I’ve had an
ongoing joke during my time in Nicaragua to myself and anyone who is around to
listen that when we come back from our PC service, we will either be super
humans with immune systems and stomachs of iron, or we will have taken about 10
years off of our lives. I like to believe it’s the former but in reality it’s
probably the latter. I’ve had a skin fungus due to the humidity (fungus loves
the humidity), which actually wasn’t thhhaaat bad, it looked like splotchy
tanlines, there are bugs here that pee on you and cause blisters (how
degrading), and others than lay their larvae eggs underneath your skin. What most recently made me question my health
status occurred when I entered my room the other day to find it covered in ash.
It is the end of the dry and hot season, known as verano (which translates to summer in English), and to prepare
their lands for the rainy season, farmers mercilessly burn the plants that are
left in their fields to clear their land for planting before the rainy season.
Therefore, the San Fernando hills have been hosting several wildfires for the
past few weeks, and since my walls do not quite reach my roof in our house, my
room has been a constant swirl of crisped corn husks other unidentified charred
objects (see: UCO). So, I’ve got this
coupled with all the smoke from the wood-burning stoves that fill the kitchens,
studies show staying in a room with a wood burning stove is estimated to be as
lung-damaging as smoking two packs of cigarettes. At least I’m still able to
run half-marathons, for now.
Thanks to a
wonderful North Carolinian teacher by the name of Mrs. Campbell, I was able to have
a pen-pal program between her classroom of elementary students in the United
States and a third grade class I worked with in Nicaragua. Mrs. Campbell taught
her class about Nicaragua and we exchanged emails with questions and pictures.
Every year, Mrs. Campbell’s class does a humanitarian project and this year,
she had asked me if she could correspond their project with my classes in Nicaragua
and what would be an area in which they could help. Tooth decay was my
response. In Nicaragua, especially in the more rural areas, is it common to see
metal caps covering people’s teeth, it took me awhile that it wasn’t in honor
of Lil’ Wayne. A lot of times, it is not the child’s decision not to brush
their teeth, rather it is a limitation of their parent’s financial situation or
education in dental hygiene. Dental hygiene is not a priority of their parents’ of limited
resources regular tooth-brushing is also not strictly taught and enforced by
parents. One of the most common child-hood “illnesses” is, you named it, tooth decay. The only reason why I brushed my
teeth as a child was because my mom and dad told me to, therefore, if they
didn’t tell me to, I would have never learned the behavior and would probably
have a metal-capped tooth or two as well. Therefore, I told Mrs. Campbell that
a dental hygiene project could be done, and that it would be amazing if they
could do a toothbrush and toothpaste drive to give to the children in limited
resources. Mrs. Campbell’s class was
able to raise about 200 toothbrushes and 200 toothpastes to give to Nicaraguan
students. I was able to visit Mrs. Campbell and her class when I was in North
Carolina for Christmas 2012. They asked me questions like “how far it is to
Nicaragua on a boat?” and “How do you say my William in Spanish?” I brought
them letters from Nicaraguan students in my town and helped them translate, and
showed them pictures of kids like them in an elementary school in Nicaragua. It
was heartwarming to see how excited this class was about learning about
Nicaraguan culture. Getting the toothbrushes back was a different story. With
airlines now, luggage can be as expensive as an airline ticket. (At least for
Spirit Airlines it is, I asked them how I could get my guitar from Nicaragua,
to the U.S. and they said, “Oh, you can just buy a seat for it.” Umm, thanks
for the great offer, but no.) In case you are wondering, a suitcase of 200 plus
toothbrushes and pastes weights about 500 pounds, a little above my Spirit
airlines meager allowance of 40 lbs. (PS Spirit is super cheap, but only fly it
if you don’t need to bring much luggage and if you would like to discover the
try meaning of “red-eye.” My flight left at 2am to get into Fort Lauderdale at
5:30 am, ready to start a day well-rested!) Therefore, I had no way of getting
all of these great brushes and pastes down without paying more than the cost of
just buying 200 pastes and brushes in country, which would defeat the purpose. However,
a few weeks later, a colleague of my father was able to bring the suitcase
while on his way to San Juan del Sur (great vacation spot!), and I was able to
start my “Dia del Diente” project, teaching proper teethbrushing habits to
families in the rural communities of San Fernando. Saving the world, one tooth
at a time.
I recently
hosted my second visitor to Nicaragua. The brave Marshall Abrams, one of my
best friends since high school, made it down for a Nicaraguan adventure, and I
could not have asked for a better cohort. It’s not just anyone from Rutherford
County that could handle two five-hour bus rides in two days before and after
getting up at 3:30 am to run a half marathon on the back country roads in the
mountains of Nicaragua, along with volcano hiking and getting extremely
sunburned on the beach. After successfully getting Marshall to the airport
alive and in good spirits, I was able to relax on yet another 5-hour bus ride
home and appreciate just how cool my friends are, and how amazing this country
is.
