These photos were taken by Wendy Hobson, MD in May 2000. She and fellow DGH Board Member, Andrew Schiavoni, MD, spent time with the children, giving them check-ups and assessing how DGH could best help the important work of the school. Andrew is pictured in the top photo and Wendy can be seen in the bottom photo. They fell in love with the children and look forward to developing more ways to assist Los Chavalitos.
A Visit to Los Chavalitos
Isolated among the mountains, Los Chavalitos is a one hour climb by foot from the nearest road. Horses can make the trip in less time, and on a good day, Alejandro's new truck can do so in almost 15 minutes. Most days in the summer, however, the road is impassable by truck and even the horses have trouble with the mud, sinking to their knees and slipping down the slopes. The truck frequently has to be left near the bottom to ensure it can be used in an emergency.
The living complex consists of a main building, a schoolhouse, a bathroom/shower area, and a stable. There is no electricity on the farm. The three-sided, dirt-floored main building contains the kitchen, dining room, porch and seven bedrooms.
The stable is to one side of the house and there is a bathroom sink and shower on the other side. The sink area includes two washboards for laundry and lots of wet clothing waiting to dry. The stable currently holds 15 cows. There are also three pigs in a pen, and a few chickens, ducks, a turkey, a rabbit and a deer that roam around in front of the house. The three dogs and two cats have free access everywhere. There is also a covered area for storage and two unfinished bathrooms on the back side of the house. The schoolhouse is about 50 yards in front of the house and beyond that is the foundation for a new building.
From Los Chavalitos, the nearest town, La Calamidad, is a one and a half hour drive along the road towards Camoapa, the nearest city. La Calamidad boasts electricity, a few food stands, three small stores, a school, a health clinic that rarely has a doctor, and homes scattered along the river. Camoapa, with its population of 37,000, its bank, food shops, hotel and its buses to the capital, is more than three hours from Los Chavalitos. Travel is either on foot, horse or by La Ruta, an old army truck that goes to and from Camoapa twice daily. La Ruta will usually stop to pick up anyone on the side of the road and all their belongings for about 50 cents, and thus is often unbearably overcrowded.
I went to Los Chavalitos with a few objectives in mind. I wanted to get to know the children and provide as assessment of their health status and areas that need improvement. I was also hoping to provide similar feedback to the orphanage as a whole and offer suggestions for future developments. Additionally, I wanted to take a look at the health of children in surrounding areas to see how the children of Los Chavalitos compare to their peers. Finally, I wanted to contribute to life at Los Chavalitos by working with staff and children on health related issues. I had planned on taking a few days adjusting to life at Los Chavalitos and winning the trust of the children. However, as the Chavalitos are used to frequent short-term volunteers, the timeline of making friends and opening up is much hastened.
For the first week though, the kids would still go to the house mothers first with any health problem. Then they would call me in to consult. Mostly I was looking at fungal rashes or small cuts. When I took out my otoscope to look in the ears of some of the children who were noted to have recurrent ear infections, many of the Chavalitos feigned ear pain so I would look in their ears too. My entire time at the farm only a few substantial cases came up. Two of the children had to seek help from the doctor in Managua.
In line with my role of health care provider I devoted some time to updating the medical records. I also created files for the new children. Some tracking of height and weight was available and I added the numbers for July, 2000. The scale did not appear to be very accurate and there was no tape measure to record the children's height. I did however, start tracking the kids height on a wall. They each had their own space on the wall and a different color crayon to mark their height. I think each volunteer who visits Los Chavalitos should spend some time updating the records of each child.
— Kelly Fogleman, University of North
Carolina School of Medicine, 2000
