Blogs from Bri Bri, Limón, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

Imagine an entire indigenous community. Imagine half of that community scarred for life by a flesh-eating worm. Imagine the children in that community wanting to go to school, but not having more than a shack with one standing wall! Imagine people wanting to build their own school, but just not having any money! This is a tough reality and hard to imagine, but it’s happening in the mountains of the Bribri indigenous territory. Alto Katsi is a small indigenous community in the mountains of Talamanca. Half of the kids in this community suffer from papalomoyo (leishmaniasis in English), a flesh-eating worm that can only be treated with daily injections of iron for at least a month. Unfortunately the economic circumstances are so bad that this treatment is not possible. This worm causes incredible scars that will ... read more

Het vroege opstaan zijn we ondertussen al gewoon dus even stad in op zoek naar een bezigheid voor de dag. Toerke geboekt naar de Catarata, Riserva indigena y la Casa de Chocolate!!! Onze gids de Fernando leek nogal ne stille te zijn maar dat bleek uiteindelijk nogal mee te vallen, oorzaak was: newyears hangover. Eerst met ons buske naar BriBri gereden en daar de jungle in: met buske en al door de Rio Carbon op - de steenkool ligt er voor t rapen!! Nog een dik half uur marche a proche gedaan, tot aan de enkels in de modder gestaan ( sappig gevoel met teenslippers aan!!!!) om dan bij de waterval uit te komen en een duikje te nemen. Het water was best aangenaam, zelfs zonder neopreen pak. Op de weg terug een red dart frog ... read more

Ok, almost 3 months after returning from a trip to Bri Bri, I am finally getting this blog-post done. Apparently, I have adapted well to “Tico Time”. At 4am on a Wednesday morning in late February, 13 sleepy medical students and a volunteer psychologist from Japan boarded a short bus with me, Dr. Christian, Dayan (our health education coordinator), Tatiana (our psychologist) and Dr. Rae Schnuth (a Med School Dean at Michigan State). We were off to Valle de Talamanca to host 2 mobile clinics for the indigenous Bri Bri tribes there. After an 8-hour drive with stops for breakfast in Siquirres and snacks in Limon, we arrived at the Rio Sixaola. (We were almost at the border to Panama, we could see Panama just down the river). We loaded all of our meds, equipment and ... read more