We awoke today well rested after a full day of traveling and decided to check out the town of Leon in slightly cooler early morning temperatures.
We made our way to the bank where apparently there is only one outdoor ATM where people wait hours to get money. A polite lady with an adorable 9 month-old told us people start lining up an hour and half before the bank opens to stand in line. Wow!! We nixed that idea and went straight for Nicaraguan comida tipico.
We discovered this cool cafe that served gallo pinto (rice and beans) with fried plantains- all for about $1.50. For dessert we bought a bag if fresh fruit in the central square for $0.33. What a deal!! After a delicious meal, we went to the Basilica de la Asuncion - originally built in 1610- and then rebuilt in 1748 after a fire. It is supposedly the largest cathedral in all of Central America. We climbed about six stories and were rewarded with a fantastic view of Leon.
After a little exploring, we met up with Dr. Morales, the head of anesthesia at the hospital and apparently our liason to the residency program. The hospital is huge- four stories holding about 600 beds. They seem pretty flexible about what we can do there in terms of our area of concentration and were suprisingly quick to ask us when we want to take call.
(Amy is off to a shower after a full-day of sweating like a pig -- Sorry, Dan, if I've tainted images of your wife for you...)
*** Cindy continues: ***
So when asked about call by Dr. Morales, the conversation basically went like this:
Amy: I'd love to take call every third night. I feel underworked at our hospital.
Cindy: I agree. I think maybe we should just take call every other night actually.
Amy: Oh yeah, good idea.
Ok, if you believe that dialogue, well, obviously you are a stranger / internet stalker reading this blog.
Basically, we delicately told him we'd be willing to work as hard as they want during the week but that we'd like the weekends to explore their beautiful, precious, __________ (add another superlative you can think of) country. It looks like we may end up taking "turnos" (7 am - 3 pm shifts) Mondays and Thursdays. Are we crazy? Well, we figured we'll keep track of post-call hours and get extra money when we get back to Santa Rosa... ha ha. We'll be taking calls together so should be a fun time. The plan is to start off in obstetrics and then switch to pediatrics.
The hospital is pretty shocking in the sense that everything, including the facility and the equipment, appears old (or at least older than what we're used to, even at Sutter). We took a tour through all departments: surgery, ICU, NICU, peds, OB, emergency, etc. We even got a chance to watch a c-section. I was getting excited and thinking, "Cool, we can do this!" when she started making a long vertical incision, and then I suddenly didn't know what was going on. One remarkable thing I took away in just the two hours we spent getting to know the hospital and its staff (including residents) was how much waste we consume in the States. For example, during the c-section, all the gowns and drapes were made of cloth so as to be able to recycle them. I remember so many times in the OR in the States materials getting thrown out because some tiny non-sterile corner of an unfortunate med student (usually me) touched it. Needless to say, as we start working in the hospital more the differences will become more glaring. Hopefully, the intent of quality of patient care will be the same, though. We''ll let you know.
Alright, the sun has set and we can now leave our apartment without drenching our T-shirts so we're off to grab a bite to eat.
Amy and Cindy
**********
Some pictures:
Views of Leon from atop the Basilica de La Asuncion: (the white building in the first picture on the left is the hospital de Universidad Nacional Autonima de Nicaragua, where we will be working!)
Our apartment (the second floor with the balcony):
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