Illnesses of El Salvador
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2005
1
2
3
Trip End
Dec 03, 2007
Loading Map
San Salvador,
El Salvador
Monday, January 16, 2006
My group has finished training, swearing in on December 2nd and everyone moved to their assigned sites. I had a few problems along the way. I was assigned to the Department of Morazan, the strong hold for the guerillas during the war. Morazan is in the eastern region of the country where poverty is even worse and transportation is very expensive so people are not able to travel much. The community was beautiful with many streams running through and a small river. In the mornings I bathed and washed my clothes in the river. I had to be moved to a new site because I have tendonitis in my knee and the hour and a half hike to the pueblo (larger town) from my canton (small rural town of about 500 people) was not going to work as a safe site. I ended up getting Dengue Fever soon after. I don't normally get headaches but I decided to blow it off because I really wanted to get some stuff done that day. I was getting pretty warm in the sun and my head was hurting pretty bad still so I went back to the house I was staying in to rest. I began to get really warm and asked the old woman in the house if I had a fever. She touched my forehead and freaked out about how hot my skin was. I decided to lay down next to the fan and call the medical officer. I came in the next morning on the bus (I don't know how I made it). I had a fever of 102.2 and a killer headache. My legs had started hurting too and my breathing was rapid. My muscles were spasming causing bone breaking like pain. I was sent off for blood work and it was eventually that I have Dengue Fever (aka bone-break fever) because of my low platelet count and my symptoms.
Hospital Food
I couldn't eat for a few days. My first night I couldn't sleep and was moaning and groaning all night from the spasming and headache. The fatigue was huge and I could barely walk down a hallway without needing to lay down. There is nothing that can be done for Dengue fever except time, tons of water and Tylenol (which doesn't even keep the edge off). After a couple of days the fever began to go away and the spasms stopped but my muscles ached like I had run a marathon. The headache was still present but was accompanied by eye popping pain and I couldn't move my eyes or head very far or fast. The hemorrhagic rash began to appear at this time too. I got little red dots all over my arms and legs. My feet turned completely red. Before I realized what was going on I first thought I somehow had gotten sunburned but it was happening in places I knew I couldn't have (bottom of my feet, palms of my hands). Along with the rash I was getting random bruises too which I found out is part of the hemorrhaging also.When I was finally medically cleared to leave the Capital I discovered I had intestinal worms. When I returned to San Salvador for a check up on my knee and worm medication I came down with severe Bronchitis and was hospitalized for 5 days. Thankfully during this time my program director found me a new site. I will be moving to La Union, the department furthest east. I will be living next to a large lagoon that may be a significant body of water during bird migration. I will be doing Environmental Education in the school, which I am looking forward to.
Medication
They want to start a recycling program at the school and along with that I will probably teaching the kids to make recycled paper, probably adding seeds to it so they can plant it later or just change up the texture. Towards the end of training the father of my host mother, who had been living with her brother, moved into the house next to my half wall in the living room. He was very ill and I had to move to a neighbor's house for a few days while people came all day and night to pray and chant by his bed. I eventually moved to the back of the house but the grandfather died. They mourned for nine days with daily church like sessions in the house packing 40 or so people into a small living room in front of a large shrine.
Garbage is a huge problem here. People constantly throw their garbage on the ground or out the window of the bus. Growing up in Humboldt I find it shocking that people would do that but it has become so ingrained in them that they don't realize how much they are hurting the environment. I have been told that the community that I will be moving into use pit latrines (large holes dug deep into the ground with a cement slab with a structure that looks like a toilet seat) to go to the bathroom. The problem with this is that the water table (the water under the ground) in this region is relatively high and is contaminating the well water. I plan to provide some education about this but I may request a volunteer from Rural Health and Sanitation for after I leave if the issue is severe enough.
