Days 9 and 10: CIDS and El Tololar

Upon returning to Leon, we participated in training at the Centro de Investigacion en Demografia y Salud or Center for Investigation of Demography and Health (CIDS), a robust public health enterprise of UNAN. CIDS researchers have visited many homes within Leon and use GIS mapping to create pictures of public health within the city and municipality. We learned how to collect and store points using a GPS, and how to create a map of the points we collected.

After this training, we traveled to El Tololar, a rural community about 45 minutes outside of Leon. Agriculture, especially peanut farming, is the main source of employment in the town, resulting in a very dusty environment. We stopped at the Puesto de Salud to meet Dra. Arrutia, the town doctor. She showed us around the clinic, including their pharmacy and dentist’s office.

From there, we proceeded to our home stays for the evening. While Elliot stayed with his family from last year, the rest of us stayed with Adilze Rivas. We learned of Adilze through Tyler Sinclair, a Peace Corps volunteer who had lived with her during his time in Nicaragua. Adilze is the principal of the town’s school, and was extremely helpful with our work for CIDS.

After I explained the project to her, she took us out walking a couple of kilometers to various homes to ask people a set of health related questions for CIDS’ public health maps. When we returned home, Adilze showed us the fantastic drip irrigation system that Tyler helped her set up through the nonprofit Tololamos. With the system, she and her family grow enough vegetables for them to eat and sell a small portion of.

The next day we returned to the clinic and shadowed Dr. Arrutia during the morning while she saw patients. She was a very enthusiastic teacher who quizzed us about each patient strictly in Spanish.

In the latter half of the morning, we met Adilze at the school for a tour. She showed us the classrooms, library, and computer lab with 20 computers. In a single day of knowing her, Adilze’s caring nature really shone through; not to mention that she made the best arroz con pollo I’ve ever eaten.

In the afternoon, we returned to Leon for more CIDS training on GIS mapping. I created a map of the area in El Tololar near Adilze’s house (see below).

After that, we packed and enjoyed dinner with our host families one last time. By the time I left, I felt like a part of the Villalobos family because they reminded me so much of my own family in Massachusetts. We sadly said our goodbyes, but will look forward to future years of travel in Nicaragua.

That night, Cesar drove us back to Managua for an early morning flight.