6/9/08 - The market at Chichi, then back to clinic (double post)

6/8/08

By the time Kalya and I made it back from the lake last night, we were too exhausted to search for internet. So sorry to all my adoring fans, but we will have to play catch-up today...

We left the lake for the famous market at Chichicastenango (henceforth Chichi, as it is usually called here) at about 8:00 Sunday morning. Upon arrival, I was immediately confronted with a problem: I was carrying a daypack full of clothes, and I had no place to put it. One thing was for sure, I was not going to carry it through a market for the next five hours.

Lucky for me, grocery stores in Guatemala are terribly concerned with shoplifting. They prohibit you from bringing any sort of bag into their store (unless you are a gringo, but that's irrelevant to this story), and they provide lockers to store your stuff while you shop. Bingo! Free five hour bag drop.

The market was busy and pretty exciting as outdoor markets go, but in the end I chose to buy nothing, because nothing was either nice enough or cheap enough to suit my fancy.

The ride home was memorable, a true Latin American experience. We hopped a bus from Chichi to Los Encuentros, then changed for a Xela bound bus coming from Guate. On those two buses, we learned several truths which have changed my view of Guatemalan transit forever.

1. Every bus is pack on Sunday afternoon. I guess people are just heading home from a weekend excursion, but each bus we hopped had at least 80 people in it. Don't forget that these are school buses.

2. You can't stand up on an intercity camioneta. Every passenger must sit. Sounds good, right? Safe, comfortable? But bus drivers continue to let people on the bus, no matter how full it is. The result is 6-7 people sitting on each row of seats. I never rode a bus to school, but I'm under the impression that they're designed for 2 kids per seat. Yesterday I was one of six on that same seat. See photo of the day for a glimpse into what I'm talking about.


6/9/08

Today we were back in Xela, and that meant back to clinic. It was our first day doing health surveys, and I was almost dysfunctionally nervous to ask rural Guatemalan women to participate in my survey. But I overcame my fears, let the Spanish rip, and by the end of the morning we had done five surveys! Great success!

Kalya and I took turns today, both assisting when the other was technically running the interview. It seemed to put the women more at ease, and most were very happy to participate and seemed to have some sense of satisfaction that they had done something to help the clinic. Yay!

It was also really special to work with the women who we interviewed today. When someone tells you about their health, they really open up to you in a way that doesn't happen in normal conversation. Health also provides a common ground on which I can meet these women who are about as different from me as anyone in the world can be. Today I interviewed a 23 year old woman with four children, zero literacy, and a husband whose arm had been lost in an accident. I've reflected on that ten minute conversation throughout the day, and what sticks with me the most is that I can't believe that I was able to engage her about anything. Health, or sickness perhaps, is universal, and today it opened an avenue of communication which otherwise would have been impossible.

Well, this has been a longer post, and I'm actually feeling a little sick today (maybe just ongoing carsickness from so much time on bumpy buses), so I'm gonna head out. Tomorrow there are supposed to be lots of parents at clinic with their children, so we're gearing up for 15-20 interviews. Hasta mañana.

P.S. The photo of the day is pretty random, but it is raindrops hitting mud puddles outside the clinic. In case you were wondering, it takes a shutter speed of 1/4000 sec to freeze raindrops hitting water.

P.P.S. Happy Birthday Katherine!