Thompson serves locals on trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua

Megan Thompson, a Grygla High School alumna, and daughter of Bob and Lori Thompson, recently served locals on a medical service trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Thompson visited the two countries in Central America August 1-13 and shares her broadening experience below.

Can you let our readers know where you’re attending school? I’m currently a junior at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. I’m pursuing a 4-year BSN degree in nursing.

Was your recent trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua something through school or did you pursue this opportunity outside of school? The trip was coordinated through an organization called VIDA, but they opened this specific trip just for St. Scholastica students. There were 33 of us who went on the trip; most of us being junior/senior nursing students, along with pre-med, pre-physician assistant, and pre-physical therapy students. It was completely a volunteer trip, but the school covered about half of our cost. 

Talk a little bit about what you knew going into this big trip? What were you expecting? To be honest, I really didn’t know a lot going into it! I knew that we would be seeing patients and we would be helping to diagnose those patients and educate them on different aspects on health, but that seemed like such a broad thing, so I went into it with a lot of questions!

So you visited Costa Rica and then Nicaragua. Can you share the dates and places you were at each? We had a very detailed itinerary for the duration of our trip, which was 12 nights. August 1st we flew into San Jose, Costa Rica, and stayed there for one night. August 2-4 we went to Los Chiles, Costa Rica, and August 5th we stayed in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. 

Then came the 8 hour bus ride where we traveled to Masaya, Nicaragua, and stayed with host families for two nights, August 6-8. The next two nights, August 9-11, we stayed in Granada, Nicaragua, which is the oldest city in Central America. Our last night there, August 12th, we stayed in Managua, Nicaragua.

What kind of accommodations did your group have while in Central America? Our accommodations varied based on where we were staying. For the most part, the program tried to have us stay in nicer hotels and we were usually in a bigger city, and then our trip assignments would take place outside of the city. Although the hotels we stayed at were decent and nice, it was obviously very hot; we often did not have air conditioning and relied on open windows. Because the hotels rely on airflow through open windows and doors, we learned to get comfortable with bugs very quickly! Bug spray quickly become our best friend!

We also spent 3 days with host families in Nicaragua. This was one of the highlights of the trip and it was fun getting to know my host parents, who actually referred to us as their kids. Although this was a highlight, it also served to be very challenging because they did not know much English and I did not know much Spanish. This was difficult, but we had fun with hand gestures and finding other ways to communicate to get over the language barrier.

Talk about your trip assignments a little bit - give our readers some insight as to what that involved. In Costa Rica, we spent a lot of time focusing on health promotion; one day we went to a community and did assessments of the person’s general health, eating habits, hygiene habits, and provided education on different medications they were taking and other preventative health aspects. We also visited a local elementary school and taught the kids about oral hygiene. 

In Nicaragua, we set up clinics for 3 days in a small community outside Masaya. We also did something similar in a small community outside of Grenada. In these settings we met with patients and took vitals, did assessments, asked about why they came in, etc. After our visits, we created a summary that we would present to a doctor and were able to give our opinion on what we thought was wrong. Then the doctor diagnosed the patient and prescribed medication. Once the doctor would leave, we were to meet with our patients again and explain when to take the medication, how to take it and why.

How would you describe that experience? It was a good blend of volunteering, education and culture! 

Any stand out moments from those specific trip assignments? Yes! We saw 97 patients in one day! Our group total over 4 clinic days was 562 patients.

We were divided into eleven groups with 3 students and 1 interpreter. Patients would check in and our interpreter would bring them to us to be interviewed and assessed. After we had the proper information, we would waited for 1 of 5 doctors to come. During clinic, the most common things we saw were common colds, parasites and urinary tract infections. At one point, I got to find a fetus’ heartbeat, which was really cool. The days were very structured; we worked at the clinic sites from 8am-4pm. 

On this vacation of a lifetime, did you get any downtime to experience the culture? Yes, we had free time to experience a variety of things. We spent one day at the hot springs in La Fortuna, which was a beautiful place and the water was so clear and warm. Each of the different pools ranged in temps. One night we went to an active volcano in Masaya, Nicaragua. We took a bus to the top where we were able to look into the volcano and see the glowing lava. 

Another night we had Salsa dance lessons and visited the markets where we could look for souvenirs and negotiate prices with the vendors. We also went zip lining in Nicaragua, which was a great experience; I was daring enough to go upside down a couple of times, too! Our group also went to Apoyo Lagoon, which used to be an active volcano, but is now just full of water. We had some beautiful days for swimming!

Describe the setting for our readers! It was very hot and humid every day. (In fact, one of the guys in our group passed out during one of the clinics because he hadn’t been drinking enough water and was severely dehydrated.) It was beautiful there, though, with lots of different kinds of plants and fruit trees. In one of the communities, there was a police officer who started cutting down coconuts for us to eat and one of the families that we talked to gave us fresh mangos as a gift. It was very hilly, and no matter what city we were in, you could always see a volcano in the distance.

Did you feel safe at all times while there? I felt safe for the most part. We were instructed not to walk around by ourselves in the cities, but that is common wherever you go. Our coordinators were very good about keeping us in a group. A few people did get sick during the trip from not being careful enough with the food or water, but I was not one of them. The doctors were always staying with us in the hotels and they were very good about making sure we were taken care of.

Highlight and lowlight if you had to pick? The highlight was being involved in the culture. It was amazing and eye opening. Although we did touristy things throughout the trip, we were also able to emerge ourselves into the culture by spending time with our host families, talking to our patients, and exploring the cities we were in. 

The lowlight: I was so nervous about getting sick. On the first day we were told that we should not drink the tap water (even when brushing our teeth we had to use bottled water) and to never order raw vegetables at restaurants because they would have been rinsed in tap water, as well. Also, there was the fear of mosquitoes that carry diseases such as Zika, Dengue Fever and Chikungunya; I applied bug spray about five times a day. I did not get sick, but others did from the food and three students actually got Zika from the trip. It was interesting because, although Zika is stressed in the media here, the people in these countries were much more concerned about Dengue and Chikungunya. 

What was your biggest take away from this entire experience – the thing you’ll never forget? The people. Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America and the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere, only behind Haiti. But the people are some of the friendliest and most happy people that I have ever met; they were so inviting and they find joy in everything they do.

Are you working anywhere medical-related right now? I work 10 hours a week in the admissions department at school. During breaks from school, I also work at the Care Center in Thief River Falls as a CNA. I’ll be starting clinicals this November with my first rotation being in an Orthopedics unit and I’m currently looking ahead for summer internships!