Top 10 Lists for 2012

Happy New Year, one and all! We brought in the new year with lots of firecrackers (the loud kind), lots of fireworks (the pretty kind), an emergency siren (I guess that's just for fun), and an all-night rock concert. Everyone was celebrating except the dogs, who were trying to get under something and away from the noise.

FuWe Dog trying to deal with the loud noises.

 It's always good to reflect on the pluses and minuses for a year, and 2012 is no different. I think we will stick with the high points, just to keep us on the bright side :-)

First we have Steve's top 10 (eleven). They are in chronological order.

Jeff, Steve, Susan & Stephanie

1. Jeff and Stephanie came for a visit.
   
2. I was able to make my iPhone work in Belize.
   
3. I went to Sagitun and helped wash hair for kids with lice.
   
4. We started on the revision of the training manual for the community health workers.
   
5. I had a spring break in the US and saw all my relatives.
   
6. I worked at Sandy Beach doing simple woodwork projects to help them get ready to re-open the restaurant.
   
7. I helped the people at the clinic make an educational DVD to play in the waiting room.
   
8. I got to introduce a speaker at the Embassy in Garifuna. Aidra helped me immensely.
   
9. We had an October trip to the US to see Burke, and I got to spend some quality time with Jeff.
   
10. We enjoyed watching the election returns, knowing that we had voted early.
    
11. Five people from the Peace Corps office came to our health fair with the NGC (National Garifuna Council).

 And here's my list (only 9 so that makes up for Steve's extra one):

1. Jeff and Stephanie came to visit!
   
2. Jeff and Stephanie announced that they were expecting a baby!
   
3. Dad and Joyce came to visit!
   
4. We got an exciting assignment - to update the training manual for the Community Health Workers.
   
5. Garifuna GLOW Girls came into existence, and I discovered that I'm really bad at knowing anything about kids, but I like it anyway, and they don't seem to mind that I'm bad at knowing about kids.
   
6. Traveled to the village of Pueblo Viejo to work with Mallory Begley, another PCV. Found out what "real" Peace Corps life is like.
   
7. Our GLOW Girls won the national art contest sponsored by Peace Corps.
   
8. Grandson Burke was born and we got to go home to the States to visit everybody. Got to see my family and all my friends.
   
9. GLOW Girls performed at grand opening of Pen Cayetano's mural, and they had a float for Settlement Day parade.

Tummy Time

Everything is still pretty quiet here. Our next-door neighbor's house was broken into on New Year's Eve. She wasn't there that night. Guess with all the noise, and the fact that our dogs weren't outside to bark at intruders because they were cowering inside, it was pretty easy for somebody to get in. They can't figure out what was stolen, but there was definitely a break-in.

Life goes on. We still need haircuts. Notice the calendar!

Zumba starts up again next Monday. This time we will be working out at the Town Hall, in front of Pen's mural. We are hoping that the indoor, roomy venue will encourage more people to come. It is a further distance, however, so I will have to take a taxi in order to get my speaker over to the Town Hall. This time I will have a small charge ($2 per class) that will help defray that expense. I am also adding a little strength work, or toning, to the workout in an effort to draw more folks.

A lot of people have asked us about the training manual. Of course, it's several hundred pages, so far, with probably another 100 or so to go.  Here are some screen shots of the first few pages of the Women's Health Module.

Nit-Picking

It's Steve again. We learned that parents in Sagitun, a nearby village, were alarmed about head lice among the school children. It was my privilege to work with the response by teachers, parents, and Ministry of Health. My work partner from HECOPAB (Health Education and Community Participation Bureau) and I got a ride to the village with a public health inspector who was collecting water samples in the region. We were packing three cases of shampoo bottles laced with 1% permethrin as well as a ten-minute slide show on lice infestation.

I gave the presentation starting with Infant I (kindergarten) class. It was more pictures than science, and I walked through the rows of desks showing the laptop picture to each student as I spoke. The teacher (who is an angel) repeated the message with each slide, and then she lined them up and led them to the playground for the “activity part”.

The treatment plan was a shampoo, then a ten-minute wait with lather in the scalp, followed by clean-water rinse and fine-tooth combing to remove more eggs attached to the hair. Repeat treatment after 3 days is recommended.

At first, the three of us worked on each child. Several mothers were recruited by texting, and they brought towels, buckets, and more fine-tooth combs. While I moved on to address Infant 2 class, the assembly line kicked into high gear, and in less than four hours, we had taught and shampooed over 100 students.

We left two cases of shampoo for a follow-up treatments.