By: Richard Smillie

Richard Smillie — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:29:26 +0000

Ms. Anderson,
You may notice that Victoria’s quote mentions that she drove past the mall. Other than that, she really did not mention it, as she was focusing on the medicine. In fact, the only reason she probably was quoted as saying that in the first place, was because she was asked about the disparity of the Nicaraguan population. She certainly was not complaining about the malls, merely mentioning that you could in fact buy nice things if you have the money. Is that any different than the difference between Hollywood or Miami Beach and rural Appalachia? I certainly think not.
Instead, Ms. Bradford’s focus is on the Medicine. It is certainly nice that the Centro Salud provides all of these medications as such a cheap price. When I am down there this summer, I will tell the 80 year old woman with a kidney infection (because she is dehydrated from walking so far) that she will have to walk 4 more hours to get the medication she needs from the nearest office. Or how about the patients that medicines will not help. Anxiety, PTSD, poor hygiene, lack of hydration, or people with lingering war wounds. Medicine is not about the drugs you can dispense, it is about the person and how you can improve their life. Most of the people we treat do not eek out a living in Cordova. They make their living by growing their own food, raising their own livestock, building their own houses.
Victoria and the rest of the students are with the program in which we enrolled and we certainly are not coming down there for any other reason than the resilient real people we treat every day.

By: Brinnie Anderson

Brinnie Anderson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:52:24 +0000

As the owner of a business in Nicaragua, I have seen a lot. I suppose many things could be had at the malls Ms. Bradford visited; however, in reality, the prices at the malls are quoted in dollars and are at American prices. They are geared for the Western tourist, not the locals. Those prices exceed the pocketbooks of resident extranjeros as well as the locals. The price for a replacement Swiss Army watchband is more than Los Angeles or in St. Louis. A very small, soft head of lettuce is UDS $.60 – hardly a bargain. These two examples are at opposite ends of the needs scale.
I implore the non-profits and extranjeros to check their tongues and seal their lips before raking everyone across the coals for expenditures in 3rd world countries.
Vitamins, antiparasitic and malaria medicines are all available through Centro Salud (Central Health Dept.) for free or at very low cost.
MINSA and/or Centro Salud do an excellent job of administering to the communities. The issue may be educating the people about the problems or the potential for problems. Why don’t the people Ms. Bradford speaks of go to Centro Salud? The help is already there. We all get parasites and the treatment is simple and free. Virtually every community has a Cento Salud.
The hospital in Leon is deplorable – complete with roaches scrambling up the walls to rats running under the beds and birds flying in the broken or non-existent windows. Add to that toilets that do not work and no sink in which to wash after using a non-flushing toilet. It is clearly a staph infection (or more) nightmare. The elevators do not work, there are no orderlies to carry patients for x-rays; therefore, requiring non-medically-qualified family members to transport critically injuried people to upper floors, through stairwells, risking permanent back, neck and/or nerve injury. Don’t tell me these have not happened because I have been there.
So, please, Ms. Bradford, stop complaining about the malls and get with the program in which you enrolled – medicine! Who care what the tourists can purchase at the malls – the real people living in Nicaragua, myself included, do not shop at the two malls in Managua. We eek our a living in $C Cordovas/pesos – not dollars or euros.

Comments on: UT med students to aid Nicaraguans

By: Richard Smillie

By: Brinnie Anderson