Some catching up regarding site visit

Many apologies, as I haven't written anything yet about my visit to my new home, as well as my arrival! Here are some reflections on SITE VISIT, about a week ago. We traveled from Antigua for about six hours in two big buses and two microbuses to Uspantan, Quiche (the larger head of our municipality of which our aldea is a part) and then to our tiny aldea. We met our counterparts - an educator and a nurse who work in the health post - and got to see the post where we will be based for the next two years. Of course, we will be spending time in the post but hopefully the majority of our work will be out in the surrounding communities, reaching people that live too far away to get the help they need. Our counterparts are great, and there are only three people who work in the health post at the moment so we will get a chance to get to know them very well. The visit was beautiful, and rapid.

To best illustrate our few days there, I'll tell a short story. The second day was in all senses a classic Peace Corps adventure. We were to accompany the Health Post staff as well as two psychologists and one nurse from the hospital in Uspantan to an event in one of our parajes (smaller communities that are part of our town). The aim was to give two charlas – one by the psychologists about women’s empowerment and another by our counterpart about safe water – as well as provide pap smears for women who needed them. The aldea is located around an hour and a half away on foot. Because it was further, we were supposed to take an ambulance. After just a few minutes in the back of an ambulance (having taken a Dramamine to combat the inevitable carsickness), it stopped. We had reached the site of a landslide that had completely taken out the road the night before. Since our ambulance was barred from passage, we walked the rest of the forty minutes or so to the aldea without event. Upon arrival at the aldea’s school-which has no water or electricity- we set up a makeshift examination room to perform the pap smears/exams. This involved putting sheets over windows, doors, and tables in a tiny, dank room—making do with what we have, since getting these women pap smears is more important than having the perfect clinic in which to work. The interesting thing about the room, however, was the multitude of giant spiders on the walls, as well as a scorpion on the ceiling. In these circumstances, the health post staff did a fantastic job. Providing education to the women as well as basic health needs was the first priority, and they fulfilled what they came to do. As for the way back, our companions decided that they preferred to walk in the shade, as it was approaching 85 degrees outside. However, the shady route happened to require river crossing, rock climbing, and the agility of a mountain goat. It was an adventure, to say the least! After two and a half hours, we arrived back at our new homes, exhausted and contented, as well as ready to come back for good and truly begin our work.

Since I'm writing in retrospect, I may as well skip ahead to another post, to talk about our real arrival at our new homes two days ago!