Yesterday started with a trip to the mercado Abastos. It is huge, we only covered a small area. The biggest part of the mission had been to find bags for the promotores to put all of their supplies in - the needles/seeds, alcohol, cotton, paperwork, disposal containers, etc. We had half of the original bags donated in the states and had bought others. We want everyone to have matching bags and supplies. There had been some glitches with the donation and they weren't going to arrive until the day after Rico departed. I learned that the day before he departed. So after remembering how magical everything with this project had been I chose not to stress about it. We went shopping and found better bags at half of the price of the ones we had bought! ¡Que Chido! How cool!
Rico is an avid photographer. One of the things he took a lot of photos of yesterday was the accesiblity ramps at one of the churches - La Iglesia de la Soledad. His term was "Colonial Accesibility". They work with the original stonework and it fits right in.
------------------
Tuesday
We had a fantastic meeting with Laurencio today, the director of CECIPROC, the NGO, or in USA terms, the non-profit organization that is taking care of all of the logistics. He is a wonderful man - he works so hard for this organization and has such a large heart. He is a biologist by training, and a Curandero, a healer, as well. He is a temazcalero which means that he leads temazcals, similar to ceremonial sweatlodges. CECIPROC does health, nutrition and ecological projects in pueblos in the mountains and near the coast. Last year people from the pueblos gave testimonials of how their lives have been changes thanks to Ceciproc - they build composting toilets in these dry areas which has significantly cut down onnintestinal parasites. They do garden projects - teach families how to grow their own food and workshops on preparing healthy food. In one pueblo ther is now a woman's baking co-op. People step forward as leaders in their communities. It is very inspiring and I am thrilled to be part of their work.
We set the schedule for the 4 day workshop, made plans for the clinics, went to where we are going to eat all our meals and discussed options and pricing for the three meals/ day that we are providing to the promotores. Rico and I went back to the mercado to eat there after the meeting and the food was delicious - lots of fresh vegetables in the soup. The price came in lower than I had anticipated which is great.
The surprize of the day is that we will do a radio interview this evening to talk about the project and the 4 practice clinics that will be held on Sunday and Monday. This is very exciting and gives the potential for the clinics to have many people which is what we want - lots of practice while Julia and I supervise so they can return to their pueblos feeling confident about holding their own clinics.
Again, I am so grateful that Rico is here. He will be the spokesperson tonight. I am not fond of doing interviews in English in the states - I can't imagine trying to explain everything in Spanish! I don't know the radio station (oops) but I will see if Rico can record it.
So everything continues to go smoothly. Tomorrow will be more shopping and Julia arrives in the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment