Tikamp

At least I think that’s how its spelled, I've heard two other variations today though. Anyways it’s a small village about 45 minutes down the road toward Puerto Cabezas from Francia. It’s the first time that we've headed that way on any of our clinic expeditions so far and the landscape in that direction is very different from what we have around Francia. Almost as soon as you are out of Francia it becomes much more hilly and the palms and deciduous trees give way to pine forests that are very reminiscent of Colorado. In fact if I'd woken up and someone had tried to convince me I was in Nicaragua I might not have been convinced except for the humidity.

Today in Tikamp I was in registration where the patients first come and give there name, age and the reason for coming to the clinic. Since we weren't able to get on the radio to tell them we were coming, all the men were out in the fields and our patients were all women and children. It was a little frustrating trying to keep everyone in order through a translator, but registration is probably the easiest place to be in the clinic.

We didn't have lunch till about 1:30 in the afternoon because the consultations ran a little late. For the mobile clinics we pack lunch in a couple of plastic paint buckets and it usually consists of some kind of sandwiches and another random, heavily rationed item like Oreos. Usually its only enough for 1 and half sandwiches and I'm usually left wanting more. Today was no different with rice patties; leaving a meal hungry is something I'm starting to get used to.

I'm back in Francia now and I just before I started writing this I finished making notes for the public health test tomorrow. We've only had class for less than three weeks and we are already having a midterm, if that means we'll be done before we get back I'm all for it though. The quizzes so far haven't been too terrible so I think I'll finish studying in the two hours I have before the test tomorrow morning.