Life experiences.

I was living in a town far away from where I live now. I worked in a hospital, our nurse coordinator told us one afternoon that the next day we would have to vaccinate in a population with very difficult access.

Early in the morning we went to the hospital to equip ourselves with the necessary material to lead the vaccination campaign. There was also a group of soldiers who would help us carry things and ensure a bit of tranquility in those intricate villages.

My companions and I got into several vans with all the necessary equipment and we moved to a town where the houses were so far apart that we have to walk for 30 minutes to find the next one, but with so many members inside each of them as if they were an apartment building.

In the same house you had grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, wives, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, pregnant women, and so on, they all help with the maintenance of the home. The men are there sowing and working the land, women at the stove cooking. There we spent an extended period of time while they looked for the men to receive the vaccines and meanwhile we vaccinated women and children with their corresponding doses. Some people had never been vaccinated.

After a day of this process we had to return. Now the nurses have left to go in a jeep and the soldiers are taken back to their battalion in another van.

We realized along the way that in some places it rained heavily, certain sections of the road were blocked and it was not clear where the vehicle was passing. And then we fell into a hole, completely covered by puddled water and nobody wanted to get out of the jeep so as not to get dirtied. It was then that the vehicle began to tilt and we all freaked out. The driver hurriedly got out and stood outside the passenger side to support the car from falling over, I was so scared that I ran over my two colleagues in front and got out the window as fast as I could to help the driver. All of this happened while we were all screaming in panic at what was happening.

 It was quite an odyssey. We all got out of the car and we helped to hold the vehicle and the driver and after several attempts we were able to get out of the hole where the jeep had fallen. We were finally able to get back in the jeep all covered in mud up to our knees, our snow-white blouses turned brown. It was almost 5 in the afternoon, we had already been on our feet for 12 hours and we still haven't reached our home.

Upon arriving at our home, we sadly saw that the house was flooded by the rain. We had to draw water from the rooms, the kitchen, the living room and everywhere else, before we could get rid of the mud that we had caught on the road.

The next day I went to the position of the nurse supervisor and asked her to change my job from the preventive health service to the curative health service, which was accepted.  As for my room… As soon as they vacated one that wouldn't be flooded by the heavy rains, I moved to it.

I spent 18 months of my life in that town and every time it rained heavily, the house was completely flooded, with the exception of my own room.