This and that ...

Gabriel, the one eyed guy, was here just now.
He has been having cramps and sleepless nights.
I sent him to the hospital for a check up and it turned out that he was full of parasites.

The hospital and the medication are supposed to be free.
Supposed to, but as you can guess, there is a small catch.
They never have any medication.
So, people end up not taking their needed pills or injections, or, in the best case, they end up paying for them themselves.
Nobody knows for sure what happens with the supplies that are being delivered to the hospital.

The dentist is supposed to be free also.
But this week I had to send somebody over for an urgent seeing to, and the kid was told that the dentist was on vacation!
The same happened to one of my workers.
He was sent to a private dentist, although we pay social security for him that includes free medical care at the Japanese hospital.

Also today, a young father from Barrio Maldito (the neighborhood of the bad guys) came by for a contribution for a coffin for his little girl.
The cost was 500 Cordobas (or $25).
The girl was only 4 years old and died of pneumonia.
Another sad loss in a young family.

It makes one think about the situation here.
But above all... it makes you realize how good we have it in our own country in Europe or Canada or the States...
It also makes me think how one gets used to hearing about young children dieing, people loosing limbs, ...
Things I never had to deal with before.
I had sleepless nights and spent hours thinking about these people.
I still care, but it has become more like a thing of life... death.
What still shocks me at times is the fact that everybody considers it almost normal to loose a little brother or sister.