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Adventures with the Director
Every week, Dr. Eliazar Gurdian, the director of Hospital La Trinidad, takes us on an adventure. The first week, we went to Managua for a the celebration of the 31st anniversary of the revolution and the FSLN party. That day was crazy, to say the least. I’ve never seen a group of thousands of people more passonate about their government and president, Daniel Ortega. Explosions, cheers, and patriotic music filled the air for their entire day (and most of the day was spent on the bus - the typical 2 hour journey to Managua took over 5 hours because the streets were lined with hundreds of crowded busses, all parading to Managua at what felt like 10MPH). We felt incredibly welcomed by Dr. Gurdian to have him invite us to celebrate this day with him and his family in Managua.
Dozens of people rode on the roof of every bus just for the chance to be in Managua for the celebration.
Crowds waving their FLSN flags by the fountain in Managua.
Later that week, he stopped by our house on his motorcycle with a nebulizer to fix. Somehow this delivery turned into an adventure into the mountains to see the cattle! This hospital is filled with cattle and chickens to supply food for the members of the community who live here. I recently learned that the government allocates one cow to every family of Nicaragua, which explains why there are so many cows here!
For weeks, he has been promising to bring us to a cool “tourist spot,” but many times the plans have fallen through. The director is always incredibly busy, almost to a humorous extent - we often remind him of plans we’d made, such as a scheduled English lesson or this tourist trip, and are almost met with a look of surprise and apology, with the excuse that he has another meeting. But that hasn’t stopped him from bringing us out to dinner every week - first to a hot dog stand, and then a local restaurant where he feasted on cow intestines soaked in a broth with a cow’s hoof. Dinachi and I, on the other hand, opted for the plainest beef we could find on the menu.
But anyway, yesterday we finally made it to the location of the indigenous tribes of Cerbaco, Nicaragua, the “tourist spot” he’s been referring to for all these weeks. After a short hike, we came across a beautiful waterfall, surrounded by rocks that were marked with tribal drawings. It was an incredible view, and definitely worth waiting all these weeks to see!
Waterfall in Cerbaco.
Drawings of the indigenous people of Cerbaco.
After the waterfall, we had another delicious hot dog dinner! Dinachi and I had been keeping our fingers crossed that he’d want to stop for hot dogs, because these meals are much more enjoyable than the noodle cups we’ve been eating in our mosquito-net covered beds. Mealtime conversations with Dr. Gurdian never fail to be entertaining. Topics have included dating, marriage, Ricky Martin coming out of the closet, and his passionate belief that Dinachi and I should only sleep 4 hours a night. He nearly faints every time we mention that we slept for 8 hours, urging us to realize that we are wasting our lives and that time spent sleeping is the same as time spent dead. Not sure if we agree with him on this one, but it has certainly led to some interesting debates!
One of things I’ll miss most about Nicaragua is definitely Dr. Gurdian. In the absence of a family here, he has stepped in as both a support system and a source of entertainment. He makes us feel so welcome here, and goes to great lengths to include us in the community. This month would have been much harder to get through had we not had such a supportive director, so I am incredibly grateful for everything he’s done for us.
