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
Wow, Garrett. That's impressive! Getting things like that off the ground is always difficult, but it's the thought that counts. I'm sure it was worth it to all those people that showed up, even if things started off a little rocky. Great job!!! <3
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