Can’t believe its already been two weeks since I’ve started my Costa Rica experience. The second week was a mix of continued routine from the first week in addition to a lot of fun new experiences, more chances to develop my engineering design and need finding skills, and a trip to the rainforest.
My observation skills were first tested over a two day needs finding and observations program on Sunday and Monday. Sunday morning started with a few lectures and activities regarding observing medical situations and needs finding. We then travelled to Clinica Biblica Santa Ana, where I was able to observe the laboratory and radiology areas of the hospital. Due to a combination of location, facilities, and it being a Sunday afternoon, the hospital was not busy at all, there were very few patients in the waiting room (which was the only place I witnessed patients at all), and there were also very few active workers. For example, when I was in the lab, for a solid 7 minutes, no medical worker was in the lab. And the laboratory was not small, it probably had room to fit up to 100 people or more. The next day my group and I went to the other Clinica Biblica hospital in downtown San Jose. I continued to take observations of both the infrastructure of the building itself, how the workers did their jobs and collaborated with each other, the processes in each of the areas of the hospital, and details about drugs and machines used. The downtown Clinica Biblica hospital was slightly more active than Santa Ana had been the previous day. I was still not able to witness a patient being actively treated or be a part of a procedure during my three hours in the hospital. 🙁 We finished up the program with some needs identification and needs statement creation.
Starting on Tuesday, we began working at ULACIT, in classroom 308, from 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm, with a lunch break in between. Over the rest of the week we started our two classes, ENGI 200 and ENGI 350. In ENGI 350, we made two need statements and problem pitches for two of the needs we found and pinpointed during our two day program at Clinica Biblica. I decided to revolve my project pitches around more organized and efficient crash carts in emergency rooms and reducing patient stress during procedures that don’t require putting the patient under anesthesia. We also did an observation activity on Friday afternoon. My group visited Avenida Central and the Jade Museum, and took many observations over half an hour in the Avenida Central and just over an hour in the Jade Museum. It was really interesting taking a moment to watch everyone else bustle about one of San Jose’s main pedestrian streets. I also took time to observe non-humans such as pigeons and other birds. The Jade Museum was really interesting culturally and historically. It was really cool to see all of the historical uses of jade and its very relevant importance to their daily life. I also appreciated the deep green color of the jade. The Salvador Dali paintings across the museum were quite unique yet somewhat disturbing in my opinion. One of my favorite things that I learned and saw in the museum was how ancient Costa Ricans really liked to implement humans and animals into their pots and other ceramics. One important thing I realized during this activity was that “Looking is the nature of wisdom” (Said by Annabeth Chase in The Battle of the Labyrinth, the fourth book in the Percy Jackson series) Knowledge in a sense comes from first observing things. I learned a lot just from observing the world around me. And from these observations I can build knowledge and wisdom.
Cool artifacts in Jade Museum
For ENGI 200, my group and I decided to continue with the project I worked on during the Medical Innovation Bootcamp of week 1. We did some more research into TENS therapy and came up with a few new ideas. However, we decided to stick with a similar design to the one we came up with during the bootcamp, which consisted of a separate sock and shoe design that would work together to give TENS therapy to workers such as nurses and restaurant workers throughout the workday. By Friday we had built our first prototype, using shoes we had purchased for really cheap in a local shoe store in San Jose. We cut out a hole in the thick sole of the shoe and placed the TENS device we had purchased inside and it fit comfortably. We also purchased conductive fabric which we would weave into a compression sock at the ball and heel of the foot, allowing the electrical current to pass through the plantar fascia, a very common region for foot pain due to extended periods of standing. We also started designing the electrical components that would be located in a 3D printed box within the sole of the shoe.
We continued to cook dinners for ourselves in the Selina kitchen, with meals that included tacos, quesadillas, and spaghetti bolognese. On Tuesday night I participated in a two-hour salsa class which was fun yet tiring. Remembering the moves and patterns came easy to me but the flow and rhythm of my body is very off. I still have a lot of work to do to master the salsa dance. On Thursday night we went out with some Costa Rican students we met at the bootcamp.
After another long yet fun week of class, we woke up at 5:45 AM to catch a 6:30 AM 5-hour bus ride to Monteverde and the rain forest. We spent two days exploring the rainforests. We went hiking, ziplining, hanging bridge walking, relaxing, and eating over the two days and one night we were in Monteverde. There is a lot that happened, so I summed up some highlights in photos below.
The mist was very prevalent in the rainforest. At the observation tower we couldn’t even see the trees around us.
Interesting caterpillar #1
Interesting caterpillar #2
Monkeys in the canopy above. One was yelling really loudly and we could hear it from very far away. I thought it might have eaten Walsh.
The boys ready to go ziplining.
Brendan on the hanging bridges. Longest one was over 500 feet across.
After another 5-hour bus ride back to Selina, I was pretty much ready to pass out and sleep until class the next morning. Sadly, another week had passed, and for me, who was leaving the program early, only had just over a week left in the beautiful country of Costa Rica with a great new bunch of friends.
– Jake Sperry