Today I learned a lesson about working with women in the developing world. By now, we have interviewed over 90 women. I'm good at explaining what we're doing. I'm good at hearing stories, empathizing, leading the discussion. I'm good at sitting down with an indigenous woman and convincing her that what we're doing is good, and important, and not harmful. I've been able to conquer all of those things. But for the life of me, I can't convince a group of indigenous women to trust me.
One-on-one they love me. Everyone seems to enjoy the interviews, the feeling they have of giving back to the clinic which they are universally grateful for. But when I step out of the interview room and approach that long blue bench of fifteen women, there's nothing that I can say to make them trust me. I am intimidating, and no one wants to be the one to go first.
When Kalya and I go out together, we have no problem recruiting women. But today, Kalya could not come to clinic. After an hour of rejection, I grabbed one of the other girls in the clinic who was temporarily unoccupied. Then I made the exact same announcement, this time with June standing by me. She said nothing, but an hour later we had completed ten interviews.
There was a party last night at Jess's house which doubled as a time to socialize with clinic staff and to discuss future fund raising efforts in the States. I hope that Vanderbilt will become more involved with Primeros Pasos over the next few years, and establishing a satellite clinic at Cancuen may be just the thing to make a PP-Vanderbilt partnership happen. We'll see about that next week.
6/25/08
The photo of the day shows (most of) the clinic staff waiting for the bus at Calvario. This is what I do every morning at 8:00am.
At lunch today, I went on the quest for the perfect deli sandwich. Last week I stumbled upon a tienda just a few blocks away with a meat slicer, and I treated myself to Q10.00 per pound mystery meat. Today, I was going for premium, top-shelf stuff.
For two bucks, I bought two days worth of pierna de cerdo (pig leg?), sliced thin, and a quarter-pound of cheese which is basically a cross between Velveeta and Kraft singles. I slapped that on two pieces of 100% pan integral which I bought yesterday at Bake Shop, a wonderful, stupendous bakery in town (100x better than Xelapan) which is a dozen or so blocks from my house that is only open on Tuesdays and Fridays. (While there I also bought banana bread and cookies, both of which exceeded my expectations).
In the end, my sandwich was phenomenal. I would have loved some lettuce and tomato, but I was far to lazy to wash the veggies. I think I'll be treating myself to more pierna de cerdo in the future.
P.S. I just started reading Las venas abiertas de América Latina yesterday - has anyone read it?
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