outside was very relaxing but we were in a rush to get out of the house and on our way to the bus station, which would require us to take our usual bus to the closest spot then take a taxi to the station because walking from that point would include us walking through a rough neighborhood plus we wanted to make sure we were on time since the bus leaves at 6:00 am. We got there but were the first full group there! Jimmy was there by himself wondering where everyone was especially James with our bus tickets. Everyone got there on time and we left successfully! After about four hours of bus time, we made it to our hotel which was right across the street from the beach and the very first thing we did was relax on the beach! It was a wonderful day of in and out of sleep-consciousness lying on a towel. We were able to snack on a sandwich from the bakery for lunch. Dinner, we decided to eat together as a group and watch the soccer game; USA v Mexico. I was very exhausted and drained from a full day in the sun and decided to crash early right after my meal and rest for a full day tomorrow.
We all woke up early in the morning to get to the bakery then head towards the park. The park was the whole reason I wanted to go because of all of the animals there! It was amazing hiking through the park and seeing all of the animals. We saw monkeys, crabs, sloths and frogs and a beautiful toucan!!! It was absolutely amazing! We hiked for about 3 hours before we layed out on the beach inside the park! We took great photos but the best part was the beach looked like the ones from the postcard with beautiful water and sand :). Our group of girls (Leah, Caitilin, Anjuli, and I) fell asleep on the beach for about 2 hours before we had to leave the park and head towards the bus. Monkeys would come down from the trees and try to streal bags and some of the tourist's food. Luckily, none of our stuff were stolen by the "white faced monkeys". Once we got back on the bus, it was definitely nap time! I woke up here and there but was asleep for 90% of the trip. Once we got home, we unpacked, ate dinner and slept for next week would be our last week in SAN JOSE! HONDURAS, HERE I COME!
I woke up feeling like a bus hit my face! Very congested and dizzy with a touch of a nasty cough. I went to bed last night feeling the same way but was able to get a couple of extra hours of sleep in today since we were going in later to the hospital. Unfortunately the power was out for a majority of the morning but we still had a very delicious and filling breakfast. Zadie, our host mom was struggling without her coffee this morning as we were all. The coffee here is amazing! I can drink it black, have it taste wonderful and not have to worry about having the gross coffee breath you usually get after your third starbucks coffee of the day. I was getting my energy back and hearing in my ears temporarily but still needed another couple of hours before I would be functioning enough to go to the hospital.
Once the power came back, we all rushed to make coffee and enjoy the rest of our morning. Today I truly appreciated the pajama nature of scrubs and was more than eager to wear them. We all left for the hospital at 11 because the bus leaves from school 12 or 12:15 and since its rush hour and we live the farthest away, we needed the hour to get to the school where we were meeting up with everyone. We were all taking a bus together to the hospital which was about 10 -15 minutes away from the school.
Their security was more familiar to the US hospital system in the sense that we had to have our tour guide meet us at the gate beforehand and walk us through the hospital. Since we were only doing the tour today, I didn't have to carry our tools to look into machines. Our tour guide was an engineer of the hospital. He told us the hospital was built around 1865 and only serves as a pediatric hospital. There isn't a maternity ward but the hospital nearby serves all of the functions of a general admittance hospital. We were warned beforehand by J.J. that the hospitals we are touring throughout our stay in Costa Rica will be much nicer than the ones we will experience and work in Honduras or Nicaragua. The hospital is about the size of children's in Dallas (but a little bit smaller of course). We looked at the heavy machineries first such as the xray machines. Our tour was all in Spanish which meant more time to practicing my communication skills en espanol. We walked around the hospital and saw different wards and was able to see their charging station. It is a room where equipment such as incubators and anesthia machines which run off of rechargable power and standard plug-in can recharge the rechargable batteries. As soon as I saw the room, I wondered if the Public Hospital of Roatan would have the same. (Possible secondary project). Our tour ended with us going into the lower level in the repair shop to see their system, tools, and how their typical day would be. They have about 6 Engineers who rotate during the week but they are not working during the weekends. He showed us one of the components to an xray and allowed us to look around at the parts the had in the shop needed to be repaired. Overall, I really enjoyed the tour and we were able to take a group photo.
Tonight, we would be celebrating J.J.'s and Gladys' birthday at a dance club called "Castros". Seeing as my energy level was low and I needed as much rest as I could get for my long day tomorrow, I decided to stay in while Mindy and Liz went out. Before we got on the bus to go home, (btw, we had to take our usual bus home from the hospital this time) we stopped by a little tourist marketplace near the museum to look at paintings. Last weekend when I went, I saw this painting I wanted to buy for my dad and Robin but wasn't sure if they would like them. My goal was to take pictures of some and show them and have them choose which ones they like best but unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures and the prices went up from $16 dollars to 30! I was not going to pay that much for a painting that was originally $16 dollars! I will just have to try again or find some in Honduras!
For the most part, we spend the evening with our host family, watching online tv and I was able to get the needed rest because we had to be up at 4:00 AM to catch the bus to Manuel Antonio.
Weekend Trip at Manuel Antonio :)
We woke up at 430 running a little bit late. The rain outside was very relaxing but we were in a rush to get out of the house and on our way to the bus station, which would require us to take our usual bus to the closest spot then take a taxi to the station because walking from that point would include us walking through a rough neighborhood plus we wanted to make sure we were on time since the bus leaves at 6:00 am. We got there but were the first full group there! Jimmy was there by himself wondering where everyone was especially James with our bus tickets. Everyone got there on time and we left successfully! After about four hours of bus time, we made it to our hotel which was right across the street from the beach and the very first thing we did was relax on the beach! It was a wonderful day of in and out of sleep-consciousness lying on a towel. We were able to snack on a sandwich from the bakery for lunch. Dinner, we decided to eat together as a group and watch the soccer game; USA v Mexico. I was very exhausted and drained from a full day in the sun and decided to crash early right after my meal and rest for a full day tomorrow.
We all woke up early in the morning to get to the bakery then head towards the park. The park was the whole reason I wanted to go because of all of the animals there! It was amazing hiking through the park and seeing all of the animals. We saw monkeys, crabs, sloths and frogs and a beautiful toucan!!! It was absolutely amazing! We hiked for about 3 hours before we layed out on the beach inside the park! We took great photos but the best part was the beach looked like the ones from the postcard with beautiful water and sand :). Our group of girls (Leah, Caitilin, Anjuli, and I) fell asleep on the beach for about 2 hours before we had to leave the park and head towards the bus. Monkeys would come down from the trees and try to streal bags and some of the tourist's food. Luckily, none of our stuff were stolen by the "white faced monkeys". Once we got back on the bus, it was definitely nap time! I woke up here and there but was asleep for 90% of the trip. Once we got home, we unpacked, ate dinner and slept for next week would be our last week in SAN JOSE! HONDURAS, HERE I COME!
Thursday 06/23/2011
Thursday Thursday Thursday!
Spanish class was it's usually but with new material. We learned about La Familia and the different ways of saying weather, time and feelings. At the end of each week, I feel overloaded with tonnnss of Spanish. It's getting a lot a lot easier to understand Spanish but still having trouble speaking. Right now, I have successfully been able to comprehend the majority of what is said in class and I'm really excited that I've accomplished such a major goal of mine. The next goal is to speak it with the same ease as understanding it.
In lecture, we have pretty much covered all of the machines in the lecture book and Rick is introducing us to machines that were not explained in the book but what he's had experience with. Today's lecture was focused on performing Electrical Safety Checks and different configurations of the Hospital Power. We went over performing safety checks for leakage current, outlet output voltages, and etc the first week but he went into more detail and had a lot of diagrams for us to review. This is one of the most important jobs we have ahead of us when repairing different devices. For example, in one of our diagrams, we the hot line and the ground/neutral connected to a fluorescent bulb. The hot line should always pass through the switch because power in outputted from the outlet via hot line and in order to control the power being supplied, OF COURSE, it would need to be connected to a switch! It's pretty simple concepts but apparently a lot of issues in developing countries is user error and problems with electrical wiring.
In lab, we built another power supply using the power adapter we purchased on Tuesday. Well, since we were unsuccessful with purchasing a laptop charger within the budget we were given, we instead purchased a cell phone charger that outputs a range of 3 - 5.7 volts DC. The max we could have is 35 volts for our power supply and although the cell phone charger only outputs a small amount, it still did the job. The best part was this time, we had our power supply working on the first try! YAY! And our board looks neat (pictures coming soon). We had to use a perfboard and wiring which is admitting more difficult than using a PCB board but its always good experience because we may or may not be blessed with a PCB Board in Roatan. One of the troubles we experienced was for our power supply, we needed a 240 ohm resistor which apparently went missing. So, using 1 k ohm resistors and a combo of others, we were given the task of creating a 240 ohm resistor by placing 4 in parallel with each other. Leah, my partner, did the handy work and tada, we had our cool, new invented 240 ohm resistor! Today was an especially successful day.
Last night, I talked with my mom on skype for about an hour and was able to let out everything I've been feeling and experiencing with her. Having her living in the Cayman Islands is hard sometimes when I'm in the U.S. but it's even more of a struggle when I can't receive texts or phone calls from her so talking with her was the best! I cried, laugh, and most importantly prayed with her. Gladys was right when she advised us to call our families and let them know how we're feeling. I'm blessed that my family are so close that we make a point to try and talk with each other as frequently as possible. It helps in situations like these.
Week three was definitely one of the hardest weeks yet and I am glad to say I made it through living, breathing, and happy. Tomorrow, we all are going to visit The Children's Hospital. Because we are only doing a tour, we get to come in late which means SLEEPING IN! At least, as much as possible. Because the sun rises so early, we are all a custom to waking up at like 5 with the sun so much it is becoming hard to do anything else otherwise. But tonight, I will hopefully sleep soundly especially with this cold I'm catching!
Spanish class was it's usually but with new material. We learned about La Familia and the different ways of saying weather, time and feelings. At the end of each week, I feel overloaded with tonnnss of Spanish. It's getting a lot a lot easier to understand Spanish but still having trouble speaking. Right now, I have successfully been able to comprehend the majority of what is said in class and I'm really excited that I've accomplished such a major goal of mine. The next goal is to speak it with the same ease as understanding it.
In lecture, we have pretty much covered all of the machines in the lecture book and Rick is introducing us to machines that were not explained in the book but what he's had experience with. Today's lecture was focused on performing Electrical Safety Checks and different configurations of the Hospital Power. We went over performing safety checks for leakage current, outlet output voltages, and etc the first week but he went into more detail and had a lot of diagrams for us to review. This is one of the most important jobs we have ahead of us when repairing different devices. For example, in one of our diagrams, we the hot line and the ground/neutral connected to a fluorescent bulb. The hot line should always pass through the switch because power in outputted from the outlet via hot line and in order to control the power being supplied, OF COURSE, it would need to be connected to a switch! It's pretty simple concepts but apparently a lot of issues in developing countries is user error and problems with electrical wiring.
In lab, we built another power supply using the power adapter we purchased on Tuesday. Well, since we were unsuccessful with purchasing a laptop charger within the budget we were given, we instead purchased a cell phone charger that outputs a range of 3 - 5.7 volts DC. The max we could have is 35 volts for our power supply and although the cell phone charger only outputs a small amount, it still did the job. The best part was this time, we had our power supply working on the first try! YAY! And our board looks neat (pictures coming soon). We had to use a perfboard and wiring which is admitting more difficult than using a PCB board but its always good experience because we may or may not be blessed with a PCB Board in Roatan. One of the troubles we experienced was for our power supply, we needed a 240 ohm resistor which apparently went missing. So, using 1 k ohm resistors and a combo of others, we were given the task of creating a 240 ohm resistor by placing 4 in parallel with each other. Leah, my partner, did the handy work and tada, we had our cool, new invented 240 ohm resistor! Today was an especially successful day.
Last night, I talked with my mom on skype for about an hour and was able to let out everything I've been feeling and experiencing with her. Having her living in the Cayman Islands is hard sometimes when I'm in the U.S. but it's even more of a struggle when I can't receive texts or phone calls from her so talking with her was the best! I cried, laugh, and most importantly prayed with her. Gladys was right when she advised us to call our families and let them know how we're feeling. I'm blessed that my family are so close that we make a point to try and talk with each other as frequently as possible. It helps in situations like these.
Week three was definitely one of the hardest weeks yet and I am glad to say I made it through living, breathing, and happy. Tomorrow, we all are going to visit The Children's Hospital. Because we are only doing a tour, we get to come in late which means SLEEPING IN! At least, as much as possible. Because the sun rises so early, we are all a custom to waking up at like 5 with the sun so much it is becoming hard to do anything else otherwise. But tonight, I will hopefully sleep soundly especially with this cold I'm catching!
"Hump Day" Wednesday 06/22/2011
Today was not the usual Wednesday :) "Middle of the week syndrome" when you know you are almost done with the week but it still feels like Monday. It started off with we waking up at 5:30 am to catch the 6:30 bus. I have been having a little bit of trouble with object direct and object indirect sentencing in Spanish and as much as I tried to pick it up in class, it was just not happening like I hoped. I ask Laura if she could meet me before class in the morning to review and thankfully she was more than willing to help. So, that said, I had to meet her at the school at 7:30 am for some one-on-one tutoring and it helped!!! I felt so much better afterwards. I didn't pick it up immediately and I still have a lot to practice, but it was hard to learn in class at such a fast pace. So, bless fully, my day had a good start.
In our lecture class, we starting our progression with into more complex medical machineries. Our lecture gives us the background of the devices, common problems, and diagrams. I have only really opened up a few machines since I've been here but still feel like I've learned quite a bit. In our lab Monday, we were building a temperature sensor onto a PCB board. The application for it was for incubators and infant warmers. Because they have to maintain a certain temperature and if the temperature reaches above or below the allotted temperature, it could be fatal to the baby and the nurse/doctors/attending would need to be notified immediately. Because I've had more experience with soldering, I allowed my partner to do the soldering this time. It didn't go too too well but she did it :). I finished the soldering job and just as we were packing up because all we had left to do is program the chip on the board and make sure it works, it FAILS. We would have to troubleshoot tomorrow but still we were not pleased. There wasn't any obvious problems with the bored so as homework, we tried to think of steps to test our bored for problems.
Today was the day we had to figure out what the problem was. Apparently on the PCP board, there was a cut/slash that disconnected a few elements. We at first thought we would have to start all over again which we weren't too thrilled about but then James suggested we solder a wire connected the terminals just as we would if we were using a perfboard but instead it would be smaller and underneath the bored and not going through it at all. Just in case that wasn't going to work because some PCP boards have multiple levels with multiple connections, I went ahead and began building another as Leah attempted to fix our old board. I can solder pretty quickly so by the time I was done solder most of the elements (other than the LED and the sound apparatus) she was done fixing the board. JUST OUR LUCK IT WORKED! So now we have 1 functioning temp sensor and another back-up! We were quite proud of our work. :) We calibrated extreme heat, cold, and ambient temperature and recorded our results. Overall, we had a successful lab that had us do troubleshooting and fixing the problem.
Since it was 2-for-1 special at all movie theaters in San Jose, a large group of us went to watch X-Men Origins. It was in English but subtitled in Spanish! Leah saw it yesterday so she didn't join our victory party but the rest of the girls in the house came along. IT COST $2.00 to see it! (That's not even popcorn in the states!) It was amazing! As we were watching previews, I decided that if I'm going to be near a theater in Roatan that will have Green Lantern, Captain America, HARRY POTTER, and Transformers 3 then I'm definitely going to see it while I'm there!! Funny thing that happened was as soon as the movie was over, I completely forgot where I was and attempted to search for my car keys or Robin's car keys in my bag. Then I realized that clearly, I would not be successful in finding either one.
Traffic was horrible on the way home (we were on the bus for about an hour) and by the time we got home, I just wanted to pass out to my homework, an online movie, and chatting on skype wit
In our lecture class, we starting our progression with into more complex medical machineries. Our lecture gives us the background of the devices, common problems, and diagrams. I have only really opened up a few machines since I've been here but still feel like I've learned quite a bit. In our lab Monday, we were building a temperature sensor onto a PCB board. The application for it was for incubators and infant warmers. Because they have to maintain a certain temperature and if the temperature reaches above or below the allotted temperature, it could be fatal to the baby and the nurse/doctors/attending would need to be notified immediately. Because I've had more experience with soldering, I allowed my partner to do the soldering this time. It didn't go too too well but she did it :). I finished the soldering job and just as we were packing up because all we had left to do is program the chip on the board and make sure it works, it FAILS. We would have to troubleshoot tomorrow but still we were not pleased. There wasn't any obvious problems with the bored so as homework, we tried to think of steps to test our bored for problems.
Today was the day we had to figure out what the problem was. Apparently on the PCP board, there was a cut/slash that disconnected a few elements. We at first thought we would have to start all over again which we weren't too thrilled about but then James suggested we solder a wire connected the terminals just as we would if we were using a perfboard but instead it would be smaller and underneath the bored and not going through it at all. Just in case that wasn't going to work because some PCP boards have multiple levels with multiple connections, I went ahead and began building another as Leah attempted to fix our old board. I can solder pretty quickly so by the time I was done solder most of the elements (other than the LED and the sound apparatus) she was done fixing the board. JUST OUR LUCK IT WORKED! So now we have 1 functioning temp sensor and another back-up! We were quite proud of our work. :) We calibrated extreme heat, cold, and ambient temperature and recorded our results. Overall, we had a successful lab that had us do troubleshooting and fixing the problem.
Since it was 2-for-1 special at all movie theaters in San Jose, a large group of us went to watch X-Men Origins. It was in English but subtitled in Spanish! Leah saw it yesterday so she didn't join our victory party but the rest of the girls in the house came along. IT COST $2.00 to see it! (That's not even popcorn in the states!) It was amazing! As we were watching previews, I decided that if I'm going to be near a theater in Roatan that will have Green Lantern, Captain America, HARRY POTTER, and Transformers 3 then I'm definitely going to see it while I'm there!! Funny thing that happened was as soon as the movie was over, I completely forgot where I was and attempted to search for my car keys or Robin's car keys in my bag. Then I realized that clearly, I would not be successful in finding either one.
Traffic was horrible on the way home (we were on the bus for about an hour) and by the time we got home, I just wanted to pass out to my homework, an online movie, and chatting on skype wit
Rain, Pains, and Gains for a Tuesday 06/21/2011
Today was a day of mixed emotions. I am entering in the third week of my stay here in Costa Rica and it is everything Gladys informed us about this morning before Spanish class. This morning, I tried to wake up early enough to practice my speech over an incubator (all in spanish) and finish the homework I failed to complete last night. I was able to read my speech a couple of times this morning but I was definitely not going to be able to wake up at 5:30 am like I had set my alarm clock to do. After a full night of Salsa dancing, I was ready to SLEEP IN! I didn't have the drive like I usually do to get up this morning and get my day started. I do believe that was hint numero uno. On the bus, I could feel my nerves getting worked up about this presentation that was honestly not that big of a deal. It was going to be in front of my classmates and my teacher but for some reason, I felt like it was in front of a crowd of all spanish teachers grading my performance. I guess you can say I was really harsh on myself today but I have been lately. I came here with high expectations to learn spanish as much as possible, as quickly as possible and become at least on my way to making loads of sense.
I get to school and the first thing I do is go straight to the classroom and just practice my memorization of this presentation. I can tell you now, it was not completely memorized! A few minutes before class, Gladys calls everyone to the main area to talk to us. We start talking about culture shock and the roughness of the third week. She was very welcoming and has always been but as soon as we begin talking about our families and contacting them and not feeling bad, my heart sank. I felt like I was going to just crying. Of course, I held it in but it was obvious the symptoms I've been experiencing lately is home-sickness. Don't get me wrong, I love it here! I love to travel and be around all these people PLUS do engineering and learning new things, but I've been getting so frustrated with myself.
The speech went okay (from what I remember). I do believe I just went with it and did the best I could :). The past few Spanish classes have been very rough. I feel so lost sometimes or just frustrated that I keep thinking in French and speaking in French but clearly I need to be speaking and translating in Spanish. Leah, my partner, has been really helpful with everything. Last night, she went through my speech with me and corrected my pronunciation with everything. Already we've become really close and I am very blessed to have her as my partner. She lets me rough it out but that's how we learn right?!
Today during break I finally caved in and teared up. It was bound to happen! HAHAH. I can laugh about it now because of how hard I worked to keep them in during class. The second half of class went a lot smoother and my spirits picked up tremendously. I asked my Spanish teacher if we could meet to go over a rough section we've been learning in class but one-on-one and we are meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. The teachers are really helpful and are patient with everyone so it was very easy for me to ask for outside help.
Lecture seemed so much longer today than usual, but it was pouring outside and storms usually put me to sleep. We learned about microscopes, autoclaves, centrifuges, blood bank refrigerator and other instruments you would generally see in a lab. We didn't have a quiz today because J.J. thought he assigned another section of homework last night, so we kind of lucked out ;)
For our lab today, Liz and I were going to have to go shopping for a laptop battery charger in the city of Costa Rica. It was pouring outside and we were given a choice to shop for it another day (just as long as we purchased it before Thursday's lab) but we figured since it rains everyday and we are used to walking around in wet shoes, today shouldn't be any different. We first started walking around with 2 other pairs but then split up after the mall. We went into about 3 stores in the mall and 2 on the way there. Since we are both in the beginner class (this was done on purpose by the way) we had to muster up all of the spanish knowledge we had to buy a charger within the budget we were given. It was tough at first and some of the store assistant's first reaction was to not watch us struggle and speak in English. but with one of the stores in the mall, I said I was going to try to speak only in Spanish and he understood, apologized and began helping us again. We couldn't find one that was in our budget BUT we were able to obtain directions to 2 other possible stores. We had to get on our bus going home to get to the other store recommended which requires us to practice asking the bus driver if he stops at the stop nearby AND if he could take us there. We got off at the correct stop but unfortunately never found the store. We went into a mall, a few other stores, walked in a residential area, and ran across traffic like frogger BUT IT WAS THE MOST FUN I HAD ALL DAY. I did some praying this afternoon and it did help a lot :).
So how do I feel now? A little frustrated, a little relieved, a little anxious for the next two weeks, and very much blessed to be here. It's hard to swallow sometimes all the changes happening but at the end of the day, I am surrounding by people who just want to be here as much as I do, feeling the same feelings, and are trying to accomplish the same goal. I have to remember, by nature, being an engineer comes with being very competitive.
I get to school and the first thing I do is go straight to the classroom and just practice my memorization of this presentation. I can tell you now, it was not completely memorized! A few minutes before class, Gladys calls everyone to the main area to talk to us. We start talking about culture shock and the roughness of the third week. She was very welcoming and has always been but as soon as we begin talking about our families and contacting them and not feeling bad, my heart sank. I felt like I was going to just crying. Of course, I held it in but it was obvious the symptoms I've been experiencing lately is home-sickness. Don't get me wrong, I love it here! I love to travel and be around all these people PLUS do engineering and learning new things, but I've been getting so frustrated with myself.
The speech went okay (from what I remember). I do believe I just went with it and did the best I could :). The past few Spanish classes have been very rough. I feel so lost sometimes or just frustrated that I keep thinking in French and speaking in French but clearly I need to be speaking and translating in Spanish. Leah, my partner, has been really helpful with everything. Last night, she went through my speech with me and corrected my pronunciation with everything. Already we've become really close and I am very blessed to have her as my partner. She lets me rough it out but that's how we learn right?!
Today during break I finally caved in and teared up. It was bound to happen! HAHAH. I can laugh about it now because of how hard I worked to keep them in during class. The second half of class went a lot smoother and my spirits picked up tremendously. I asked my Spanish teacher if we could meet to go over a rough section we've been learning in class but one-on-one and we are meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. The teachers are really helpful and are patient with everyone so it was very easy for me to ask for outside help.
Lecture seemed so much longer today than usual, but it was pouring outside and storms usually put me to sleep. We learned about microscopes, autoclaves, centrifuges, blood bank refrigerator and other instruments you would generally see in a lab. We didn't have a quiz today because J.J. thought he assigned another section of homework last night, so we kind of lucked out ;)
For our lab today, Liz and I were going to have to go shopping for a laptop battery charger in the city of Costa Rica. It was pouring outside and we were given a choice to shop for it another day (just as long as we purchased it before Thursday's lab) but we figured since it rains everyday and we are used to walking around in wet shoes, today shouldn't be any different. We first started walking around with 2 other pairs but then split up after the mall. We went into about 3 stores in the mall and 2 on the way there. Since we are both in the beginner class (this was done on purpose by the way) we had to muster up all of the spanish knowledge we had to buy a charger within the budget we were given. It was tough at first and some of the store assistant's first reaction was to not watch us struggle and speak in English. but with one of the stores in the mall, I said I was going to try to speak only in Spanish and he understood, apologized and began helping us again. We couldn't find one that was in our budget BUT we were able to obtain directions to 2 other possible stores. We had to get on our bus going home to get to the other store recommended which requires us to practice asking the bus driver if he stops at the stop nearby AND if he could take us there. We got off at the correct stop but unfortunately never found the store. We went into a mall, a few other stores, walked in a residential area, and ran across traffic like frogger BUT IT WAS THE MOST FUN I HAD ALL DAY. I did some praying this afternoon and it did help a lot :).
So how do I feel now? A little frustrated, a little relieved, a little anxious for the next two weeks, and very much blessed to be here. It's hard to swallow sometimes all the changes happening but at the end of the day, I am surrounding by people who just want to be here as much as I do, feeling the same feelings, and are trying to accomplish the same goal. I have to remember, by nature, being an engineer comes with being very competitive.
Beginning of Week Three 06/20/2011
After a very relaxing weekend, it was hard getting up to go to school. Spanish class after a long long weekend was quite interesting and I wasn't feeling well. It seems like a cold has been going around in our house. I haven't gotten it yet, but this weekend I was having stomach upsets and loss of appetite. In Spanish, we reviewed our lesson from Thursday and began learning about object indirect and object direct sentencing. It was ROUGH! I was a little bit discouraged by the end of class but definitely had to keep going. Lunch was definitely my break from the roughness of class but had to keep my strength for lecture. In lecture, we learned about Theater Lamps. O.R. Lights, Balances, Microtomes, Water Bath, (Stirrer hot plate combo), and Water Purifiers. Rick broke down the water purification system in a drawing and explained how each part element contributes in its own way. There is a point in which the water is no longer drinkable but used for cleansing and disinfecting. I was really interested in this because I wanted to see how the hospitals here were purifying their water especially being in a country where tap water isn't safe to drink in some areas.
Our lab was building an incubator temperature alarm/sensor onto a PCB board. The application for it was for incubators and infant warmers. Because they have to maintain a certain temperature and if the temperature reaches above or below the allotted temperature, it could be fatal to the baby and the nurse/doctors/attending would need to be notified immediately. Because I've had more experience with soldering, I allowed my partner to do the soldering this time. It didn't go too too well but she did it :). I finished the soldering job and just as we were packing up because all we had left to do is program the chip on the board and make sure it works, it FAILS. We would have to troubleshoot on Wednesday but still we were not pleased. There wasn't any obvious problems with the bored so as homework, we tried to think of steps to test our bored for problems.
Because we were going to be building a switching power supply again but using a battery charger from a laptop, we had to go out an buy one. We were put into partners of the same Spanish level and assigned certain days to go out and buy our supply and when we would be finishing calibrating the temp sensor. I was paired up with Liz and we would be shopping for our power supply on Tuesday and finishing our lab on Wednesday.
Tonight we had the same salsa teacher from a couple weeks ago come and teach a small group of us (Leah, Liz, Gladys, Maciej, Gavin, David, and a couple who are not a part of our program but who take spanish classes with us) more SALSA. :) It was amazing! We learned a lot of turns and a lot of partner work I can't wait to teach mi novio y mis amigos once I get back. I have my presentation tomorrow and after a long night of salsa dancing, it is hard to stay awake
Our lab was building an incubator temperature alarm/sensor onto a PCB board. The application for it was for incubators and infant warmers. Because they have to maintain a certain temperature and if the temperature reaches above or below the allotted temperature, it could be fatal to the baby and the nurse/doctors/attending would need to be notified immediately. Because I've had more experience with soldering, I allowed my partner to do the soldering this time. It didn't go too too well but she did it :). I finished the soldering job and just as we were packing up because all we had left to do is program the chip on the board and make sure it works, it FAILS. We would have to troubleshoot on Wednesday but still we were not pleased. There wasn't any obvious problems with the bored so as homework, we tried to think of steps to test our bored for problems.
Because we were going to be building a switching power supply again but using a battery charger from a laptop, we had to go out an buy one. We were put into partners of the same Spanish level and assigned certain days to go out and buy our supply and when we would be finishing calibrating the temp sensor. I was paired up with Liz and we would be shopping for our power supply on Tuesday and finishing our lab on Wednesday.
Tonight we had the same salsa teacher from a couple weeks ago come and teach a small group of us (Leah, Liz, Gladys, Maciej, Gavin, David, and a couple who are not a part of our program but who take spanish classes with us) more SALSA. :) It was amazing! We learned a lot of turns and a lot of partner work I can't wait to teach mi novio y mis amigos once I get back. I have my presentation tomorrow and after a long night of salsa dancing, it is hard to stay awake
Monteverde Weekend Extravaganza 06/12/2011
This weekend, all of the students participating in the program took a trip to Monteverde, the cloud forest, in Costa Rica. We had to be up very very very early to catch the bus there but here is how it went:
Saturday:
We woke up at 6:00 am to catch an early bus to the station. The bus station is in a sketchy part of the city so we had to take a bus to our usual stop then catch a cab from there to the station. One of the boy's group was going to get there first to be sure that we ladies weren't there alone. They themselves went out there to get the tickets a few days earlier and felt very uncomfortable themselves! Once we got there, we went ahead and grab some snacks for the road, waited for everyone, then got on the bus! Unfortunately, they sold us more seats than there actually were on the bus so two people had to stand up for the 4+ hour bus ride through the mountains. We stopped after 2 hours for a break (and a bathroom which was needed badly!) but it was still fun! The roads are not as paved as you would hope so for some of the ride I was very queasy but still having a good time sitting with my partner Leah :). We FINALLY got there and the hostel we are staying in had a very nice, cabin like feeling. The place was opened to the outside to an extent and there were 3 beds to a room, but we managed four people per room. We ate at a local restaurant (rice, beans, meat, and plantain which were all amazing!) and had a couple hours to kill before the tour of the cloud forest. Unfortunately, I didn't budget for regular prices for the tour of the forest so Anjuli and I stayed behind and checked out the town and browsed the local shops. The cloud forest is often described as having characteristics of the amazon but without the animals. Because the cloud forest is very high up in the mountains, animals typically do not live there other than birds and some other wildlife. BUT LUCKILY as some of the other students were leaving the reserved, A MONKEY came out of nowhere and made a quick guest appearance. Anjuli and I had a great day with walking around the city looking in tourist shops. I was able to pick up a couple of things. As we walked further, we ran in an Inc-an side store. They sold all hand-woven materials from bracelets to bags. It was a little hole-in-the-place but very cool things. I've only seen the imported goods in the states but this time I actually saw the back of the store where they were weaving and creating these wonderful gifts to be sold. I was tempted to invest in a rug but realized the budget wasn't there plus I have no idea how I would get it back to the U.S. with my 1 bag limit. Still, it was very nice and a good change of scenery. We got back to the hostel before everyone else and I had a chance to write out a postcard to my loved ones, but was immediately falling asleep in the process which ended up with me taking a quick nap in the room and waking up to the roomies calling for me through the window. A few of us lounged around in the open "living room" and watched a movie in spanish then X-men Wolverine in English. The other half of us walked around the city at local restaurants and bars for the night just enjoying each others company.
Sunday:
We woke up early to have breakfast as a group at the hotel then head out at 8:00 for zip-lining. This would be my first time zip lining and I was incredibly nervous. We all bused over to the site then took another bus up further the mountains into the forest. We were all given the basics about how to be positioned on the zip line and how to move faster, brake, and the hand signals. You're suppose to have your strongest arm behind you to break and the other hand holding on to the cord knot which is usually near your belly button. To go, we held a circle with our fingers around the cord, less grip on the cord = faster and to break 1 handed, just use that arm grip and pull down on the cord. If it still isn't enough, use the other hand as well BUT NOT IN FRONT OF THE WHEEL ON THE LINE otherwise you'll end up with a sad story how you lost your fingers zip-lining. We did a few practice lines just to be sure that we got the hang of it. IT WAS NERVE RACKING! Being up so high over the trees :p. The first line I could hear my heart pounding in my ears but as soon as I started on the line, it was such an amazing sight. The view from up above was beautiful! Now that I think about it, I can't believe I was high that high in a harness sliding down a line. After the first 3 practice lines came THE REAL STUFF! The lines got longer and higher up. There was one where I felt like I was in a glass bottom airplane just looking down at the tops of the trees and seeing birds flying by. From one line to another, there were a few instances where we had to walk through the path in the forest and I had the opportunity to take pictures of the forest and wildlife around. The scenery is just breathtaking. I love seeing all of the flowers, different types of plants, and even butterflies. There was one line where it was muy largo and we had to partner up. One person was in front only holding onto the cord hoisted on them and the other has their legs wrapped around the others waist and is controlling the breaking and speed. I had Sam behind me and I would have to call out the signals as I see them. It was awesome! (and Leah got it on video!). Lastly, we had the option of testing the "Tarzan Swing". It's basically just as it is named, where you are latched onto a rope but you jump off the ledge and swing back and forth. Every time you get ready for another line or for the jump, I get extremely nervous and can hear my conscious telling me "OH MY GOODNESS! What are you doing?!" but I completely ignored it and went ahead and jumped every time. Standing at the edge was the WORST because you know you are going to be dropping down and usually, you're first instinct is to not be so close to the ledge. As soon as they said "GO!" I jumped off and screamed! I could feel my stomach jumping but it was absolutely awesome and I encourage EVERYONE to try it at least once! Personally, I am excited to try it again!
Afterwards, we waited and watched everyone have their turn and took pictures then headed back to the main station where we would bus back to the hostel. Since the bus back to San Jose didn't leave until 2:30 PM, we had 2 hours to kill in the town. We were all adrenaline-drained and I for one was ready for a long nap. Leah, Catalina, Anjuli, Mindy, Liz, and I stopped for food but Leah, Catalina and I found a place to sit and sat down for about an hour just chatting. We finally got up and walked into the local shops browsing their goods and tried to kill time until we could take a proper nap on the bus. By that time, I was ready to topple over and pretty much asleep as I was walking. The bus finally came but once again, there were not enough seats, this time 4 seats were unavailable. Cliff, Gavin, Tom and James all stood for a majority of the ride back but definitely made it look like a fun ride. Tom was able to open the hood (size of an emergency latch/door) enough so the boys standing up had air but became more creative with its use and decided to hang from the ceiling AS THE BUS WAS MOVING. It was so entertaining, the locals who were riding the bus as well were taking photos of the tourist hanging from the ceiling. Imagine that conversation later on when they show the photo to their friends! Speaking of which, it was mind boggling when the bus would pick up people then drop them off in places that were very random and almost in the middle of nowhere on the mountain. Quite a few of us were very confused. 6 hours later, we made it back home! All of us were extremely exhausted, but then realized we have another week to do it all over again :)
Saturday:
We woke up at 6:00 am to catch an early bus to the station. The bus station is in a sketchy part of the city so we had to take a bus to our usual stop then catch a cab from there to the station. One of the boy's group was going to get there first to be sure that we ladies weren't there alone. They themselves went out there to get the tickets a few days earlier and felt very uncomfortable themselves! Once we got there, we went ahead and grab some snacks for the road, waited for everyone, then got on the bus! Unfortunately, they sold us more seats than there actually were on the bus so two people had to stand up for the 4+ hour bus ride through the mountains. We stopped after 2 hours for a break (and a bathroom which was needed badly!) but it was still fun! The roads are not as paved as you would hope so for some of the ride I was very queasy but still having a good time sitting with my partner Leah :). We FINALLY got there and the hostel we are staying in had a very nice, cabin like feeling. The place was opened to the outside to an extent and there were 3 beds to a room, but we managed four people per room. We ate at a local restaurant (rice, beans, meat, and plantain which were all amazing!) and had a couple hours to kill before the tour of the cloud forest. Unfortunately, I didn't budget for regular prices for the tour of the forest so Anjuli and I stayed behind and checked out the town and browsed the local shops. The cloud forest is often described as having characteristics of the amazon but without the animals. Because the cloud forest is very high up in the mountains, animals typically do not live there other than birds and some other wildlife. BUT LUCKILY as some of the other students were leaving the reserved, A MONKEY came out of nowhere and made a quick guest appearance. Anjuli and I had a great day with walking around the city looking in tourist shops. I was able to pick up a couple of things. As we walked further, we ran in an Inc-an side store. They sold all hand-woven materials from bracelets to bags. It was a little hole-in-the-place but very cool things. I've only seen the imported goods in the states but this time I actually saw the back of the store where they were weaving and creating these wonderful gifts to be sold. I was tempted to invest in a rug but realized the budget wasn't there plus I have no idea how I would get it back to the U.S. with my 1 bag limit. Still, it was very nice and a good change of scenery. We got back to the hostel before everyone else and I had a chance to write out a postcard to my loved ones, but was immediately falling asleep in the process which ended up with me taking a quick nap in the room and waking up to the roomies calling for me through the window. A few of us lounged around in the open "living room" and watched a movie in spanish then X-men Wolverine in English. The other half of us walked around the city at local restaurants and bars for the night just enjoying each others company.
Sunday:
We woke up early to have breakfast as a group at the hotel then head out at 8:00 for zip-lining. This would be my first time zip lining and I was incredibly nervous. We all bused over to the site then took another bus up further the mountains into the forest. We were all given the basics about how to be positioned on the zip line and how to move faster, brake, and the hand signals. You're suppose to have your strongest arm behind you to break and the other hand holding on to the cord knot which is usually near your belly button. To go, we held a circle with our fingers around the cord, less grip on the cord = faster and to break 1 handed, just use that arm grip and pull down on the cord. If it still isn't enough, use the other hand as well BUT NOT IN FRONT OF THE WHEEL ON THE LINE otherwise you'll end up with a sad story how you lost your fingers zip-lining. We did a few practice lines just to be sure that we got the hang of it. IT WAS NERVE RACKING! Being up so high over the trees :p. The first line I could hear my heart pounding in my ears but as soon as I started on the line, it was such an amazing sight. The view from up above was beautiful! Now that I think about it, I can't believe I was high that high in a harness sliding down a line. After the first 3 practice lines came THE REAL STUFF! The lines got longer and higher up. There was one where I felt like I was in a glass bottom airplane just looking down at the tops of the trees and seeing birds flying by. From one line to another, there were a few instances where we had to walk through the path in the forest and I had the opportunity to take pictures of the forest and wildlife around. The scenery is just breathtaking. I love seeing all of the flowers, different types of plants, and even butterflies. There was one line where it was muy largo and we had to partner up. One person was in front only holding onto the cord hoisted on them and the other has their legs wrapped around the others waist and is controlling the breaking and speed. I had Sam behind me and I would have to call out the signals as I see them. It was awesome! (and Leah got it on video!). Lastly, we had the option of testing the "Tarzan Swing". It's basically just as it is named, where you are latched onto a rope but you jump off the ledge and swing back and forth. Every time you get ready for another line or for the jump, I get extremely nervous and can hear my conscious telling me "OH MY GOODNESS! What are you doing?!" but I completely ignored it and went ahead and jumped every time. Standing at the edge was the WORST because you know you are going to be dropping down and usually, you're first instinct is to not be so close to the ledge. As soon as they said "GO!" I jumped off and screamed! I could feel my stomach jumping but it was absolutely awesome and I encourage EVERYONE to try it at least once! Personally, I am excited to try it again!
Afterwards, we waited and watched everyone have their turn and took pictures then headed back to the main station where we would bus back to the hostel. Since the bus back to San Jose didn't leave until 2:30 PM, we had 2 hours to kill in the town. We were all adrenaline-drained and I for one was ready for a long nap. Leah, Catalina, Anjuli, Mindy, Liz, and I stopped for food but Leah, Catalina and I found a place to sit and sat down for about an hour just chatting. We finally got up and walked into the local shops browsing their goods and tried to kill time until we could take a proper nap on the bus. By that time, I was ready to topple over and pretty much asleep as I was walking. The bus finally came but once again, there were not enough seats, this time 4 seats were unavailable. Cliff, Gavin, Tom and James all stood for a majority of the ride back but definitely made it look like a fun ride. Tom was able to open the hood (size of an emergency latch/door) enough so the boys standing up had air but became more creative with its use and decided to hang from the ceiling AS THE BUS WAS MOVING. It was so entertaining, the locals who were riding the bus as well were taking photos of the tourist hanging from the ceiling. Imagine that conversation later on when they show the photo to their friends! Speaking of which, it was mind boggling when the bus would pick up people then drop them off in places that were very random and almost in the middle of nowhere on the mountain. Quite a few of us were very confused. 6 hours later, we made it back home! All of us were extremely exhausted, but then realized we have another week to do it all over again :)
First Week of Classes 06/10/2011
Monday was our first official FULL day of classes. Our class schedule was EXACTLY as described to us in our Go-Packets we received a few before we arrived in Costa Rica. We have 4 hours of all-spanish speaking spanish class, 1 hour lunch, 1 hour lecture, and the lab to end the day. The first day was the hardest because I was on information overload! In my mind, I was translating English to French, since that is was is most spoken with my Dad (along with Haitian French). I kept accidentally slipping with French words and what's so ironic is my family cannot get me to speak French willingly at home. We started off with the basics -ser and -estar and went through adjectives, adverbs, and verbos en -ar, -er. We have homework assigned every night which usually consist of sentences that used what we learned in class and the maquinas (machines) that we will/are using :). I've been writing my sentences as statements that I will use in the host hospital so I can get extra practice beyond the conversational portion. It is quite difficult but I'm pretty sure I'll know quite a bit of Spanish.
Because our lecturer Rick was stuck in Guatemala for a few days, we had J.J. (The on-the-ground coordinator) and James (the lab instructor) lecture our group for the first couple of days. Our first lab consisted of soldering and building an extension cord/outlet. Surprisingly, some people have not solder before so I can appreciate this lab plus it gave me a chance to brush up on my techniques. We then began learning about Centrifuges, their functionality, common problems, and basic parts knowledge. Once Rick (our lecture instructor) arrived, we began discussing ESG's and Pulse Detectors. At this point, we haven't physically in partners opened up these machineries and tried to troubleshoot problems but have the basic knowledge of the machines and most common problems encountered in the hospital. The most common problem is surprisingly user error where the persons handling the equipment are too rough with the plugs, wires, or are incorrectly using them.
Friday we had our first hospital visit :)!
We had to be at the school at 7:00 am for us to split into 2 groups (with our partners, mine being Leah) and visit 2 of the Public Hospitals of Costa Rica. The hospital I visited was about 2-3 hours away from the city but serves 40,000 people per year, wealthy or poor. The healthcare system there treats everyone the same and charges the same fee for their services. The team of engineers are very knowledgeable of the hospital and the equipment. Our day started with an introduction of the hospital system and the technical staff. There were 5 engineers, including the lead engineer, on staff who were very knowledgeable with their skill, the hospital, and the equipment. Some of them knew English but not fluently. Our tour began with visiting their Butterfly Garden located in the hospital. It was beautiful! It is generally used to treatment but we were able to walk in and sit and have butterflies fly all over and I even held one! They came in various colors and sizes and with very unique designs. Some of them were as big as my hand! I know my mom would've loved to see this! Afterwards, we watched them perform the fire training of the staff where the firefighters came and had the staff extinguish a fire. As we continued through the hospital, we toured through each wing looking at incubators, x-ray machines, mammography machines, and finally got our hands on some broken equipment. I was with the group who were investigating the broken incubator (thank goodness because the report I have to write for spanish class is about the baby incubator!) The problem with the incubator was that the "portable battery" on it was dead but it was still able to work, just only when plugged into an outlet. Still, we took it apart to see what makes up the components for the thermostat and the sensors. We also tested to see how many decibels can be heard inside the incubator and if the thermometer was accurately reading the temperature inside the incubator, which are two very very very important things to be functioning. We ended of the day with watching/participating with another group as they tried to fix a Fetal Doppler. The wires connecting the sensor to the machine were damaged but very small and sensitive to repair. It would take general cutting of the wire, stripping, and re-soldering to fix but since the wires were so close together and so small, it had to be done VERY carefully. Unfortunately it still didn't work afterwards but we did learn something in the process through observation.
I am beyond excited to be working at a hospital AND repairing equipment! I've heard stories of previous summer students being in the OR during an operation, having the equipment stop working all of a sudden, and FIXING IT IN THE MIDDLE OF SURGERY! Now that may or may not happen but it's amazing to hear the kinds of opportunities this program can give. It does get hard sometimes being so far away from home but everyone is in the same boat so we feed off of each other. I am SO READY FOR MONTEVERDE this weekend!
Because our lecturer Rick was stuck in Guatemala for a few days, we had J.J. (The on-the-ground coordinator) and James (the lab instructor) lecture our group for the first couple of days. Our first lab consisted of soldering and building an extension cord/outlet. Surprisingly, some people have not solder before so I can appreciate this lab plus it gave me a chance to brush up on my techniques. We then began learning about Centrifuges, their functionality, common problems, and basic parts knowledge. Once Rick (our lecture instructor) arrived, we began discussing ESG's and Pulse Detectors. At this point, we haven't physically in partners opened up these machineries and tried to troubleshoot problems but have the basic knowledge of the machines and most common problems encountered in the hospital. The most common problem is surprisingly user error where the persons handling the equipment are too rough with the plugs, wires, or are incorrectly using them.
Friday we had our first hospital visit :)!
We had to be at the school at 7:00 am for us to split into 2 groups (with our partners, mine being Leah) and visit 2 of the Public Hospitals of Costa Rica. The hospital I visited was about 2-3 hours away from the city but serves 40,000 people per year, wealthy or poor. The healthcare system there treats everyone the same and charges the same fee for their services. The team of engineers are very knowledgeable of the hospital and the equipment. Our day started with an introduction of the hospital system and the technical staff. There were 5 engineers, including the lead engineer, on staff who were very knowledgeable with their skill, the hospital, and the equipment. Some of them knew English but not fluently. Our tour began with visiting their Butterfly Garden located in the hospital. It was beautiful! It is generally used to treatment but we were able to walk in and sit and have butterflies fly all over and I even held one! They came in various colors and sizes and with very unique designs. Some of them were as big as my hand! I know my mom would've loved to see this! Afterwards, we watched them perform the fire training of the staff where the firefighters came and had the staff extinguish a fire. As we continued through the hospital, we toured through each wing looking at incubators, x-ray machines, mammography machines, and finally got our hands on some broken equipment. I was with the group who were investigating the broken incubator (thank goodness because the report I have to write for spanish class is about the baby incubator!) The problem with the incubator was that the "portable battery" on it was dead but it was still able to work, just only when plugged into an outlet. Still, we took it apart to see what makes up the components for the thermostat and the sensors. We also tested to see how many decibels can be heard inside the incubator and if the thermometer was accurately reading the temperature inside the incubator, which are two very very very important things to be functioning. We ended of the day with watching/participating with another group as they tried to fix a Fetal Doppler. The wires connecting the sensor to the machine were damaged but very small and sensitive to repair. It would take general cutting of the wire, stripping, and re-soldering to fix but since the wires were so close together and so small, it had to be done VERY carefully. Unfortunately it still didn't work afterwards but we did learn something in the process through observation.
I am beyond excited to be working at a hospital AND repairing equipment! I've heard stories of previous summer students being in the OR during an operation, having the equipment stop working all of a sudden, and FIXING IT IN THE MIDDLE OF SURGERY! Now that may or may not happen but it's amazing to hear the kinds of opportunities this program can give. It does get hard sometimes being so far away from home but everyone is in the same boat so we feed off of each other. I am SO READY FOR MONTEVERDE this weekend!
