Wednesday June 29th
We all woke up today at 7am and were out of the door by 8am. Today was the first day of surveying. We decided to split the group up as follows:
Stacey (me) + Tita Balona
Elizabeth + Alicia
Debby + Caitlin + Roberta
That way each group had a Spanish speaker with them. We also split each street into 3 sections and we each had 8 lots to complete on each street and we will be doing that per street visited. The first house I visited was right by the UB gate. A blue house with a brown smaller structure in front of it. I was a little nervous, maybe not nervous just nervous excitement. After saying good morning the male head of household approached the gate. His wife and other family members followed him. I remember thinking “Oh man, this will be interesting”. I then introduced myself, told him what I was doing and asked him if he was willing to participate. He then looked at Tita and spoke in Maya and Creole for more information. She explained more in Maya and I think the exchange was just to assure him that I was not a con. He then looked at me, smiled and said, “Come in”. After a flurry of words in Maya, a family member rushed in and came out of their house to present a chair for me to sit. I thanked them and then we talked a little where I further explained what I was doing and then read the consent form to him. He then signed and we began the survey. After completing the survey in 18-20 minutes we proceeded to talk about San Martin and he told me how much appreciative he was that we had decided to come to San Martin to do something with health because he said there was a lack of it in the community. It is very interesting because he also talked about having the health center in San Martin but seeing that it was closed which did not make sense to him. After a few minutes he proceeded to ask Tita questions about City Council and what they were doing and she answered and made small talk. After staying with them for about 45 minutes we proceeded to the next house, which was comprised of women. We found them in the middle of making flour tortillas and the head of the household was around the hearth flipping the tortillas. After introducing myself, she agreed to take the survey and we sat around while she cooked with other women. As I went through the survey questions she and the other ladies would laugh and then she would answer the questions. As we went through she I got the sense that the other ladies were her daughters or family members. Once we reached the end of the survey it began to rain and by then it was approaching 11:30am, we continued and it began to rain harder. Soon we were joined by another Belizean woman and man who came to buy tortillas. After they talked she looked at me and said that she did not like foreigners asking intrusive questions. I smiled at her and she continued talking to the lady we had just interviewed, telling her how she had some researchers come and ask her information about her home and how she did not like it. I know it wasn’t us but I understand where she is coming from especially if people come and ask you questions and then do not do what they say they will do. It does get old and if I was in the same position I would be over it.
After the rain had subsided I thanked the ladies of the household for their time and went to the next house, which coincidentally was Tita’s house. Tita introduced me to her common law husband, her daughter, son and grandmother. We then went to the kitchen located in the back of her compound in a separate structure where the sweet smells of home baked breads and stewed chicken wafted through the air. After sitting and talking to her daughter who also wants to become a doctor like me, Tita volunteered her grandmother to do the survey. We proceeded through the preliminary consent form and survey while Tita enjoyed an early lunch. Her grandmother is pretty awesome and agreed to teach me how to cook Belizean food if I ever wanted to learn and with time permitting. After thanking her for her time, Tita and I went to the next house. For the rest of the day until 5pm we visited each of the houses in my zone made small talk and performed the survey. Despite one break to get lunch at 1pm the only time I got to raise my feet up in the air was later in the night when I returned home at 5:30pm.
Today was exhausting but very exciting. I have heard very interesting stories. One story that sticks with me is the story from a housewife who has not seen her husband in more than 10 years because he has abandoned her. The story broke my heart because I wish I could help her or give her information on how to track her. He literally can be anywhere in Belize, in Central America or in the World. Public Health is hard because this field covers many aspects of health including mental health, emotional health, chronic health, maternal health, community health, communicable disease etc. It’s so broad and now I understand the dilemma PH practitioners are faced with when you get an answer that you cannot change or make better. I wonder how many other situations we will encounter such as this one.
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