From the moment we stepped off the plane in Managua, Nicaragua, a dominantly Spanish speaking country, communication has been an ambiguous feat — a point of challenge, learning, laughter, motivation and at times personal frustration. In despite of such challenges, we have come to understand the common thread that has helped tie together the loose ends of effective communication in a country that is foreign to many of us — the thread of discovering a unique balance of flexibility, patience, attention and creativity.
With varying levels of Spanish speaking capabilities, our DUPOLI group paired off accordingly — more experienced speakers with the novices and then paired once more with one nursing student from UPOLI. This combination facilitated more fluid conversation, assessments and health education teaching with our families in the community we worked with called La Libertad. This particular "fluidity" — while maintained to a fairly consistent degree (especially towards the end of our trip) — was only achieved by incorporating that unique balance I mentioned earlier. Often times during home visits in the community, family members would speak quickly with thick Nicaraguan tones, ask their questions even quicker and often give comically puzzled expressions when we would attempt our best Nicaraguan Spanish. It was with this realization that we problem-solved to determine the most effective ways to fulfill our purpose of visiting them. With attentive ears, sufficient preparation of written out education points in Spanish, demonstrative body language and the gracious translating abilities of our UPOLI nursing student counterparts, we were able to leave La Libertad each day feeling impactful — regardless of the degree — in that we gave our best effort to communicate and instill empowerment in our families to make healthy choices in their daily lives.
Some of the most memorable and special moments on our trip have been witnessing the various ways in which we all have learned to communicate with our UPOLI friends and our families in the community. Whether it is Erin’s reflection of UPOLI student Janelly’s sassy accent, Lauren's courageous (and impressive) attempts at speaking a brand new language, Kelly’s (even more impressive) near expert speaking abilities or Laura Beth, Alana and my ability to gradually gain confidence in a language we have previously studied — we have all found resourcefulness in one another, with UPOLI, with our clinical instructor and with the families of La Libertad when navigating the often wavy waters of achieving effective communication in a foreign place.
- Anne-Thomas Steele, ABSN Student