El Salvador Day 7

Hola! Day 7 of Equipo (Team) El Salvador's adventure!

Clinic news:
We found a great need for a fetal heart monitor and blood pressure cuff in the clinic - seeking avenues to purchase these with all of the generous donations!

The new doctor has been settling in wonderfully, the villagers love her, and she has been very welcoming to us! She has an excellent understanding of the unique health needs surrounding the community, and is in the unique position of also being a government employee so she works in both realms, so she will be giving some insights into both her worlds!

Everyone's excited about the supplies we brought in! Children's tylenol and glucose test strips were especially welcomed.

Micro-insurance: We had the opportunity to shadow Jessica-of-FIMRC as she went house-to-house as part of the micro-insurance program, as well as sit in on an education session on diabetes for Level 2 micro-insurance participants. In Las Delicias, community members part of the micro-insurance program ca nparticipate in house visits (to check for health conditions such as wearing shoes, burning trash away from the house, animals kept in a separate area, mosquito larvae in the water supply) or education sessions (on diabetes, and other health topics) to gain points to buy health needs for their family and the community (water filters, mosquito nets). Participants go through 3 levels, eventually becoming community leaders who teach the education sessions to earlier levels and organize healthcare in the community. More details to follow!

Baby weighing: We took a walk up and down the hills to pay house visits, recording the weight of month-old newborns! Got to meet community members and play with cute babies. Awesome!

Other activities: Spanish lessons have begun- we are all different levels, but our instructor is great! We have been practicing how to do an H&P, as well as discussing terms surrounding reproductive health.

We met with the director of the high school where we will be giving a series of reproductive health classes. We discussed our lesson plan with him - we will be giving one session to the parents, three sessions to grades 4-9 on subjects such as "what is sex?" "how does a baby develop?" "how can I prevent STDs?". The meeting went well - we hope to expand the curriculum established by last year's amazing MSU group. Their session went so well that we were invited back to do this, so we hope to live up to standard.

In our free time, we have kept busy, as well! We've been eating delicious pupusas, platanos and frijoles ,visited Mayan ruins, ran in the beautiful jungle/forest/park of San Salvador, and visited Lago Coatepeque. Not to mention tapas and dancing to Raggaeton in a San Salvadorian nightclub!

There was also an emergency hat-buying trip to combat the extra-strength (mas fuerte!) sun of El Salvador!  

          

Here we are by a replica of the Mayan 'sauna' At Las Ruinas "Joya de Ceren"

Here Dalila, Nabil, and our adopted LMU member Sonya are working hard putting together the lesson plan to present to the director of the high school!

Equipe El Salvador signing out - for now !