Difficult life circumstances

Saturday, 11-12-11

We journeyed back to the canton of Virginia today to continue the census. We had to leave early today from the Pastoral House because we needed to make it to a little more than 50 houses before noon. Since we were going so quickly from house to house we didn’t have as much time to chat as we did the day before. I also got to be the translator for one of the groups which meant I was really caught up in asking questions and writing on the census. But I was grateful for the opportunity to practice translating.

By 7:45am we were in Virginia and ready to visit the first house. We followed the same procedure as yesterday and we were in the same groups. And while I can’t write about each family there were several today that stuck out in my mind. I’m going to focus on a few of the families who live in difficult circumstances. Though living in the cantons is a struggle for many families, other circumstances can make life even more difficult.

Family #1
One of the families we visited today was an older couple. There are both in the 70s and even though they live on the same property they actually live in different houses. He lives in one little house and about 40 feet away is another little house where she lives. No one else lives there with them but they have children nearby who are able to help them out. And despite his age, he stills works his milpa (farm) with corn and beans.

Even though they have grown children to help take care of them, I couldn’t help but think about how different it is when people in El Salvador get older. If you live in the cantons, there’s no retirement home here that you go to when you get older. There’s also no retirement. If you can walk, you can work. And if you live in the cantons that means you’ll probably work on a milpa. When you’re an older woman living in the cantons you still have to cook, often using wood for fire and making everything from scratch. You also have to hand wash the clothes for your family. This woman probably still does the bulk of the cooking and washing for herself and her husband.

Isn't she beautiful?!

The couple with one of their sons

who was walking with us

Family #2
At one of the homes we visited today lived a mom and dad, both 28, with their four children ages 11, 8, 6, and 4 years old. Their youngest son has special needs. He was laying in a hammock when we arrived. Though I don’t know for sure, I think he has mental retardation (now called “intellectual disability”). It goes without saying that having a child with special needs can be difficult. While I don’t have a child with special needs I worked a lot in the past with children who had different intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The little boy at this home isn’t able to walk. He may or may not ever learn to walk. He may or may not be able to get a wheelchair. I’m not sure if he’s able to speak. He didn’t say anything while we were there though we weren’t there that long. He probably needs help getting dressed, using the bathroom, and bathing himself. If you’re even visited the cantons you know that bathing means a bucket shower and using the bathroom means walking outside to the outhouse. Additionally, supportive services and special education don’t really exist here in Berlín, and that’s assuming the family could even get to the city for those services. Thankfully, this boy’s family seemed to be very loving toward him. Like in the US, this may not always be the case.

He was laughing hysterically in the hammock

Mom with her four children

Dad was working in the fields

Family #3
In one of the very first houses we visited were a man and woman and several children. He is 29 and she is 24. They have four children, ages 7, 4, 2, and 4 months old. I got to the house first because I took a bit of a shortcut. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a baby in the hammock crying and crying. The mom was sweeping the floor; it may be a dirt floor but people still like to keep a tidy home. I introduced myself and she invited me inside. It was a small house that had been divided with black plastic to create a little bedroom in one area.

When everyone else got there someone told us that her husband had cancer. He wasn’t able to get out of bed to greet us because he was so weak but his wife said we could say hi to him. So Kathy, Michelle, and Mitch went back to meet him while I asked his wife the questions on the census. Then Michelle and Mitch presented her with the hammock they’d brought. It will be a help to the family since the one hanging inside the main part of their home looks pretty worn.

Then I went back to say hello to her husband. He was laying sideways on the bed in a tangle of bedding. The bed was made out of petates, a kind of reed, which is what he was laying on. There was no mattress. He was skin and bones and looked like he was in a lot of pain. Blanca gave him a small bag of acetaminophen to help a little with the pain. I told him who I was and that I would be praying for him and his family. He smiled and thanked us for visiting him.

As we walked to the next house and throughout the day we thought and talked about what it would be like to have cancer and live in the cantons. Now, it’s certainly not easy to have cancer regardless of where you live. But the conditions you live in can make a big difference.

To begin, people in the cantons don’t often visit a doctor when they have pain. Pain is a part of life. People also don’t get regular checkups so they wouldn’t be screened for any type of cancer (e.g. mammograms for women). Thus, many times when people get diagnosed with cancer, it is already too far along for any kind of treatment to be helpful. Of course, most people who live in the cantons probably aren’t going to have access to or money for treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation. So even if they catch the cancer in time, you might still die from it.


Along these same lines, you may not be able to get medication to control the pain you’re in. Maybe you’ll get some acetaminophen or ibuprofen from a pharmacy or health promoter visiting the community. But anyone who’s ever watched a loved one die from cancer knows that over-the-counter meds are not sufficient to ease their pain. If you’re really lucky you can get some morphine shots. But again, you need money for that.

So now you’re in pain and dying of cancer. How can it get any worse? Well, there’s no air-conditioning when it’s swelteringly hot and you’re inside your home, which is like an oven because it’s made out of metal. And there’s no heat to keep you warm when it’s pouring down rain and the roof leaks. You’re weak and can do nothing but lay in your bed made of reeds. If you can’t eat solids that means you’ll need to eat liquefied, or close to liquefied, foods. In the cantons that means liquefied beans, corn, rice, maybe some milk, maybe some soup broth.

If you were in this man’s place, you’d also be worrying about your family. As he is dying he will probably be thinking about his family and how they will survive without him. His wife will have to take care of the crops with the help of the 7-year old. If they don’t work their fields they won’t have any food. The kids may or may not be able to go to school. If they are needed in the fields or in the home they might not have the opportunity. While all this is happening there is nothing this man can do for his family but pray.

It is a tragic, terrible way for a person to die.
And it is not an uncommon story.

Living with a serious illness

Thursday, 10-27-11  

We were recently in one of the cantons and learned about a family that is living in very difficult circumstances. I’ve decided not to use to their names to give them some privacy.

The wife and husband, I’ll call them María and José, live together with their one child. Not long ago María was diagnosed with lupus. For those of you who don’t know, lupus is a long-term autoimmune disease that can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. Joint pain and swelling are common symptoms as well as chest pain, fatigue, headaches, malaise, hair loss, sensitivity to light, and swollen lymph nodes. There is no cure for lupus; the goal is to treat the symptoms (US National Institute of Health, National Library of Medicine).

In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs. Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body (Lupus Foundation of America).

About a month ago María had a stoke which left her unable to stand and unable to walk. She’s only 30 years old. So what is there to do for a 30-year old women who lives in the cantons and isn’t able to stand or walk? The answer is not much. Like most families, they have a small, single bed which is where she spends most of her time. The disease is physically exhausting so even if she could walk she still probably wouldn’t have the strength to do a lot. And since they can’t afford a wheelchair she really can’t even get around her house without help.

Since María can’t do much, José does most of the housework in addition to taking care of their milpa (corn and beans). Taking care of a milpa is a full time job by itself as is taking care of a household in the cantons. In the home, there is washing by hand all the clothes for the family and cooking from scratch the food. Buying things for the house, making repairs, taking care of their animals, watching out for their child, keeping the house clean…all of these things need to be done by José.

Life is never easy living with a serious illness. Living in the cantons with a serious illness makes life a whole lot harder than it already is. And unfortunately, there’s not much a family can do. When you live an hour away from town by truck and you don’t even own a truck, it can be hard to get to town. If José and María want to come to Berlín he either has to arrange for someone he knows with a truck to pick them up (which will cost money) or carry her to somewhere where they know a truck will be driving by and get a ride (which will also cost money). What’s more, if she needs to see a specialist, they’d probably have to go to another town because Berlín is small and doesn’t have a hospital.

From what I’ve read, people with lupus should have preventative health care checkups and tests to screen for thinning of the bones. Transportation alone makes these things difficult for María and José. Having no money makes this difficult. This also means getting physical therapy that could help her recover from her stroke is very difficult. José has learned how to do some physical therapy techniques with her so that helps a little, but it’s not like she can see a physical therapist once a week or go to a rehabilitation center.

Furthermore, doctors recommend that people with lupus be put on medication, usually a variety of medications, and they should have up-to-date immunizations. Though the Ministry of Health might be doing a good job about giving immunizations now, who knows what it was like 30 years ago. And their family certainly can’t afford all the medications María needs now to control her illness. Though some of the medications María needs can be found in Berlín others are located in nearby towns, which means José would need to take a bus from Berlin to get there.

So this is the life of a person with lupus in the cantons. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult life is for their family. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for other families who are in similar circumstances.

The struggle to live continues.

Newspaper satirical cartoons

I have some of the satirical cartoons from the newspaper hanging up in my room. I thought I’d share my two favorite cartoons here. One of them is from today. They kind of remind me of the Duffy cartoons that used to be in the Des Moines Register.

Effective anti-smoking law:

Luckily I have the smoke of the bus drivers

Meal:

More expensive

Health clinic visit

Thursday, 6-16-11

Today the St. Boniface delegation went to visit three health clinics in Berlín. Otilia, who is a former member of the Pastoral Team, works at the clinics and agreed to show them around. The first clinic we visited is in the main part of Berlin and very close to the house. It is a free community clinic and provides only the most basic services If someone needs more advanced treatment then they are sent to a hospital in a nearby city. It is funded by the Ministerio of Salud (Ministry of Health) which is a government organization. The people from Berlín go to the clinic as do people from the surrounding cantons.

When you walk in you go to the registration area first. You fill out a paper that asks for personal information such as your name, age, parents’ names, and other details. All the information is put in a file and stored in their file room. After that you are assigned to one of three waiting rooms. There are three doctors at a time in the clinic and each has their own waiting room. They each see about 60 patients a day. There are several other rooms at the clinic such as a pharmacy, recovery room, vaccination room, rehydration room, sterilization room, and a psychologist’s office. None of the rooms are very big and the pharmacy has only basic medications. Sometimes they have to send patients to other hospitals because of the lack of medications.

The doctors and health promoters at the clinics also make house calls. The municipality of Berlín (including the cantons). The municipality is broken up into 6 areas and people are assigned to those areas. They go to homes to administer flu shots and try to educate people about their health. They also go into the schools to do vaccinations. After our brief tour we headed off to our next destination.

The clinic in Berlin

Plaque in honor of Luxembourg who financed the building

Otilia in the clinic

One of the vaccination rooms

Poster about diarrhea, which is

something very common in children

Signs explaining the different areas the clinic serves

Otilia with the St. Boniface crew

A little boy at the clinic

Freddy, Cecilia's nephew

The next place we went was a small clinic in the canton of San Jose that opened 3 months ago. The clinic serves the cantons of San Jose, San Lorenzo, and Concepción. They also serve the caseríos of Zapote, Menéndez, and part of Alejandría which are all a part of the canton of San Francisco. The clinic is open 1 day a week to serve people in those areas. It has some of the same services and programs as the big clinic in Berlín such as vaccinations, pregnancy help, and basic exams. There are 6 people who work at the clinic and three of them are health promoters. The health promoters are the ones who go into the communities they serve to educate people and give vaccinations. In total, the clinic serves 600 families, which are about 200 per health promoter.

One obstacle that the health promoters face is that they don’t have a specific car to drive when they visit people in the cantons. They drive only when they have gas. Otherwise they have to walk, which is hard enough considering the conditions of the roads and the distance they need to walk. But when they have to carry equipment to houses it’s even harder to reach people. Another obstacle they face is lack of funding. While the Ministry of Health provides the medications for the clinic, everything else they need is up to them to acquire. After hearing the nurse and Otilia talk about the clinic we moved on.

The clinic in San Jose

Health comes to your family

Poster with the different vaccination pictures on it

Vaccination schedule

Poster about eliminating mosquitoes

Table inside the clinic

Jerry with Otilia and a nurse

The final clinic we were visiting was in the canton of San Lorenzo. This clinic was recently opened by Otilia who is a health promoter and lives in San Lorenzo. The focus at this clinic is pregnant women, children under 5, and people who have a hard time leaving their homes. She educates people about health such as how to take care of themselves, knowing when they should take medication, and knowing what kind of medication they should take. She can also give people vaccinations they need or injections after they return home from the hospital.

Otilia is paid by the Ministry of Health because she works at the Berlín clinic; she doesn’t get paid for her work at the little clinic. Her bosses gave her permission to open the little clinic in San Lorenzo but it’s not an “official” health clinic. There is medication stored at this clinic for emergencies and accidents. As with the clinic in San Jose, Otilia gets around as best she can. She’s able to use a car but sometimes she has to walk.

We also discussed what happens when someone needs to go to the hospital or has a serious accident. People in the cantons get to the hospital any way they can. Most people do not have a vehicle. If they can get a ride from someone else that person can take them from San Lorenzo to the hospital. Otherwise, they have to first get to Berlín, either by walking or maybe a motortaxi will pick them up. From Berlín, they can take a bus to the hospital. And occasionally an ambulance can be called to pick someone up.

Thankfully, each canton has a health committee who plans ahead for accidents and emergencies. The health committee is trained by a health promoter. One thing the health committee does is keeps track of pregnant women and when they are getting close to delivery. If someone gets hurt when they’re working on a finca (coffee farm) they can call the health promoter or owner of the finca and the owner can take them to the hospital.

In front of the clinic in San Lorenzo

The health committee of San Lorenzo

Listening to Otilia

Cot inside the clinic

Sign about hygiene to prevent diseases and sickness

Medications stored in the clinic

Chatting with the community

When we’d finished talking about the clinic they opened up the Catholic church in town so we could look inside. I’ve seen the church several times but I’d never been inside before. It was a small but beautiful church. Someone told me that they went inside the church once and a bunch of bats flew out. I looked up at the ceiling for some but didn’t see any. Bummer.

As we were leaving the church the health committee came walking down the hill carrying a large guacal full of enchiladas for us. Yum! They gave each of us two enchiladas and some Coke. It was their way of saying “thank you” for visiting the clinic. The enchiladas were absolutely delicious but most of us could only eat one. We chatted a little longer and then said goodbye to everyone. It was time to get back to the house for lunch!

Inside the church

The altar

Looking out the front door

Everyone inside the church

Old pews

The church bell

Window of the church

Guanaba (Guanabana) growing in a nearby tree

Carrying our snack

Enchiladas

Cute little boy

Speaking on behalf of the health committee

Passing out the food

In front of the clinic

Aches & Pains

Thursday, 4-14-11

There are a lot of hazards to health when living in this country. Everyday aches and pains are a part of life here.

Sore throats
Lots of people here have sore throats due to the environment and ever present germs. Idalia has a constant sore throat. She’s bought special honey, brewed homemade tea made from local plants, and sucked on ginger throat lozenges but nothing seems to help her kick it for good. Sometimes it’s better and sometimes it’s worse but it never seems to go away completely. It has never stopped her from doing her job and working with the others at the Pastoral House. Blanca also has a sore throat a lot of the time. She said that the inside of her throat on one side feels like it was burned. She’s not sure what it is and like Idalia, sometimes it’s worse than other times. She also continues to work and do things that need to be done for the Pastoral House.

Kathy gets a sore throat every once and a while as well. She had one in late February when there was a delegation here. But did she stop working? Nope. She struggled through the week even as her voice was disappearing. Aminta made her a special concoction which helped her throat but it took a while for it to go away. Like Kathy, several of my teachers are sick right now as well and continue to work and talk. Since they’re teaching and talking all the time their throats and voices don’t get a chance to rest. There’s just not enough down time for them to be able to get better.

Whenever we visit families in the cantons it seems like someone is always sick, especially with throat problems. I think it would be hard not to be sick all the time. In the dry season you have the dust, which dries out and irritates your throat. In the wet season you have the rain, and when everything is always wet people gets colds and infections spread like wildfire. But you might have a farm or a family to support so not going to work isn’t an option.

Joint problems
Balmore has bad knees. I’m not sure what specific problems he has but I know he’s often in pain. Sometimes it hurts to walk. But Balmore is the president of the Directiva in his community. He is also a part of the Pastoral Team. So he really doesn’t have to option to not walk or not work. Recently, I saw Balmore carrying 200+ pounds of shelled corn in a bag out of someone’s house to the pickup truck. Not only is that man incredibly strong, but to think that he did it with bad knees in amazing. I can only imagine the joint pain that people here have and how much it must hurt.

Boils
Someone else I know, though I will not mention their name, has a couple boils on their hind quarters. Now that is painful! But when you live in the cantons there’s not a whole lot you can do. Keeping the area clean can be difficult. If you are lucky, you can get over-the-counter medication to ease the pain and swelling. Unfortunately for this person, over-the-counter medication did not do the trick. After this person developed a fever that lasted almost a week they finally went to see the doctor. And all that time this person was going to school, sitting through class after class. Thankfully, this person's family could afford the medication they needed.

Mosquito bites
Mosquitoes, as I mentioned in a recent blog, are the scourge of the universe that cause extreme itching as well as dengue. Blanca and I both have had bad reactions to mosquito bites lately. Something you should not do is scratch your mosquito bites. More importantly, you should not use the corner of a chair to scratch your bites. This will result in a big piece of skin missing from the body part you’re scratching thus leaving you with an open wound. Not good. (Yep, that was me).

Machetes
Machete accidents are common here. Last year Cecilia had an accident with a machete. We got a call late on a Saturday night, the one night a week Cecilia goes home to be with her family, saying she’d had an accident. Her brother, Alejandro, ran all the way from Alejandría up the huge hill in complete darkness to the Pastoral House to get antibiotic ointment. Thankfully, she didn’t have to go to the hospital. The next day she was back at the house working and even ironing clothes. She showed me her cut and it was really nasty.

Sunburn
Mr. Sun is also not your friend. Sunburn is very common among gringos that visit the area. Typically Salvadoran people don’t burn but there are always exceptions. A couple weeks ago Cecilia came home with distinctive sunburn. I’ve never seen anyone here burned like that before. She was actually red. It looked painful and she put something on it to ease the pain. However, regarding the sun, it is easy to distinguish the “city people” from the “canton people” because oftentimes the people from the cantons have darker colored skin. This is typically due to spending so much more time outside working, usually on a corn, bean, or coffee farm.

The sun is clearly not my friend either. Apparently on Sunday when I was going to El Tablón the sun was out to get me because when I woke up Monday morning my lips hurt and were swollen. They felt like sandpaper, and were itchy and hot. The next day some little blisters appeared on my lips which have now turned into big blisters. I realized that somehow I’d managed to get sunburn on my lips. I have no idea how this happened, and I’ve only sunburned my lips once before while I was in Mexico.

The special chapstick I brought from the US helped but talking and eating were painful. The aloe vera and tea tree oil also helped but my lips still hurt. One of the teachers today at the school suggested I go to the pharmacy and buy manteca de cacao (cocoa butter). A little bit the size of a piece of salt water taffy cost 25¢ so I bought one hoping it would do the trick. It smells so good and I told Ceci I wanted to eat it. I didn’t eat it but did put it all over my lips. And it worked!! They’re feeling better already.

Random things
Just last night Marvin (Cecilia’s son) was at his home in the caserío of Alejandría and a beam that was used to help hold up the roof fell down on his head. A large bump almost immediately began to form on his head and he was crying and crying. Balmore actually went over to his house to see how he was doing. He was worried because Marvin suffered head trauma several years ago in a car accident and he wanted to make sure Marvin was okay. Cecilia’s brother, Mauricio, then went out into the woods in search for another beam to support the roof. The canton just got electricity a few months ago but it’s used mainly for light bulbs and charging cell phones. There’s no freezer for ice packs or ice. So Marvin didn’t have the option to put ice on his head right away.

Kidney problems
A lot of people in El Salvador suffer from and often die as a result of kidney problems. From what I’ve heard and read about in the papers, many people believe renal failure here is linked to contamination of water and the land. I did some reading on the internet and what I’ve read suggests that renal failure is associated with high frequency of pesticide exposure and alcohol consumption. Obviously, the young children who suffer from kidney disease probably aren’t alcoholics so the most likely source is contamination. Exposure to chemicals and alcohol consumption coupled with low income and poor healthcare accessibility make many Salvadorans easy targets for renal failure. Even if they have access to healthcare, it doesn’t mean the medication or services they need, such as hemodialysis, will be available in their area. The Pastoral House is currently helping to support two children who have kidney problems.

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver
– Mahatma Gandhi

The curse of dust and mosquitoes

 Sunday, 4-10-11

I say these things are curses by they’re really two everyday nuisances that people here have to put up with. You don’t exactly get use to them but you have to learn to live with them. I got to spend another Sunday with the group of students from the UCA visiting the cooperative in the canton of El Tablón Cerna. Last week almost no one from the group had been to a canton before. This week they all knew what was in store. Since dust and mosquitoes are two problems in El Salvador that are worse in the cantons I decided to dedicate a blog to them.

Dust
I have changed some of the lyrics to the song “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” One of the verses goes like this:

They said someday you’ll find
All who live here are blind
Oh, when it’s the dry season
You must realize
Dust gets in your eyes

It also gets in your hair, mouth, ears, nose, toes, and all over your clothes. Inevitably, after a ride out to the cantons in one of the pickup trucks you will need to wash your clothes. For the pre-rinse, it usually takes a couple times of letting my clothes sit in the water and rinso (detergent) to get them ready to be washed. Then it’s a lot of scrubbing and creating suds to get the clothes completely clean. Remember, we hand wash everything. You will also have to wash yourself thoroughly upon returning home from a dusty ride. It takes a lot of scoops of water from the pila (cement basin) to get yourself clean and you go through a lot of soap.

I spend a lot of time wondering how people in the cantons are able to get things clean. Clothes especially seem like they would be tricky to keep dust free. Even after you wash them there’s still the matter of drying them outside (outside where all the dust is). Of course, many things are never completely clean. It’s pretty much impossible. Oftentimes people in the cantons walk around barefoot. They are also more likely to wear sandals instead of shoes that completely cover your feet. I’ve got two good foot pictures below of people who live in the cantons. The other three are of someone from the UCA and myself. I am very discreet when I take pictures of people’s feet when they live in the cantons because I don’t want to offend people.

It’s much easier to avoid dust here in Berlín than in the cantons but dust still collects on everything you own. I keep the windows in my room closed and the door as well when I’m not at home. This serves to help keep out dust as well as mosquitoes though it’s not perfect. It also doesn’t allow a whole lot of airflow but you have to compromise somewhere. I cover my computer with a towel when not in use to prevent it from getting too dusty and often wipe down the shelves in my room because they are always dusty. But that’s life.

Below are some photos of my trip today to the canton. I’ve thrown in a few of my favorite dust pictures for your viewing pleasure:
 

You can kind of see what color my skin used to be

Walking down a dusty path

Imagine carrying that load up a dusty hill

Trying to protect herself

It's not foggy, it's dusty

Completely covered

I can see the car!

Dust queen

Formerly white shoes

My feet after a walk in the cantons

They've been dustier before

Canton life in the dry season

Dust covered

The side of the road in the dry season

This is a green plant

Dust like this is awful for people in the back of a pickup truck.

Now imagine yourself walking along the road when a pickup passes.

Even worse!!

If the pickup stops because there's a cow or another car

in the road, the dust catches up with you

A field of dust

You kick up a lot of dust just by walking

Cows make the road even dustier

It's not so great when the cows are walking in front of you

Mosquitoes

In my book mosquitoes are far worse than dust and I’d much rather deal with dust than deal with mosquitoes. For 95% of the trip I’ve been covered from head to toe in mosquito bites. I haven’t found any product particularly helpful with preventing mosquito bites. I’ve tried lemon eucalyptus oil, citronella oil, cedar oil, geranium oil, Picardin, and DEET. The DEET does help but it’s not something I want to be covering myself in every day. I suppose I could bathe in DEET every day, but there are some flaws in that logic. I don’t have that much DEET with me and even if I did I would probably die from being covered it. If I didn’t die I would have to wash my clothes after every use and take showers every day to get off the bug spray.

Plus the mosquitoes and other bugs find ways to get into places underneath my clothing. I get them on my legs when I wear long pants and I’ve found tons of bites on my stomach and back which are never exposed. I have no idea how I got some of these bites. I’m never out in the early morning or dusk when mosquitoes are most active. I also don’t wear perfume or wash with scented soaps. I’m becoming suspicious that someone is drugging me and putting me into a tank full of mosquitoes at night.

So right now I’m working mostly on symptom control. Unfortunately, my symptoms do not disappear after a day or two so I am constantly feeling itchy. I’ve had poison oak several times and once was on my face so I’ve dealt with itchiness before but this seems to be different. I think the mosquitoes here are using some kind of steroids to make their bite even stronger. For the most part all of the “medicated” products I’ve brought to relieve the itching don’t seem to work. I’ve gotten very creative and have tried in addition to diphenhydramine (pills and 2% cream), calamine, pramoxine, and ammonia.

Most of what I’ve been using is essential oil that Denise from Trinity left here for me in February. I’d also brought some Tea Tree oil from home and that helps as well. I recently read that aloe vera is supposed to help so I’m trying that out too. If I need instant itch relief I often go for an ice pack.

Here is an interesting snippet from an email I sent to someone last year when I was here:

“I am covered head to toe with mosquito bites. I’ve been scrambling to figure out what I can put on them that I have with me. Hydrocortisone isn’t working. Tea tree oil? Lime juice? Then I remembered hearing that you can urinate on jellyfish stings to take the sting away and for a brief moment considered that option. But I quickly abandoned the idea deciding it probably wouldn’t work. I’d just be itchy and covered in urine.”

You should now have plenty of information on how to repel mosquitoes and what to use if you get bitten. What’s better, you know what not to use.

Cecilia and Blanca have been talking about how much worse the mosquitoes have been lately than usual. They are also getting bitten which isn’t normal. We’ve all been sharing stories of invading mosquitoes and showing where we’re been bitten. It’s like telling combat stories only we’re talking about mosquitoes. They must have taken pity on me because when I got home today from the canton today I found a mosquito net in my room hanging above my bed. And here’s the really cool part: it’s pink! Apparently they’d been talking for a while about getting mosquito nets and bought one for me when they purchased some for themselves.

There are some risks beyond the itchiness of the bites. If you scratch them they can become infected which could require medication to treat. I have been lucky thus far in that none of my bites that I’ve scratched have become infected. We’re not terribly worried about malaria because it’s not very common here. But dengue is a risk. Symptoms usually include fever and a rash with possible headaches, fatigue, sore muscles, nausea, and vomiting. However, I am much less concerned about myself and more concerned for people who live in the cantons when it comes to complications of mosquito bites. Just because people aren’t itchy doesn’t mean they aren’t getting bit. And I have much better access to medical care plus the money I would need if I were to become sick.

Here’s a bit of info about dengue provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

“With more than one-third of the world’s population living in areas at risk for transmission, dengue infection is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics. As many as 100 million people are infected yearly. Dengue is caused by any one of four related viruses transmitted by mosquitoes. There are not yet any vaccines to prevent infection with dengue virus (DENV) and the most effective protective measures are those that avoid mosquito bites. When infected, early recognition and prompt supportive treatment can substantially lower the risk of developing severe disease. Dengue has emerged as a worldwide problem only since the 1950s. Although dengue rarely occurs in the continental United States, it is endemic in Puerto Rico, and in many popular tourist destinations in Latin America and Southeast Asia.”

http://www.cdc.gov/dengue/

Report on El Salvador (from 2 months ago)

“El Salvador. 11 Feb 2011. To date, the Ministry of Health registers 136 confirmed dengue cases, 25 more than in 2009 and 998 less than in 2010, which was an epidemic year. The Ministry has identified 3 types of dengue viruses circulating.”

http://www.healthmap.org/dengue/index.php

 

 

This is a picture of fumigation of mosquitos in El Salvador

I got this photo via the CDC website which led me to a Salvadoran website

The article is entitled "The Ministry of Health fears an outbreak of dengue"

The place with the highest level of mosquito larva is the department of Usulutan where I live

The mosquito net hanging above my bed