Women in the community...

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After my first month(ish), I was starting to doubt whether or not I really wanted to work in the development field, or at least whether or not I wanted to work abroad. It was kind of a strange feeling because I´ve always loved traveling to other countries and working in the communities and interacting with the local people. I wasn´t sure why I was feeling this way. During my other experiences, I never seemed to mind the material conditions, but here I was starting to get tired of the dust, the dirt, the lack of sunshine (I admit, that will always be a challenge for me if I live somewhere where it's always cloudy!), etc. It was really starting to worry me...

I discovered last week that I think the main reason I was feeling this way was that I didn't have many of my own responsibilities at work, or the responsbilites I did have were mainly in the office. I love being able to talk with the women in the community, but didn't have much of a chance because I was always accompanying one of the nutritionists from CESAL and didn't get to interact much with the women one-on-one. However, the past two weeks have been awesome because I've been able to go out a lot on my own to do home visits with the community health workers and last week I started accompanying two different women on their daily market runs to record what they buy, the quantity, and how much it costs. I got to know Lucy and Lucia, the women I went to the market with, much more and was so grateful that they let me accompany them. It's been invigorating and has reminded me why I love this type of work.

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Photos

Shopping with Lucy
First market day with Lucy and her adorable daughter Judith

Dina
Dina is one of the promotoras (community health workers) in San Francisco. She and her husband have worked very hard to slowly improve their house. I love her plants! (there isn't much green in Huachipa). She has implemented all of the healthy practices and suggestions from the "Healthy Families and Homes" project. I had a lot of fun visiting other homes with her and it's amazing seeing how much she cares for her neighbors and wants to help them improve their living conditions for the health of the kids.

Comments

[Kim]

Hi Monica, I'm so happy your faith in & passion for your career choice has been restored & confirmed! You are such a great conversational writer. Your latest blog entry captured your feelings so well - I felt like I was a witness to your struggle & discovery. Love you! Mom