El termino de semana dos, segun Farah

Week 2 was probably the longest week we will spend in the communities. We left for Q Sunday night last week, and were planning to return on Friday. This week we worked in Colonia Puebla, a very rocky 45 minute ride from Q. This was the biggest community included in our project, as we are working with 24 families there. Placing the pumps most efficiently required a lot of planning, and we decided that if we stayed through the week and worked all weekend, we could place all the particulate matter pumps and finish spirometry by Sunday (yesterday). The thought was enticing enough to push back our San Cris return date, and thankfully, we did everything we set out to do. We even fit in spirometry in Q. The only problem was that our protocol in Q was a little off, since it was the first day we did it, and in Colonia Puebla, three women were sick (one of them was hacking away and still wanted to try, but we held off). I have to confess to feeling somewhat greedy/ambitious for data, but we also have to protect our participants from our own research because if we dont, who will?

Anyway, it was kind of exhilarating doing spirometry over the weekend in Colonia Puebla. In the midst of this village in the mountains, with rain and clouds and an extension cord so we could do the testing outdoors (with what seemed like half the community watching), and babies and chickens and horses wandering around, we had this machine worth a couple thousand dollars and these barefoot women with cloths covering their heads blow really hard into a tube to measure their lung function. With a Tzotzil translator explaining the graphs so the women could understand and see their progress with each trial. It was madness, mostly in a very good way.

Next week we start up in Chuchtik, with 8 participants. Initially we thought there were 9, but we are finding that what we expect rarely corresponds to what actually happens. And that is okay. It is exciting to start in a new community each week. Colonia Puebla was so different from Q, with the houses very close together and lots of little tienditas selling Pepsi and galletas. In CP, the kids are always eating fried snacks and cookies, to our dismay. They seem to have less land for farming than Q families. This is an unscientific opinion, but I wouldnt be surprised if health indicators in CP are poorer than in Q, as a result of less walking, more access to junk food, and worse sanitation. People throw garbage wherever they please, and with all the packaged food items available in CP, trash is everywhere.

Today and tomorrow are a break from field work, but we have a lot on our to do list. We still havent figured out the logistics and financing of stove transportation from Guatemala. We also have to print photos that we took for the families we have met. As Anna wrote, they love having their picture taken and we owe a lot of photos to eager families. Plus, there´s always the usual chores of laundry, groceries, email, etc. It´s been a long week of peanut butter and jelly so we´re all hoping to get some carne asada before going back, too.

We also took some good photos this week, and will try to post them before we leave tomorrow.