The last few days we have been busy getting to all of the CFL
villages to introduce the new curriculum and to do this new training with all
of the health promoters. The training from yesterday and today both went so
well and it was so refreshing to see the health promoters asking questions and
wanting to know more about what we were teaching them. While the concepts we
are teaching seem so basic, I know that they will make a huge difference in the
communities in the long run. It’s so rewarding to see the health promoters be
so enthusiastic about the lessons because it’s them who will be teaching and
checking in with all of the individual families.
Today at the end of the training, we had each of the promoters
tell us something they learned today. As each reminded us of a point we
covered, I got a sense of the importance that these principles will have in
improving the health of the communities.
The community we did the training at today was pretty far out in
the middle of nowhere. To get there, we took the main road in the city to a
smaller paved road. From the paved road we got onto a dirt road, then a dirt
alley, and then onto the dirt path. I have no idea how the truck we were in
made it there, but somehow we squeezed through. On the way back out, though, we
got halfway down the path to find that a truck carrying a ton (literally) of
bricks had tried to make it down the same path and had slid off and gotten
stuck in the ditch that lines both sides of the path and was blocking the only
path in or out of the village. We were stuck. No biggie, right? Well it
wouldn’t have been if there weren’t three people waiting at the house for us to
take them to the airport to go back to the U.S. After determining that it was
futile to try to get the truck unstuck or for us to go around us, we, luckily,
were able to find someone to take them to the airport. After resolving that
problem, we went back to trying to figure how we were going to get out.
After walking around for awhile, we found a few walkways between
houses that seemed to connect. They were tiny, but they were our only hope
because we had no idea how or when the truck would get unstuck. To the
disbelief of many of the hundreds of villagers that had gathered at this point,
João started to navigate down these pathways in the truck to ultimately end up
back on the main path after where the truck was stuck. After literally driving
through plants, under clothes lines, over dirt mounds, etc. We finally made it
back to the main path heading out. Our success was accompanied by the cheers of
hundreds of little kids who had been accompanying every inch of the adventure
“pushing” the car along. While it was pretty adventurous, I’m glad we made it
out :) We took a couple pics but they're not on my camer so I'll post them as soon as I can.
Allie is on her way!!!
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| The health promoters from one of the local villages that we just did a training |
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| The crew heading in the back of the land cruiser to Kanimambos, a Chinese restaurant. |
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