noticias

Tiqui Muni

Tiqui Muni (Municipalidad de Tiquisate) was hugely involved in our successful time. Norman, the mayor, and countless numbers of "voluntarios" helped every single day. On the first night (Saturday) Norman gave a gift to all of us, a bright orange Tiqui voluntario shirt we could wear along with the residents of Tiqui. He threw a welcome party for 120-some people, and arranged for all of us to have a hotel room, a welcome change from last year’s army barracks, with 60 bunk beds and 5 toilets. I liked this guy already!

Each day a group of women cooked three meals a day for us, providing us with cold bottled water at every moment. During the busiest clinical times, a volunteer would come around passing out cold water, in case someone wasn't able to get a break away. The majority of the voluntarios were young adults between the ages of 18 -30, had roles as translators, support staff, and also were controls for our study!

One evening the voluntario youth invited us to play soccer with them at a local field located on the other side of town. They all had a motorcycle or scooter to get them over to the other side, but I hesitated to jump on the back with one of them… my mom’s face flashing thru my mind! I opted to take a “tut-tut” with Judi and another voluntario. Upon arrival, a nice man who seemed to be the one who ran the ball fields, offered to be our referee. The Ref elected Judi, Carolyn and I as the captains of the 3 teams, and made a rule that any foul play on a girl, resulted in a “free kick” for a goal. (Anyone help me with the soccer lingo? The Spanish didn’t quite translate for me.) Each time we were awarded this “free kick”, our teams, with the encouragement of Ref, made us girls do the kicking. Once we began rolling, we attracted quite an audience around the field. I enjoyed getting out there with the locals, and getting to know them better. The game concluded, my team didn’t win…& I had no other choice (well, besides walking in the dark) but to jump on the back of a moto to get to my hotel.


Oh and the reason why I am here in the first place….Our study continued on every day. Our total number of individuals seen by Thursday was ~220, consistent with the work we had done in the past years. We added a great deal of people to our “control” group and gathered additional CL/P families as well. YAY Team Genetics!!

Thanks to the voluntarios, army guys, and everyone who came by our clinic office to help us out!

posted by carla @ 7:01 PM