So, we just arrived about a half hour ago at the airport in Tarija, and the have free wireless internet. How cool is that? Suddenly the world is so small!
It's weird though thinking that I can check in with friends all over the world, but just a few hours ago, we were at a clinic where the director was telling us that, for the communities in their network that are the furthest away, it can take a half a day to get to the hospital if they needed to. So maybe the world isn't so small.
We've covered pretty much the entire department of Tarija this week, at least it looks that way on a map. But it's amazing how remote some of these communities are. Despite that, or maybe because of that, I will continue to say that people in these remote places in the world are the NICEST people. We have been lucky enough to stumble upon a few annual health festivals in two of the comunities we visited and ended up being treated to lunch, and wine (boy was THAT an experience.), and conversation. In one community, they tried to get us to stay for the party that followed, with dancing and music into the night.
We met some incredibly dedicated community health workers too, which has boosted my spirits, at least, in thinking about how we are going to be able to do this program, which is very much volunteer based. My favorite was a woman in a town called Sama. Her name is Anastasia, and she has been a health volunteer for 10 years. She has 7 kids and 4 grandchildren. She gave birth to 12 kids, but 5 died. Since part of the integrated health program she works with has to do with reproductive health and family planning, she joked that family planning came late to where she is, but as we found in most of the communities, the women were very actively using family planning methods.
Anastasia took a break from tending her sheep to talk to us. She is also the owner of what may be the most content dog in Tarija, if not Bolivia in general. She had a very sweet young herding dog who watched the sheep with one eye, while getting petted by his owner. I asked Anastasia if the dog has a name. "Yes," she said. "He has a name." The dog's name is Bin Laden.
There's no way I could make that up. Somehow I think it's hysterical, in a weird, warped sort of way. And I had to share...
I'm trying to post some pictures, but it may not work out tonight. I even have pictures of Anastasia and Bin Laden.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
It's weird though thinking that I can check in with friends all over the world, but just a few hours ago, we were at a clinic where the director was telling us that, for the communities in their network that are the furthest away, it can take a half a day to get to the hospital if they needed to. So maybe the world isn't so small.
We've covered pretty much the entire department of Tarija this week, at least it looks that way on a map. But it's amazing how remote some of these communities are. Despite that, or maybe because of that, I will continue to say that people in these remote places in the world are the NICEST people. We have been lucky enough to stumble upon a few annual health festivals in two of the comunities we visited and ended up being treated to lunch, and wine (boy was THAT an experience.), and conversation. In one community, they tried to get us to stay for the party that followed, with dancing and music into the night.
We met some incredibly dedicated community health workers too, which has boosted my spirits, at least, in thinking about how we are going to be able to do this program, which is very much volunteer based. My favorite was a woman in a town called Sama. Her name is Anastasia, and she has been a health volunteer for 10 years. She has 7 kids and 4 grandchildren. She gave birth to 12 kids, but 5 died. Since part of the integrated health program she works with has to do with reproductive health and family planning, she joked that family planning came late to where she is, but as we found in most of the communities, the women were very actively using family planning methods.
Anastasia took a break from tending her sheep to talk to us. She is also the owner of what may be the most content dog in Tarija, if not Bolivia in general. She had a very sweet young herding dog who watched the sheep with one eye, while getting petted by his owner. I asked Anastasia if the dog has a name. "Yes," she said. "He has a name." The dog's name is Bin Laden.
There's no way I could make that up. Somehow I think it's hysterical, in a weird, warped sort of way. And I had to share...
I'm trying to post some pictures, but it may not work out tonight. I even have pictures of Anastasia and Bin Laden.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
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