Day 35/36

What an AMAZING weekend!

First off, placement on Friday was really incredible. I spent the first few hours helping a few nurses sterilize the delivery room. Needless to say, I worked up quite a sweat scrubbing and cleaning! They clean the room once per week, every Friday morning. They sterilize (or rinse...) the equipment after each birth, but everything else in the room is only cleaned once per week. Cleaning that room in itself was rather eye-opening...from the dried blood in places I couldn't figure out how it could have got there, to the items I cleaned that didn't look like that had ever been cleaned, let alone once per week. I also noticed how simple and old the equipment was...it just made me think about the standard of equipment in Canada.

A women came into the delivery room shortly there after. She looked like she was in so much pain. She went to sit on a bed, and she was sweating and shaking. I couldn't believe how little attention she got! No one was supporting her as she tried to climb up on the bed, and she was just in so much pain. Suddenly, she just started vomiting, right onto the floor. I grabbed a garbage can and ran over. I put my headband in her hair, and rubbed her back as she threw up (because I know EXACTLY how what helps when I'm throwing up...someone rubbing my back and holding back my hair...). Seeing as she was sweating, and she had vomit on her face, I wanted to get her a cold cloth. I go to ask the nurse if I can have one, and she says they don't have any. She says it's not necessary. And all I can think of is that one cold cloth would probably make her feel a heck of a lot better.

They hook her up to an IV. She just looked so scared and in so much pain. And she was all alone. I just wanted to go over and hold her hand, and tell her it was going to be okay, but then judging by how much attention she was getting from the nurses, I wasn't sure that it was culturally acceptable or appropriate. When she started another contraction, I decided that I didn't care...I went over and took her hand. She squeezed it so hard...but I welcomed it. I wanted to help her. She looked at me, and I could see that she was crying. I just wanted to help her so badly. I didn't even know this woman's name yet, but I knew I wanted to help her through this...

Her name was Sonia.

She threw up a few more times, and her contractions seemed to get more and more painful. A nurse would come over, and check to see how far along she was. When she was finally satisfied, she had Sonia move into the delivery room. I supported her as she walked over, and I helped her onto the bed. Ten minutes later, her baby boy was born. She cried and repeated prayers in Spanish over and over again.

She thanked me over and over again, and so so sincerely. It made me teary, just to think how grateful she was. And to think that she was all alone... From the look in her eyes, I knew that I had made her morning a little brighter.

We left for Mombacho Volcano in the afternoon. We hiked up the Volcano from about 3:30-6:30. It was quite gruelling, as it was a constant and steep incline the entire way up. By the time we had got to the top, we were actually above the clouds. At one point, we were in the clouds. It was one of the coolest moments in my life. The forest on Mombacho Volcano is called Cloud Forest (similar to rainforest), because there it is literally in the clouds. It is extremely humid and wet.

When we finally got to the top, we had dinner and dried off (as it had been raining). We prepared for the night hike. On the night hike, we hiked to search for a frog and salamander species unique to Mombacho Volcano. We also saw a poisonous caterpillar; if you touched the caterpillar, it would burn and scar your skin, and it would make you very sick and give you a fever. It's crazy to think that such a seemingly harmless bug could be so dangerous!

We all slept like babies that night.

Saturday morning, after a big breakfast, we hiked about 5 hours total. We did the Puma trail, which goes through the 3 volcano craters. There were over 5000 stairs up! It was super intense, but really wonderful! I needed to physically exhaust my body, and that's exactly what this hike did! I felt great after :)

We took a truck to the base of the Volcano. We zip-lined over the canopy. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. There were 11 platforms. On one of them, I flew like Superman...and it actually felt like I was flying.

We came home and watched a movie. We went to bed shortly thereafter.

I dreamt of flying.