Primeros Pasos orientation

I can’t believe it’s already Thursday! My Spanish is continuing to get better, and I’m getting more comfortable using it. Most Guatemalans will say that they often use incorrect Spanish, which sometimes makes understanding people more difficult. But, I hope to get the hang of it soon enough and keep trying to hunker down and just study vocab… maybe next week?

My time with my Guatemalan family is coming to an end. I have decided to move into an apartment this coming Sunday, given that is my last official week of Spanish study. It has been nice to be with the family, but we still don’t have a door and needing to have someone open and close the door for me is getting a little old. I recently learned the real story behind the two other guys who live in the house. While they are Jehovah’s Witnesses, like my host family, they are really just two guys who are renting rooms. Guillermo, the younger one, actually arrived the same day I did just earlier in the day. Oscar arrived 6 months ago, but recently quit his job at a bakery and left. No one knows when he is coming back, they jokingly say that he will find a girlfriend in the big city and never come back. Per usual, I don’t really know what’s going on. I also found out that the Senora actually owns a fabric store. This explains why we eat a lot of eggs and quick food, and she is never around. I don't think I'll ever know if she really is 10 years older than he, as she looks.

I also had two days of orientation at Primeros Pasos and I have a good feeling about it. There are 3 other volunteers who are going to be starting with me, all American women, mainly in their first year out of undergrad. I think I'll be there a month or two and then see what other doors it opens. We spent the first day learning about the Guatemalan health and education systems. Like many developing countries, Guatemala’s public services are not adequate for the need and are a little corrupt. Public hospitals are free to all, but there are a limited number of doctors, hospitals are primarily located in large cities, and the waits can be extremely long. Additionally, many doctors who work in Public hospitals also have private clinics. Therefore, they will tell their patients that they need to come to their “other offices” and charge them for what should be free services. Doctors, and private health clinics, also have relationships with pharmacies and labs. They are known for sending their patients to their friends, and telling them that they need to buy more expensive drugs etc… Services for the rural population are also extremely limited. There are ambulatory services that are supposed to come once or twice a week to the rural towns, but don’t always. When they do come they are known to take long lunch breaks, run out of medication, close early, etc… Other problems with the health system include: government health educators and pharmacists who aren’t trained and will hoard medication and then it will expire, or not really know what medication to give (any one who wants to make a buck can open a pharmacy); and health educators who do more scolding then educating.

The Primeros Pasos Health Education Program has two main components. One in the clinic when the schools come for a check-up, and the other in the schools. The workshops in the clinic are about 30 min long and cover basic concepts such as washing hands, brushing teeth, cleaning fruits and vegetables, parasites and (as the grades get older) basic hygiene and puberty. Primeros Pasos has a fairly detailed curriculum and workshops that the Health Educators teach, so the orientation is for us to familiarize ourselves with it and the core concepts the clinic stresses. The workshops in the schools are more extensive. There are three to four per year and they last 45min. For the younger grades they cover similar topics, just more extensively. There are games, songs and activities for each concept. Starting in the third grade, more serious topics are discussed. These include: values and morals, reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, gangs and natural disasters. There is more orientation next week where we will go over these concepts and workshops, and then teach one to the clinic staff to practice.

It doesn’t look like we will actually start teaching for another two weeks, because school was supposed to start this week but has been delayed. This means that we have more time to get ready and familiar with the material, but I also hope to go do some site visits and learn more about reproductive health programs and maternal and child health services. I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to look, but I’m excited to start talking to people. There is a network of Midwives here in Xela and a friend a mine at the school is going to work at a clinic near the lake – so that might be where I start.

I hope you all are well and send me news! Besos from Xela!