We are back in San Cristobal de las Casas, and in retrospect, I must say that we accomplished a lot this week. We hit the ground running and look to finish ahead of schedule, able to finish all of the premeasurements of particulate matter and spirometery (almost) in Colonia Puebla, the largest community.
More and more, next week looks to be another hectic one, balancing spirometery, filters, and platicando with Fernando and Helps International to ensure the safe and timely arrival of the ONIL stoves for the communities. To be honest, I am looking forward to it. To see how far we have come and the great relationships we have created with many of the people of Chenalho, I am amazed. We arrived to Chiapas a complete mess: we were told that the stoves were not as helpful as we once thought and that the communities probably wouldn't use them, to being told that we had to compromise the people's solidarity by accepting donated from the Mexican government.
Granted we are nowhere near done with this project, however to be standing here saying that the stoves will be coming as a true donation with no strings and that those families that are signed up to receive them truly want to use them is exciting.
This week not only meant a lot of work, but also a newfound respect for the education of the health promotor. We had the opportunity to take a glance at the texts the promotores had to learn in order to receive their accreditation and it was truly amazing. The amount of knowledge and clinical applications mirrored, if not surpassed, any high yield text needed for the first two years of American medical school. And to see that some of these health promotores have ingested and put to practice this huge volume of information at the age of 18 (!) is truly humbling. These trusted individuals bear the huge responsibility of tending to the health needs of the community with limited "education" (many have not completed grade/middle school). Interestingly, these promotores care for their own rural pueblo better than any physician, nurse, or other health proffesional from the city can ever do. When I was 18 all I cared about was partying and trying to get into college to improve MYSELF. These people have the interests of the ENTIRE COMMUNITY on their minds.
This mindset speaks to one of the largests contrasts between American and rural Chiapan culture. There is no ME in Los Altos, there is only US.
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1 comment:
glad to hear you guys are doing well... love reading the updates. it's a nice break from hospital life to be temporarily transported back there. treasure every day there... you'll be sad to leave but even sadder once you're home and realize it may be a long time before you get back there.
be safe,
greg
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