Third Week of Field School

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Hello to All!

This week our main focus has been to learn about Anthropological Measurements: things like height, weight (and calculating Body Mass Index - BMI) as well as blood glucose and blood pressure, skin fold measurements for detecting body fat, etc. We had lots of lectures and practice sessions Monday through Wednesday. This was all preparation for holding a local Health Fair where we would do this in a rural community called Canitas which is northwest of Monteverde. This was held on Thursday and we all think that it went pretty well. We would have liked to have more than the 30 or so participants but we will have to work with the data we collected. We will be running analyses on the data next week and doing more interviews for our research.

It was kind of a stressful week since there was so much to do and many of us were worried about our Spanish speaking abilities at the Health Fair. Most of the Ticas (they were mainly women who frequented our fair) were very patient and understanding about our skills and went with the flow.

Every day I have been trying to walk to the Monteverde Institute where we go to school. I have a favorite spot along the walk that is really cool. From this one spot on a clear day we can see the ocean, actually the Gulf of Nicoya. Even on cloudy days this spot is very interesting because occasional clouds drift over from the rain and cloud forest and obscure the view partially. I probably already wrote about this because I enjoy it so much.

The rain and the clouds do kind of get to us a lot. If it is raining and we need a ride we often have to wait a long time for our bus or the Institute Van. So it is difficult to plan without a contingency plan. The Ticos are really good about this and often tell us they will do this or do that "if God wills it". We Americans can get sort of testy when our plans don't take the shape we intend for them. It is often really cold, especially at night and early in the morning. And if there is a storm from the Pacific or Atlantic we will see some of it here since we are sitting on the Continental Divide. It is a cool phenomenon from a geographic standpoint but not from a logistical one!

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Photos

Aiden
Aiden is one of the students who is in the nutrition group.

Robert
Robert volunteered for one of the class anthropological measurement practices.

Maria Jose
I had to buy some rubber boots for last weeks visit to the farm and against the rain. I had to buy the kiddie ones since the adult male ones were too big. My housemate really enjoyed them - and see how nice they go with her doggie sweater?

Racine and Ernesto
Racine is a PHD Anthro student and Ernesto is another grad student who is assisting in teaching the course. The two are having a break from class on the lawn in front of the Institute

Getting Ready for the Health Fair
We are setting up for the Health Fair. We were all given white t-shirts with the Monteverde Institute Logo on them so we could look offical.

Health Fair
My group worked on taking measurements that will be used to calculate body fat levels. We were nervous to have to ask people to expose body parts but after a little practice and with the patients of the Ticos, I think we did really well.

Health Fair Again
There were many stations at the health fair. Jennifer and Ali are both doing various food intake questionnaires.

Health Fair Station
Here are Katie and Stephanie ready to take Blood Pressure and Blood Glucose of our participants

Another Health Fair Station
Charlotta and Racine are handling another station at the Health Fair