Mam

Hola!
Estamos en San Lorenzo!
Wow, another huge two days.  Andrew and I were picked up by Carolina yesterday in Antiqua and we traveled about 6 hours west to San Lorenzo by CDC pick-up truck.  Carolina is a biologist/researcher that has been working with the studies that have been going on here for three years.  Its incredible how much work has been done here and I'll talk more about it a little later.
I was really impressed with the roads on the way here.  We didn't even hit anything, no dogs or chickens or rocks for that matter.
We stopped in one of the bigger cities here, Xela, to have lunch and pick up a few items for the research study.  We went to this BIG box store which was just like Walmart.  They were even setting up Christmas items like fake trees and ornaments.  Just like home right?  This store was kind of shocking to me, as I know that the upper class exist in developing countries, however, I have never been to one.  It just further exemplified the canyon between the rich and the poor all over the world.  It gives me sadness to walk into a place that only some can go to.  Its an interesting contrast visiting some of the poorest homes the very next day.
Which brings me to today!  How lovely it is to be studying diarrhea and experiencing it at the same time!  I totally have a gringa belly.  It can't handle any of the real world bugs and things.  I'm okay though, I had some yogurt this morning and some probiotics and some Coke to kill the bacteria.
The house we are staying in is lovely!  It's where all the researchers are living doing this work as their career.  This area, San Lorenzo and San Marco, is home to a big project which has been using GPS, overhead imaging and many research projects to understand about respiratory health, water and sanitation issues here in this region.  I am not sure how many years this has been going on for, but at least 3. I'm so impressed by the work that the people here have done.  One study helped place cook stoves with chimneys to keep the smoke out of the kitchens for better respiratory health of the mothers and especially the babies that ride on their backs all day.
So, today Andrew and I went out with Eduardo, Carolina, and Domi to collect water samples and do surveys with the community members.  We aimed to get 8 surveys and a bunch of water samples, which we did!  Most of the mothers and families spoke Spanish, however because we had a translator, Domi, who was able to speak Mam (the Mayan language as well as Spanish) the participants of the study went back and forth between both languages.  It was very hard for me to understand their Spanish as they have an accent and it was complicated by words that I am not used to using of this region.
Everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming.  They showed us their latrines and Andrew and Eduardo took a GPS recording, while Carolina, Domi and I did the surveys.  We took water samples from their piped water and any water they had saved in the kitchen.
It was incredible to be reminded of how these people are living.  I have visited homes like this when I worked with Shoulder to Shoulder in Honduras, and when I was in Rombo and Dar Es Saalam in Tanzania.  But, its always incredibly humbling to see what these people do in their day to day lives.
For the people that we visited today, getting water was not very difficult, they all had taps near to their homes where when they turned the water on, it came out.  One of our survey questions was if the water ever went out.  And the answer for the most part is no.  So thats very reassuring.  Their latrines were near or a short walk from their homes, usually a cement raised seat covered by a tin roof with some wood around the outside.
The most shocking was a flush toilet!  It most likely flushed into the nearby stream, but the funny thing was that next to the toilet was another closet that would have been a shower, but it was a potato storage area instead.  I will upload the photo!
There were many animals, all which entered into the homes, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, turkeys.  I didn't see any horses, goats, sheep or cows enter the homes, but they are close by.
Many of the homes were well kept, although some had trash everywhere.  I think all of the homes had the special cook stoves, some had electricity and TVs, which was also incredible!  I'm not sure if they were working, but a few had the radio on.
At the last home we visited, the mother of the family wasn't there but the grandmother was (most likely about 40 years old) and she offered us this sweet corn drink.  We all had some and it was delicious.
Once we got back to the office, we processed the samples in the lab with filtration and are currently incubating the petri dishes.  I think we got about 18 water samples in all, and hopefully the blanks don't grow any bacteria and some others grow e. coli.  Its the end of the rainy season now, so we expect to find some.  Once we are done collecting data we hope to relate it to the illnesses described in the study.  This is a really really small study, a and most likely a pilot for future work if we find anything.
Its a really interesting experience and I am fascinated by people and cultures.
I am really interested in learning more about native people's rights and how they have been affected by modern society.  I'd love to learn more about migratory paths of indigenous people that have traveled all over the world hundreds of thousands of years ago.  The look of the faces, and the skin color and even the languages of these native people seem so similar to other cultures I have experienced.  For example, the indigenous people I have met in New Mexico and Alaska.  If you were to show a person's face (without hints of clothing or language) it might be very difficult to know exactly which part of the world they have come from.  I'd also love to know how the language traveled and changed.  But I guess that's a whole different master's degree.
I am truly realizing though that I don't think I would make a good researcher.  I love to hear stories of people too much and am not good at filling in a 1 or a 2 into the boxes as much as I like to hear their perceptions of their experiences.  I am confident that I am in the right space in terms of my profession and direction.  I am eager to get back to learning about clinical work and how to be the best nurse practitioner as possible.

We're gonna head up to the house in a little bit, to relax and I will be doing homework, YES, homework, powerpoints in Guate!  It's not all lava and glory, but its certainly an experience.

I will upload photos tomorrow!  We are going to do more surveys and samples and of course, LEARNING.

Yours,
Truly