Today the physical therapy group met for the 2nd time, in a community about 45 minutes away by bus. I found out this morning, to my dismay, that Martha, the nurse here at the clinic with whom I've been working on this project, wasn't going to be able to attend the meeting! I freaked a bit for a moment, but it in retrospect, it was probably beneficial for me to fly solo today. I wouldn't have had to step up into the facilitator role quite as wholeheartedly if she had been by my side.

I think the meeting went well. It's hard for me to judge successes and failures here- I'm still getting a feel for the standards and modes of conduct. I did learn today, however, that for a meeting to be considered legitimate, there absolutely has to be snack (refrigerio). I almost screwed that one up, but got saved by Martha at the last minute. I cringed when I picked up the order from one of the local pulperias (little stores, usually run out of houses, that sell soda, snacks, fruit, etc) because today's refrigerios- coke and packaged cakes- don't exactly jive with the objectives of my project- healthy mothers and kids. Next time, though, we're meeting in a building with a kitchen, so we're going to prepare the refrigerios ourselves! I'm already reveling in thoughts of healthy fruit salads or smoothies (I only ate 3 bananas and 1 mango today, so I've been relatively deprived).

Aside from seriously increasing the caloric intake of each participate, the meeting consisted of administering a diet survey, presenting info on the importance of folic acid and iron for women of child-bearing age, a demonstration of therapy techniques given by 2 of the mothers in the group, and a fill-in the blank review of the nutrition info presented. We set a date for the next meeting and I successfully solicited one of the moms to join me tomorrow for a visit to Pipitos, the government run physical therapy program in Rivas, the nearest city. I'm hoping that Pipitos will be a gold-mine, because I currently know nothing about physical therapy and feel a bit inadequate. I really want to get a physical therapist from Rivas to come out to some of our meetings. I also have to find out what equipment is essential and how much it costs. I have a 200 dollar mini-fund for this project, and unless I can produce an excellent grant proposal this week, that's all I'll have.

One idea I've been playing with is incorporating some art therapy into the class. I think it would be fun (for the kids, but also for me!) and it might be a revenue-generator. I need to develop a method for obtaining funds for the purchase and upkeep of equipment for the class. I think the tourist presence would provide sufficient demand for locally made postcards, etc if I could get the hotels to sell what we produce. We shall see- this idea is still in infancy because I'm still judging the capacity of the kids to interact with paint and other art materials. But coincidentally, a couple from Spain who are living close to Barrio Nuevo (the location of the meeting) and working with kids in a local school, heard about the meeting and joined us. After the meeting I spoke with the woman, and told her my art idea. She's studying art therapy! So hopefully she'll be a great resource. And Karen, your ideas were excellent. I especially like the straw/paint one and am going to pursue it.

Once I got back to the clinic, I met with the doctor. To my surprise and satisfaction, he is very pleased with my project so far. I was anticipating failure because of the tone of his voice this morning when he asked for the meeting. I feel like I used to during tennis matches against skilled opponents- I started out feeling doomed, but came out with the win. (The only thing missing was Emma!) So in conclusion, I feel pretty good right now. Especially because I get to go to Rivas tomorrow-which feels like a big city once you've been sufficiently ruralized.

Part of me, however, wishes I was home tonight for the All-Star Game. Pujols is popular here (people know his name) but from what I've gathered, the community favorite is the Red Sox. I've got serious work cut out for me on that front...