Lou, who will coordinate the nutrition project
After much research, drafting, revising with everyone from the ECOSS coordinators Delia and Violeta to Mary Murell, and community trials, its full steam ahead for the nutrition questionnaire. These intended to gather nutritional statistics on the communities around San Miguel (there are no such statistics) for the 50,000$ grant request to fund an educational play and radionovella. Apart from screening for a/s/l/h/w/number of kids and their a/s/h/w, the 30 questions focus on nutritional knowledge, attitudes, practices and economic challenges. Inquiries include frequency of consumption for fruits, vegetables, protein, carbs, fats, and beverages; favorite foods; frequency and reasons for lack of money for buying food; and definitions of "eating well." We are distributing 20 questionnaires in 10 of the 21 communities with which ECOSS works. All promotores were briefed last Friday, and instructed to conduct the questionnaires on a one-on-one basis with the women in the communities, as many of them do not read or write.
On Tuesday, I joined Salus and Bibiana in Ojo de Agua. It takes nearly 2.5 hours to drive there from CASA - the last destination on the convi's route. Therefore, also, we only stayed for one hour, to have time to pick everyone else up. Salus, Bibi and I split up into 3 groups to administer the questionnaires. I got comfortable next to a group of women, sitting on a rock, with the sun grilling my backs. My first participant was a woman in her 60s, who still has some of her younger children (aged 18 ) living at home. The second mother was 54 - with 9 kids, 3 of them teenagers. The third was in her late 20s, her 3 children in her lap. Two of the toddlers played tagged, daring each other to touch me. I poked them back, and they squealed in pleasure. Another little girl played with my straight hair, comparing it to the ringlets of one of her playmates. I gazed at the children with deep eyes and pouty lips, I listened to their mothers tell of how malnutritioned they are, and I learned, for the first time, whan terms like "income gap" and "impoverishment" really look like.
On Thursday, we continued the questionnaires in Corral de Piedras, with Bibi and Choche. Nasim, from Global Kids, joined us, with Toshana, one of his students. Corral de Piedras is one of the largest communities in San Miguel. (We walked around afterwards, enjoying the shade of the trees, the ruins, and even coming upon a circus!) There is also a health center on site, and we walked in on the nurse explaining contraceptive mehtods (many of which were unavailable, due to their high cost). The questionnaire answers here were different - few women talked about malnutrition, many reported Coke to be their drink of choice, and although serveral were overweight, they claimed to be satisfied with their weight. I may be wrong, but it appears to me that those from Ojo de Agua represent a very deep level of poverty, where nearly everything is lacking, while those from Corral have just a little more - but so little, that it is only enough to spend on cheap, filling foods (hence the chips and Coke). Aside from nutrition questionnaires, we also planted trees and distributed pamphlets on exercises. It is good that they were illustrated, since many of the women are illeterate (and therefore, cannot read the ingredients or nutritiona facts on he products they purchase).
However, I am confident that in order for this project to work, we have to start with the CASA promotores themselves. One girl, after rejecting a banana I offered her, smiled and said "The truth is, many Mexicans dont like fruit." Well, I know this can change- in high school, my breakfast included packaged 25 cent brownies all the time, and I have barely touched those for 3 years. To change the situtation in CASA, I am also distributing questionnaires to the promotores, and hope Lou will integrate an institution-wide educational component into this nutrition project.
More Lou______
I received more news on Thursday - after interviewing Lou, Bere, Andres and Yolanda, as well as familiarizing myself with the particulars of the nutrition proposal, I finally submitted my article to Correo, the Guanajuato state-wide publication. Lou and Bere checked it over, and I sent it to America Ortiz, the San Miguel coordinator for Correo, on Tuesday. Surprised that I had not heard anything from her since, I phoned the office - to learn that, indeed, the article was in the day's newspaper. I rummaged through the pages, and found a picture of Lou and of CASA, under the headline "Tiened sobrepeso 30% de ninos and 45% de adoloscentes." Yes, there was my article - under her name!!! I called the office, and the lady sweetly explained to me that she could not change the facts, but since she edite the article, it was hers. No, I said, thats called plagiarism. She asked me to call back, she would check if it would be possible to print it in full form. Enraged, I hung up - but I will be going over there today to straighten it out. Heres the link: http://www.correo-gto.com.mx/notas.asp?id=78268. I guess I got a first hand look at corruption here.
On Friday, I checked back with Delia. We have 2 communities comletely covered, and the rest will be completed this week. After that, time to conduct analysis. I also sent an English language nutrition article to Mary, to publish in Atencion. I think I will also work with Daniel to design a well-illustrated nutrition brochure. Ah, work, work, work.
Update: Good news!
I went to visit Ms. America Ortiz on Monday, who explained to me that she thought what I sent her with a press release. Never mind that I have never seen a press release full of quotes, I still don't understand how that explains her even crediting the photos to herself. But alas! The article was published in complete form, under the heading "Otros Voces" - Other Voices, on Tuesday. Please see link: http://www.correo-gto.com.mx/notas.asp?id=78922
My first Spanish language publication! Praising the Lord and patting myself on the back - like Nadine said, patience and persistence.
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