Jornada de Vacunas

This is the temporary health post  the nurses set up

Throughout training we’ve had tons of experiences for technical training and working in the communities we’re living in on local health issues. One part of health care that the Ministry of Health does an amazing job on is vaccinations. Every April there are vaccination campaigns (Jornadas de Vacunas) around the country. In each campaign a small group of nurses and doctors go to their local rural communities and set up a small health post.
The post is usually at a community member’s house or in the park and they give every type of vaccination for kids and adults, give essential vitamins and basic health consultations all for free. Also every person has a vaccination card that they bring with them to keep track of what vaccinations they have and which vaccinations they need and when.

Last weekend I was able to help with my town’s annual vaccination campaign. We spent the morning in a small rural community a 20 minute walk away from my town’s center. I worked with local health volunteers to go house to house and give out oral re-hydration salts (which prevent dehydration when someone has mild to severe diarrhea), rat poison, and abate. The rat poison is obviously to kill rats that come into the house, there is an epidemic of leptosporiosis here and it is spread by rats, and the abate is a non-toxic chemical used to kill mosquito larvae in sitting-water outside the house. After giving out the goodies, we encouraged each family to head to the health post set up in town to get vaccinated and receive vitamins. It was a very successful morning and families were very cooperative and ready to get their vaccines. We were done by lunch-time and I met a lot of enthusiastic youth that worked with us as health volunteers. Overall it was a great morning, and I’m looking forward to helping out with more activities put on by health centers.

David (center) with 2 of our new friends Abner and Franklin

On another note, I received my current Spanish level last week and I’m at Intermediate-low (I started with Novice-high, so I moved up one level). I need to get to Intermediate-mid in roughly 2 weeks. I think I can do it, I just won’t be able to talk in English at all for the next 2 weeks. Every hour spent talking/thinking/reading/writing in English is essentially moving me backwards in Spanish. We also find out our site assignments this week Thursday! I can’t wait to know where I’ll be living for the next 2 years!