Another beautiful day in Costa Rica. We started the morning dancing our butts off at the nursing home, the senior citizens have more energy than you think! We are now staying at the Montestary and the sister nuns are very nice. The yard is filled with all kinds of trees, avocado, mango, lime, almond and many more! Geographically Costa Rica is so diverse and beautiful, mother nature has done good here. The endless strawberry and coffee fields that line the horizons of the mountains are breathtaking and so pure. Just so you know there is a lot of hard work and land put into that morning cup O' joe! We just met with a Costa Rican nurse and the leader of International Service Learning for Costa Rica to learn a little more about how nursing works here. It seems that nurses in Costa Rica are overwhelmded with the workload, as many as 40 patients to 1 nurse! There is also a much larger demand for nursing care than there is supply, unfortunatley it is difficult for the nurses to find jobs but they are much needed. We have all felt such a team bond and connection within our nursing class on this trip and although we are all so diverse we have worked so well together! It is so comforting, I can't imagine another group of 15 girls that would get along so well for 10 days straight. Heading to the Arenal Volcano and Baldi hot spirngs tomorrow for our recreation day. Will be returning to the U.S of A the day after tomorrow, what a life changing expirience we have all had.
~Pura Vida~
Rhonda & Lexee
This definitely was one of my favorite days. Dancing was amazing and although none of the people could understand us I feel we all connected through dance which is absolutely amazing to me. I could not believe the conditions of the nursing home. America is certainly not like that. Without us I do not think the nurses would have fed all the clients in time. We are such a great group and we work very well together! can not believe it is over :(
ReplyDeleteI totally agree Kim! It's amazing even with a language barrier how we can impact someone's life. This not only impacted my awareness as a nurse in another country but I hope I can continue this awareness back here in the states. It is undeniable what we saw for conditions of the nursing home that we visited are out of standards here in the U.S., but in Costa Rica they are truely working with what they have. I would have loved to have seen a hospital just to be able to compare it with a U.S. hospital as well.
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