The Rio Coco Adventure - Part II-Jonathan

Day 4 (Tuesday) & 5 (Wednesday) - Taking Medicine to La Esperanza and Pankawas

Day 4 (Tuesday) - La Esparanza

Welcome to "The Hope."

     Day 4 and 5 part of our team "went mobile" which gave me a chance to visit two smaller, nearby communities. Are you able to visualize a group of people who have basically been shunned by their government as the indigenous Miskito on the Rio Coco have, or can you imagine what it is to be at the bottom of list for services? These are humble, hard-working people who are more than just physically segregated by virtue of their native location, but also segregated by class as they are rarely  considered for services along the Rio Coco.
     Day 4 I visited the community of La Esperanza. La Esperanza is Spanish for "The Hope." Oddly enough, there was a buzz in the community and a feel of hope as the arrival of Gringo doctors meant much needed medical attention. Visits to places like "The Hope" remind me many things, two in particular: 1) Poverty is relative, and; 2) You don't miss what you have never had.
     "The Hope" is a seemingly less well-to-do (or more impoverished) than the poor people in San Andres. Few of the women and none of the children wear shoes. The men wear mud boots all the time.
     I saw probably the worst two cases of cleft lip and palette I have ever seen. Fortunately, I seemed to be the only one aware of it. These two children, probably aged two and seven, played with the other children with no obvious stigma attached.

Cleft lip and palette - less severe of two cases

     One of the exciting parts of the day in "The Hope" was the coconut gift. Several of the children had been showing off various skills from cartwheels to whistling to climbing coconut trees to, of course, posing for the camera. At one point in the day, a boy of about 12 grabbed a rope, wrapped it loosely around his ankle and began to shimmy up a coconut tree. Upon arriving near the top he kicked off the rope and began climbing around where the palms hid him. Coconuts began to rain form the treetop. After about 20 coconuts came to earth he slid down the tree in a way that some with my particular build would be prohibited, based on the fact that my mid-section would serve as brake and leave me stranded.
     Several of the boys gathered and bagged the coconuts. We took one, watched a 10-year old wielding a machete breakdown the nut, then handing it to me so I could drink the water. It was okay, but not my favorite. I am told it has great health value for the stomach, intestines and kidneys. The real treat was the soft coconut flesh inside. If you have only had the bagged stuff you are missing one of the great culinary experiences of life. I think even my coconut-hating brother-in-law would have enjoyed this snack. I shared half of the inside with the children who helped harvest and returned to Jinotega with the rest. I want to open them and share them but have yet to make time for machete lessons. Coconuts are the perfect gift - healthy, tasty, unique and pre-wrapped.

English: I want a coconut         Miskito: Coocoo whan smaa kee

 Day 5 (Wednesday) - Pankawas
     Day 5 took me to the community of Pankawas (PAHN kuh was). Pankawas is the smallest of the three communities slated for this trip and the people there seem to have less than either of the other two. It would seem that community size and poverty go hand in hand.
     It was here that I realized even fewer people wore shoes and that almost every child I saw, as well as many of the adults, suffered from abdominal distention, common among people where parasites are rampant. Whether it is form the lack of purified water they drink (we always hauled water that was purified for our own use), or from contaminated food or parasites that enter the skin via the paths they share with the livestock the number of infected is amazing. No matter the reason for treatment, everyone was given a dose of the anti-parasite treatment Albendazole.

This is a photo of a man carving up a coconut in Pankawas. Notice shirtless children and their distended stomachs.

     Our clinic in Pankawas was set up in the church building. The church building is roughly 30' X 30' and entrance was a ladder everyone had to climb to enter. All the building we saw on the river, including this one, are constructed on stilts. The floor of the building in Pankawas has not yet been completed. there are two 8' x 8' sections that lack the flooring leaving exposed the cross members and below that the dirt floor about 2.5 feet below. This made for several rows of excellent viewing for the children to watch as people were siphoned in and out to the stations to see the eyeglasses fitter, the doctor, the dentist or the pharmacist. A good time was had by all.

Shoeless feet from kids in the makeshift gallery.

Faces to match the shoeless observers from the photo above

     At this location we also met a young mother with a 3-year old girl. The child suffers from mental retardation. She is also visually handicapped and has no function from her legs and little from her arms.  Her mother asked if the mission could provide a wheel chair, but those, especially one that would be functional in such a wet muddy, climate are expensive and almost non-existent here. But God provides. Upon my return to Jinotega I began asking around for a stroller that was no longer needed thinking that it might have wider tires and be more adaptable to the trails in Pankawas. What I found, through a network of Nicaraguans that only they understand, was a used orthopedic wheel chair that is child sized. God provides and the chair will be sent on the river on the next trip to Pankawas.

God provides

     Another new experience here is one similar to one I had in Mexico. The children, regardless of language barriers want to talk to you. The challenge was that the few words of Miskito I know did not come into play here and if any child ever said them to me I never understood it. At one point two girls were including me in their conversation. I began to answer them in a made up language that included some syllables I heard in common Miskito phrases. They thought this was hilarious and we continued our conversation. They would say something in Miskito, I would answer in Jonathan-skito, and they would again reply, this time mimicking what I had just made up. This continued for about 20 minutes. As I left Pankawas, they stood at the top of the hill waving and yelling out to me in the gibberish I had made up.

Isuhvey

Next Up...Day 6 & 7 Another Day in San Andres and a Really Long Boat Ride