Ultima dia!

Ahhh,
Tengo mucho Espanol viajando en mi cabeza.  Este noche voy a ensuenar en Espanol. 
I have no idea how to put the accents and n -ays on the letters so Im not even gonna try.

Speaking of try, it was a trying last couple of days.  All is well, but its been a long week of a lot of work.
Andrew and I went out on Saturday to collect water samples in the field for the last time.  We went to some of the poorest places I have ever been.  We found a few mothers who didnt speak any Spanish, only Mam, with a sick baby.  This family didn't even have a latrine, they used the bathroom in any of the trees around their house.  We collected a sample of their water from their well.  It was filthy.  I pulled up the metal container while Andrew watched.  I said to all the little girls that were watching, "las mujeres hacen todo el trabajo".  They laughed.  They got the biggest kick out of us white folk getting water out of the well. 
After we did the sampling, the mother asked me about her sick child.  This baby was 3 months old and had a cough and fever.  I listened to the baby's lungs although it is extremely hard for me to assess a child.  I dont have any pediatric training, and part of the culture is to keep the babies covered so they don't get evil eye by being seen by a drunk man.  I heard some coarseness in the left lung and advised the mother to go to the clinic.  We brought her, the 3 month old and another young child of hers to the clinic.  They prescribed Amoxicillin, which I guess is standard here.  She was very appreciative as she had had a baby die in her arms before.


Pretty heavy. 
We went to a few other homes and certainly made the most of the experience.  It's simply amazing to see how people live and what they live with and the depth of culture.  I can't say enough about it, but because I've already said a lot about it, I'm not going to write more here.
Andrew and I finished up the bacteria counts in the lab and were stoked to have been able to do this project to meet our expectations.  Woo hoo! 
We enjoyed some Gallo beer with Maya, and Carolina made dinner for us all.  We were really happy to be finishing up.
Today we woke up at 5am so Carolina could bring us to Xela, and then we took a 4 hour bus ride to Antiqua, and then another hour ride to Guate City. 
Currently were here at a "home stay".  Its been an amazing way to end this trip.  We're staying with the sister of one of the ladies that works in the office that we were in in San Lorenzo. This family is lovely! The whole family lives here, Grandmother and Grandfather with the grandmother's son and his family, as well as 3 Spanish veterinary students. We spent some time hanging out with the family and the 3 month old dog with endless energy.  We went to the local mercado and just debriefed and relaxed.  Later, Andrew and I had dinner with the vet students and spoke Spanish Spanish.  It was great practice and very fun. 
By the way... Dad, I ate the steak and it was really good. 
Ok, one more day of traveling and were home.  Both of us are looking forward to being home. 
This whole experience was amazing.  It was a lot of work, but it was truly unique.  I learned so much about the Mayan culture as well as Guatemalan culture.  I was able to practice my Spanish and learn about collecting data in the field. 
This experience gave me a new appreciation for research and cross cultural relations.  I also have an even deeper respect for water, the source, collection and its cleanliness.  I will continue to work towards greater environmental and public health through nursing.

Hasta luego amigos!  MANANA!

3rd Day of Sample collection

Sorry for the less than glorious title of this blog.  Today we went into the field, Tuichilupe, to collect more samples, surveys and GPS locations.  I feel like we got into the routine today and it was a pretty incredible day. 

I think the most amazing thing that I have seen in a while was the loom.  We entered into this home there was this beautiful green light coming from the plastic fiberglass ceiling part casting onto the loom.  There was a 16 year old boy working it, and he was spinning the "cortes" or the woven material that is used for skirts.  I asked whose role it is to make the materials and it can be either gender and from what I've seen today, any of the children or mother's role. 

They take about one day to make, but require a lot of pedal stepping and hand work to push the fabric through the threads.  Its an occupational health nightmare!  I suppose its my training, but I keep looking at the occupational, environmental and safety risks of jobs here. 

I keep wanting to ask if they have musculoskeletal pain from their work.
In the survey questions we have been asking, people never talk about pain from the work they do.  I wonder if they just live with it, or perhaps they don't associate the two.  It would be an interesting study. 

Here are the ladies standing next to the loom, the threads are so complicated. 
I'm so fascinated by this work and how hard these people work here.  The people that I have met here work so hard, especially the women.  It is wonderful to be around a matriarchal society.  The woman of the house is named on the study list for CRECER.  It is the women who hold these families together.

As for our work, we have been doing well.  As in our controls have come out blank and there have been e. coli colonies to count.  It seems that most of the sources are contaminated and that the boiled water may have colonies as well.  The participants aren't necessarily suffering from diarrhea at the moment, but it is hard to correlate the presence of bacteria with illness.  We know that this is just a preliminary study to learn more, and we are learning so much just by being here. 

 

Today was market day in San Lorenzo, and after seeing the most amazingness of the cortes work, I had to buy one.  I went with Domi, our field worker, who bargined up a storm for me!  She spoke Mam to those selling the materials and got me some good deals.  I am one of 3 white people in this town now.  The others are Andrew and Abby a Peace Corps volunteer that I met yesterday at the cooking party.  I dont think I mentioned it because I was a bit tired after all the hiking yesterday.  Carolina set up this big party for anyone who wanted to come.  She invited a food company that sells healthy food at a good price.  They taught the women cooking and it was great for them as it was a day out of the house and a chance to meet other people.  It should also help improve the health of the families here with added protein and fortified minerals and nutrients.  We only caught the end of it because we were out collecting samples. 

 

So, we're off to cena in a few.  I'll wrap this up with one more photo of me and Andrew wearing our UC attire.  Go Bears?  (UCSF doesn't have any sports, but COEH should have its own team)

The smell of diesel at 2500 meters

Hola,
I dont know how much I have to write in this blog.  But, we'll see.  Last night we had fun at the local cantina and we talked up a storm!  It was pay day so the beers were flowing, but there is only one choice of beer and that's Gallo.  I'd compare it to a Natty Light in a really heavy brown bottle.  We had lots of fun talking about everything from futbol to why English words are spelled they way they are to nuiances of the community.  Good people!

We had another day in the field today.  Got up early and headed to Tuchilupe.  Today it was just Andrew, Eduardo and Domi.  We worked great as a team by going out and getting water samples, today from some wells, and springs as well as stored water.  This is so much work!  I took vacation days for this week, this is not a vacation.  Vacation would be sitting by the ocean in a hammock with a cold drink in my hand, or swimming with fish, or going to see some music with friends. 
I've been working really hard this year and I care so deeply about the health of the planet and the people who in inhabit it.  I know that it shows, but sometimes I get down on what kind of difference I and "we" can make when I see babies with snot dripping from their nose in the dirt playing with small plastic pieces.  I try to understand why there continues to be a skin color discrimination between people of the same ethnicity.  I struggle to know what keeps people oppressed.  I understand but can not rationalize why culture superceeds science when there is proof. 
Anyway, I'm having one of those moments when I'd like to be surrounded by some really old friends, one certain new one, and some live dancin' music.  Thats not possible, so Im going to share some photos of our work today. 

This is the view of San Lorenzo where we are staying.

One of the wells in the community of Tucihilupe.  I'll tell you tomorrow if its colonized with e.coli.

Eduardo getting a sample while Andrew takes a GPS reading

Eduardo in front of another well, with cabbage like crops in the background.  My favorite of the homes we have visited so far.

Toothbrushes outside of one home.  Note the census papers that have been stapled to the home for research purposes.

So, you may have noticed that there are no photos of the people that live here.  Because I am here under a grant from UC and COEH, we are under some regulations for human participants of research.  We have an IRB, otherwise known as the review board, which makes sure that we are humanly doing this research.  So, if I want to take any photos of people, I need to get extra consents, which may be tricky or outside the purpose of this study. 

Maya just asked me if I wanted to get a choco banana!  Of course.  Catch ya later!