Outreach Project (Exclusive Breastfeeding/Weening Porridge)

So, to begin this post, let me inform you of how much of an idiot I am.

About a month ago, I told my health center director that I wanted to do an outreach project at the health center (to his delight) directed towards pregnant woman and new mothers with infants between 0-12 months. The first to step (also leading to the first [and the only significant one, really] mistake) was to get the word out about this. Without recruitment, how can anyone know to join a team they don't know about. However the last part is false. I'd be hard-pressed to find someone in a 5k radius that doesn't know about the only barang (foreigner. literal translation: French person) in a 20k radius. Solution: I went through the market, the places I eat at, and of course, my place of work and told many, many people to spread the word. Strangely enough, I was surprised when the first person asked, "What time is this at?" Of course, the first answer to come to mind was "Oh. It starts at 6:00a." <---why I'm an idiot. To explain why I'm an idiot let's seek reasons why in ascending importance: 1) It's the beginning of the rice-harvesting season, so many people are going to be busy. 2) No one wants to wake their (insert explitive here) up at 5:30 in the morning to come see the crazy male foreigner talk to them about breastfeeding.

6:00a : I'm the only awake person at the health center. No pregnant women or new mothers.
6:30a : The one staff at the health center wakes up. Now, there are two people, minus patients.
7:00a : My counterpart shows up, and how nice of him, he brought me breakfast. Now, there are three people. All hosts, no contestants.
7:30a : I finally get to the 4th level of Snake on Campaign Mode.
7:55a : Two pregnant-looking women show up to the health center. I just assume they're there for a quick fix of amoxicillin.
8:00a : The two pregnant-looking women begin to leave. Wait... "WAIT!!!!! COME BACK!!!"
8:15a : Two more people show up (I better start preparing the veggies)
8:30a : Thirteen mothers/mothers-to-be, three young teenage daughters, one husband, and seven infants
8:32a : Let's get this show on the road

Moral of the story: Be prepared with the correct answer when people ask what time they should show up. The funny thing is, it seems it's more for my own well-being. People still came, but I just happened to wake up a little earlier.

Anyhow, here's how it went down:

I and three health center staff set out about ten chairs (in conjunction with the built in benches) and after I was sure more people weren't coming, I introduced myself and why I was here. I dispelled some myths about breastfeeding in America. In Cambodia, most people assume all Americans are rich and use formula to feed their babies. It was to many surprised face to explain that many women in America ACTUALLY breastfeed. Whoa. "Awt dtei. Gay bahn brap knom ta menu dey(ng) au nou Amerik prahr masao." "No. They told me that people in America use formula (powder)." "Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm from there, and that's not true." After a lovely info session, I brought everyone into the "kitchen", where I explained why simply feeding rice porridge to your infant is not enough. I had some vegetables (pumpkin, potatoes, eggs, carrot, oil) on display, and explained that you can dice and boil these babies and add them to the rice porridge for a much more nutritious (and tasty, if I do say so myself) meal. Before I move on, let me note that while I asked for small cubes, I may have miscommunicated something along the way. I only say this because there was a huge pile of julienned vegetables. Not before too long (maybe 30 min), the weening porridge was complete. I laddled out thirteen bowls-worth of porridge, and the result:

CHNEING! Delicious!

::wipes sweat off of face:: (for two reasons, also in ascending order:)

1)I was nervous they wouldn't like it
2)I just biked 3 miles to grab my dSLR since I ran out of good batteries for my point-and-shoot. Oops. Looks like I left my dSLR batter in America. Wow...


Time for execution (with people actually there): 2 hours

Needless to say, I've learned a lot about how to improve next time around.

Enjoy the pictures:




Talk to you (or see you) soon,
Garrett

Bike Racing and Delegating

First off, let me tell you how awesome the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon and Bike Race was: Awesome. Seriously, though, I had a very new experience this past weekend. I've never really been a part of any mass athletic competition. It really puts into perspective where you lie on the scale of dedication. On a scale of 1-10, I believe 4 would be an appropriate place for me at this point in my life. And, I'm absolutely okay with that. It's not a 1, and I don't have to put out the effort that says I stand in the middle or closer to having to be absolutely serious about it. On to the race: It was a 30k (18.6 mi) race through some of the ruins and area surrounding the Angkor Watt temple. I finished 20th out of 295(?) with a time of 1:05:55. I'm really pleased with my time, but it's absolutely nothing compared to the intensity of one of the volunteers who raced 100k (62 mi). Crazy! Props to you, Bill. So, by having registered to race, I was able to walk through Angkor Watt, and see the temple. And by able to, I meant that I had the ability, too. As you can imagine, I wasn't exactly in the mood or state to walk-play around all of Angkor Wat. I wanted to go back, take a shower, and take a small nap. So, today, I woke up early to grab a tuk-tuk (moto-driven carriage) back to Angkor Wat to try and get back in to see the sights. Well, when we got there, it was 50 min into the race, so of course, we wanted to see who out of our friends was going to finish the half marathon first. Now, don't get me wrong; seeing everyone finish what they'd been trainjing for for weeks/months was exhilerating. There's nothing like rooting on your friends who are accomplishing a very physically tasking experience. What I'm getting at, though, is that I still didn't visit the temple. Famous temple. Cambodia. $20 to get in for a day, normally. Few opportunities in your life time to see such a site. Yup, I didn't go. I did however get to watch the sunrise, seeing the details of the temple from afar as I waited for the race to begin. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Delegation:

I've come to realize that the importance of my position here is less in the actual teaching of simple health practices and more in teaching those who have no plans to leave my site how to teach those simple health practices. For the Community Health Education Volunteers, the key word is "sustainability". I can teach one thousand lessons on how to wash your hands, properly treat water, protect you and your family from mosquitos, what to do if you have severe diarrhia, and how to make weening poridge (is that how you spell it? Google "define" says porage, but I don't believe that for a second), however, once I leave maybe one family will have taken something out of it, which is great. Maybe others will catch on. But potential isn't the purpose of me being here. Needless to say, I plan on getting the cellphone numbers of the few Village Health Support Group (VHSG) members so that I can begin working with them. So, now you might ask how delegation comes into this. It's fairly simple. I meet with this VHSG on a weekly basis, teaching them how to effectively communicate the right information, so they can combine it with their respect in the community along with their knowledge of the culture and language and apply to more effective health education "seminars." I believe I will end up acting more as a coordinater of sorts, setting up the time and place, the topics, and the support and itinerary required. It sounds like something I may have done in college. Amazing how those things can have real-life applications.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett