Monday, February 6, 2012

Fruits and Ancianos


English class – we were learning fruits.  I had them write the vocabulary down.  Then we played a bunch of games.  They had taught me a game they love the week before, where one kid sits on a stool and they have been assigned a fruit, the “runner” guesses what fruit they are, and when they say the right one, the kid on the stool takes off running and has to try to get back to the seat before they get caught.  We played the same game, but with English words for fruits.  After that, we practiced numbers and fruits.  I had divided up paper into number labeled boxes.  I would tell them, in English, which fruit to draw in which box.  After that, I took them back outside and divided them into two teams.  I gave each kid on each team a name of a fruit and then I would call a name and the two people from either team would have to run to the chair in the middle.  The first to sit wins, and the loser joins the other team.  I was pretty happy that they really loved that game. 

I spent some time hanging out at the health post, discovered that they make the little personal drinkable yogurts in Lucuma flavor.  I can’t tell you how excited I was about that discovery.  I drink a peach yogurt almost every day, and they’re starting to get dull.  The health workers asked me if I would be willing to help give charlas, or chats, to everyone over 60 in the community.  They had apparently planned a meeting day every month with that demographic and wanted me to help.  The first subject was going to be diet changes to help cure hypertension.  I was happy to have another opportunity to contribute to health promotion in the computer, but then I started thinking about how difficult those charlas are going to be.  The problems with malnutrition that the younger generation has right now, were about twenty times worse for the older generation, and education was even less of a priority.  I’ve attempted to do a couple encuestas with some older people and I wanted to give up about three questions in.  For many of them, malnutrition and lack of education have made it nearly impossible for them to pay attention or retain new information.  Not to mention my less than perfect Spanish must sound like I’m speaking to them underwater.  I’m a little worried about it, but I know I won’t be alone so I’m hoping that the health post workers will help me out.

At dinner, I realized that Celina might have high blood pressure.  She’d been complaining of headaches, dizziness, and chest pain.  I didn’t know what to say before, but after thinking about hypertension for the charla I have to give, it clicked.  I encouraged her to go to the health post.  

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