One of the last few weekends in El Rosario, the girls and I went with Osmond to Liz’s host family’s farm located down the road to La Paz to ride their horse. A few days before we had gone for a walk down the same road and seen a precious little colt playing and nursing its mother in a pasture. Come to find out, that was Liz’s family’s farm and we were going to get to see the little horse up close. We had a great morning! Each of us took turns riding the horse, her name is Muchacha (how original, it means girl). Liz took a little bit more coaxing, but finally agreed to take a ride with Osmond. Liz’s family’s dog Spike also came with us and as you can see in the pictures, each time we took Muchacha for a lap, the dog and colt followed. It was so cute! The little colt would even come up and nurse its mom while we were still on her, it never really left her side either. Osmond also climbed to the top of the tree to show that you can see Volcano Mombacho from there. It took him no time, and there he was, right at the top. We also took a walk around the property collecting mangos and another fruit I can’t think of the name (all the different fruits I’ve been introduced to is going to be another blog post at some point!). Well, in order to get some of the ripe ones that were higher up in the tree, Osmond’s cousin stood up on the horse to reach them. Definitely not the safest thing, but he did it with such ease, that it obviously was not the first time.
Hopefully I’ll have more opportunities to ride here in Bluefields. Right now I am trying to get on a medical brigade team as the health promoter and if that pans out, I’ll definitely be traveling on horseback. There are six regions to which the medical brigades travel: Rama Kay, Punta Gorda, San Francisco, Rio Maiz, Triangulo del Sur, and Mahagany. These areas are super remote and don’t have any roads. In fact, first the brigade travels by boat from Bluefields, then they are met at the river or beach with horses to travel the rest of the way. The brigades are supposed to serve each area four times per year. And for the most part this is the only medical care that the people living in these areas receive. However, due to lack of funds, they are often cancelled unfortunately. There is an NGO here called Accion Cristana Medica that has been contributing funds to the San Francisco brigade and therefore it has been more consistent. Its also one of the shorter brigades lasting around 7 or 9 days. The brigades for Triagulo and Rio Maiz last anywhere from 18 to 28 days, traveling each day to a new community by horseback, seeing roughly 100 patients a day, and sleeping under the stars in hammocks at night. And I hear you travel through incredibly beautiful country. I can’t wait! And you maybe some of you are wondering, what exactly would Renee do while on the brigade? Well, as the health promoter I would use the opportunity to spread health information through charlas, etc. For example, I might discuss the danger signs during pregnancy to groups of pregnant women so if they happen to experience them, they would know to get help or to start traveling to the nearest health point. I look forward to going within the next year some time.
