Dear Juan,
Things are great! Everyone is so welcoming and helpful here at the Roberto Clemente Clinic in Nicaragua. I feel like I’ve really been able to experience some life in the towns surrounding the clinic (from doing the shoe donation program and riding my bike to and from the clinic). We did a chat on diabetes on thursday. It lasted around a half hour and it went really well. I spoke for about 8 minutes, Dr. Flores spoke, and some patients spoke as well. We are going to do more diabetes chats, and a dental outreach for kids with these 2 other volunteers from the east coast.
I’ve been taking some good pictures and next week we’ll do some filming. I’ve also been able to sit in on a few patients with Dr. Flores, where he is really cool about involving me and explaining what’s happening. He also broke down the different types of issues they deal with and why. He explained to me about how diarrhea used to be a bigger issue, but through educating the locals they curbed it a lot. Pretty awesome!
It’s also good to see at this Volunteer Program in Nicaragua what sort of supplies they have, and what they could use. They liked the stuff I brought which is good. In the future, it would be nice to get some $$ for insulin, because I’m learning that many diabetics here can’t afford it.
That’s all for now, please let me know if there’s anything I can do while I’m here, or any input you have would be great. Adios!
Ben Del Buono
California US