Today we were up early, had breakfast and headed over to Parque Calvario, where we are meeting Ariana to take a chicken bus to Tierra Colorada Baja, the location of the Primeros Pasos medical clinic, for which I will be doing some fund development consulting. We met up with Ariana at about 8:50 a.m., but discovered that chicken buses heading the direction we wanted to take were few and far between. I even headed over to a tienda thinking that would cause one to appear quickly. It didn't! Finally, a chicken bus does appear going the direction we want and we get on board around 9:40 a.m.
It was really different from the chicken buses we rode in the La Antigua area. Those chicken buses were bursting with passengers most of the time, while this one was practically empty. The trip took about 15 minutes and cost Q2 (24 cents).
Once at the clinic, Ariana gave us a quick tour and took us to the "salon de salud" (health room), where we observed a first grade class being taught about intestinal parasites and how to avoid them. This is a significant problem for about 20% of the people in this part of Guatemala. When the lecture was over, each child got to look through a microscope at a parasite and then received a tooth brush.
After the lesson was over and the children had left, we talked with one of the children's health volunteers from Houston. She said that she typically went to the participating schools and did three 40 minute health presentations for each grade level. Unfortunately, her team partner had returned home, so she was helping with children's health presentations at the clinic for the time being.
While waiting to meet with the education coordinator, we felt the ground move, but didn't think too much about it. Later, we learned that there had been an earthquake (4.9 on the Richter Scale) on the Guatamalan Pacific coast.
When we met with the education coordinator, we learned that each school sends each of their classes to the Primeros Pasos clinic once each year for a physical examination, a dental check and a health lesson. They also do health lessons in each of the ten participating schools. In addition, there are women's educational classes. Of course, the clinic is available at a modest cost for anyone needing medical attention.
Soon after noon, we began waiting for a chicken bus to take us back to Parque Calvario. Ariana had given me a large folder of additional information that I will use in my fund development work and I wanted to drop it off at our guest house.
On the way, we stopped by the corner mercado to pick up some vegetables to make soup for supper and a mop (actually a handle with a wire mechanism that allows you to attach a towel to the end).
After dropping off the material, we walked to Parque Central to have a grilled chicken caesar burrito with fries and a drink at Pollo Campero. They are quite tasty and, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they only cost Q20 ($2.40).
After lunch, we went to Dispensa Familiar to pick up some needed items and returned to our guest house, where Linda took a nap and I worked on the computer doing my daily job search and working on my blog.
Supper was an excellent soup, followed by more blogging. Actually, the blogging goes fairly fast. It's the picture loading that takes time, especially when the daily blog that I loaded today has seventeen photos.
