One week in site, hamburgers for breakfast and a 30 day vaccination campaign.

In Nicaragua the Ministry of Health, MINSA, has an annual nationwide vaccination campaign. Nurses from every health center and post scour the country side to vaccinate. This involves a month of 10 hour days, weekends, nurses (and sometimes a PCV or two) squished into the back of small Toyota trucks, and hundreds of anti-parasitics, polio vaccines, Vitamin-A drops and DPT/dT vaccines. For the past week this is pretty much all I have been doing. It is awesome.

Check out my cool MINSA hat.

I don’t get to do anything with needles (too bad), but what I do get to do is talk about parasites . . . all day long. Every classroom, farm, household, you name it that we vaccinate gets to meet me. I kind of love it. It is a great way to practice my Spanish. I’m making friends with the nurses. And, I get free rice and beans everywhere I go. What’s not to love?

Outside of work in the jornada, I’m slowly learning about what Jinotega has to offer. My favorite discovery so far is the Casa de Viejos. This literally translates to House of the Old People. That is exactly what it is. Sort of like a club house for the elderly in the urban Jinotega area. Clearly this is a place I plan on getting to know. Cooking classes anyone?

Anyway, so far I’ve been really lucky with my site.
My work is going well.
Jinotega as a city has a lot to offer.
My living situation is very comfortable.
And, I have a sitemate who is a Small Business Peace Corps Volunteer.


I’m pretty happy.