Practicing for Semana Santa

This is adorable: the little kids in the family have been playing "Procession" several times this week. What's "Procession"? Well, during Cuaresma, the forty days leading up to Semana Santa, every Friday afternoon there is a procession of townspeople carrying the figure of the Jesus that leaves from the Parrochia at 4pm and walks at a painfully slow (I suppose, reverent) pace throughout the town, pausing at some 10 or 15 "stations", and finally returning anywhere between 6 and 12 hours later (the time they stay out lengthens each week).

I got my first glimpse of the Procession game last week when I heard the kids chanting and solomnly singing hymns. I stepped out of my room to find them with a teddy bear dressed as Jesus and surrounded by flowers propped up on a plank that they were, also very reverently, carrying throughout the house and yard, pausing at the stations. They did a great job recreating the scene. The kids carrying the plank padded their shoulders against the pretend weight. Little "Canche" carried an urn of burning incense and let it pendulum back and forth as they do in Mass. Little David scurried ahead to each station, diligently laying out a reed mat and dusting its surface to prepare it for the Christ Bear and the bearers there-of to rest before continuing on. Jenny used a bath towel as her white shawl. There was an offering plate, candles, and an alter to boot. Prayers were held at each station.

Dia De Carino

For Valentine's Day we took the day off of health promoting (or so we thought until the school kids playing nearby presented Vicente with a wound to clean) and picnicked by the river in Vicente's community of Quixaya. It was such a great day of relaxing with Vicente (and his wife, Gloria), Dominga, and Abelino, one of the graduated promoters. Hanging out with Abelino is like hanging out with your wise, old grandfather. Gloria and Dominga treated us to a dish called chorizco which is basically BBQ, without the tangy sauce. They both laughed heartily when we explained that in the States men light the coals and roast the meat. The men were sunning themselves (and to be fair, the gringo women were too). We ate a salad of greens collected directly from the river. You can see the "crop" in the photos. The small, flavorful salad green is the signature crop of Quixaya. The food was delicious. We contributed soda and rice crispy treats. Hmmm. Well, they loved the rice crispy treats, made with pink marshmallows and topped with M&M hearts for Dia de Carino.

Gloria and Dominga preparing lunchVicente with Jose Eduardo, 2 years old

Jose Eduardo and his cousin, IrisVicente and Abelino to the rescueVicente cleaning a cut

Washing dishes Dominga and Iris

First Aid Health Promoter Training

Today was the second day of our primeros auxilios (First Aid) course with the second year health promoters Domitila, Ingrid, Samuel, Mariela, Benita, Delma, Clara, Magali, and Veronica. We taught Evaluate, Call for Help, and Treat; Cuts, Injuries, and Fractures; Animal Bites; Hemorrhage; Burns; Choking; Drowning; and Shock. This is a relatively shy goup (compared with the two graduated classes) but they did a very good job getting involved in the scenarios this time. One of the fun challenges of this year -- and a really nice learning opportunity for me -- has been experimenting with how to teach to health promoters. There is a book published by the Hesperian Foundation entitled "Helping Health Workers Learn." It is full of great ideas for teaching including models for explaining complicated concepts in simpler ways (many people have not even had a health course before), adapting information so that it's appropriate for the setting, soliciting important contributions from the learners as the people who know the patients and the setting best, etc. Planning for the courses takes a few days between the two lead health promoters and three of us volunteers. We've learned some important lessons along the way. One being that the learning has to be active and breaks for games are a must. Something new I learned today is that magic tricks don't get quite the response they get in the States. They seem to be disturbing to people. I think I'll save those for kids! Dominga teaching about wound cleansing Shom with a great fracture face Veronica stabilizing the fracture with Clara's help Magali cleaning a dog bite Clara responding to a snake bite Taking a break for hot potato ("patada caliente") Shom suffers a bloody nose mid-lecture

Clara gives Shom a handDomitila saves Ingrid with the Heimlich maneuverDomitila gives back blows to a choking baby

Delma choses a donated watch for taking pulses and resp rates

Copan, Honduras

This weekend I traveled to the Mayan ruins of Copan (Honduras) with Elena, Shom, Dick, Jen, Jim, and J&J's two adorable girls Emma and Abby. It was such a nice trip. Before we headed out from Guate City, Elena, Shom, Dick and I ran a bunch of errands in the City (fluoride, supplies for making shampoo and anti-itch lotions, formula, etc). Running errands in Guate is nothing like running errands back home. The car exhaust turns your stomach (I try to time my breathing between belches of black smoke from the truck in front), you can’t park so our ride just had to circle, and it’s so dangerous you are constantly on edge (or at least I am). We spent that night at Jen and Jim’s and enjoyed some wine, the memory of which had to last me through the trip since I had to start another course of metronidazole that night. That makes for 5 bouts of amoebas in as many months. TMI.

We caught the bus for Honduras at 5am the next morning and had an easy trip. Copan is beautiful. Jen described it well as “Antigua but a little rough around the edges”. The streets are all cobblestoned and the houses/stores are white-washed with Spanish roof tiles. The hillsides are lush green and the views are spectacular and relatively undisturbed. We spent the first afternoon at a “waterpark” though it ended up being closer to a collection of pools with some questionable water. The girls were in heaven and, well, so were we!

The next day we toured the Copan ruins. We had a great guide who shared a little of his story with us. He had worked some 15 or so years excavating the sites (wow!). He got involved one day when a visiting archeologist from Harvard found him on the roadside and asked if he wanted some work for the week. There after he has studied quite extensively and was incredibly knowledgable. It seemed sad to me that such a well-educated and experienced man was only giving tours as his living. Anyway, compared with Tikal the ruin site was less extensive and most temples smaller but the carvings were more interesting. There were stelae (historical records that look something like stone totem poles), a stone staircase that was also a historical record of the prior 300 years, a ball field, a human sacrifice “altar”, and a series of tunnels that allowed you to view the temples that were covered over as the Maya built bigger temples atop earlier ones. The story of the ball field and sacrifice alter was interesting. The game involved keeping a ball from falling to the ground. It was played only by nobles. The captain of the winning team was sacrificed as an honor. He was first given a liquor drink then laid over a large stone with a groove for his head. A neck vessel was cut and he slowly bled to death. The loser had a worse fate: he became a slave.

That night we watched some of the primaries action on cable TV (what fun!) and played cards at a cute rooftop café. The next day we holed-up at the same café and planned out our course for the health promoters on hypertension. We returned to the City on Sunday and savored our last moments of sheer comfort and luxury with Jen and Jim over sushi.