7/11/08 - Last day of Spanish (double post)

7/10/08

It was a really slow day at clinic, with a handful of patients and no successful interviews. The recent lack of interview success has led Kalya and I to think about what we're doing here with our survey.

In the last four years, Primeros Pasos has only seen a little over 500 different women (between 12 and 35) in clinic. We have interviewed more than 80 women between the ages of 18 and 35 this summer. In the last week, we've really started to hit a saturation point. So we decided that it was time to stop the interviews. That made for a nice Friday.

Thursday night we cooked dinner for several of our favorite people at Primeros Pasos. It was quite a spread - exquisite James Beard tomato sauce, pounds of spaghetti, fruit salad (with piña, fresa, kiwi, y banana), fresh bread, and two bottles of vino - a sangiovese and a pinot. Yummy! It was a really fun night.

7/11/08 - Only six more days!

Since we've decided to stop interviewing people, there was no reason to go into clinic this morning! This made for an amazingly relaxing morning, complete with a proper breakfast, some internet, a trip to Bake Shop for donuts and cheesecake, and a pleasant chicken salad sandwich for lunch.

Today marked my last three hours with Fernando, my Spanish teacher. I've really enjoyed working with him for three weeks now, and I feel like I've gained a lot of practical Spanish experience that I was lacking. We'll see how long that lasts. I brought a regalito to class today, his favorite Bake Shop donut (mora). Tonight I'm planning to visit him at the bar where he works, to try some of their house beer and say goodbye.

Tonight is also Kalya and my despedida, which we're having on the balcony at Casa Jaguar (where we live). Jesse and Alex are organizing, so it should be amazing. I think lots of Primeros Pasos people will be stopping by, then we're all headed out on the town.

Given that I had a lot of free time today, I took to the streets with my camera to photograph one of my favorite things about Xela - doors and windows. There are several uploaded to Picasa, and it makes for a good slide show. Forgive me that they are not straight - that's what Photoshop is for.