¡Hasta Pronto!

Hi Everyone,
So I just finished my formal classes and am getting ready to go to a small rural town called Torotoro on Saturday for 3 weeks. I´m going to be interviewing people there about their experiences and perceptions of the public health system and the traditional medicine practictioners. It´s one of the first ones to implement a new more culturally sensitive model- the doctors actually speak quechua, women can give birth with their clothes on and kneeling on the floor (and they let them practice a lot of other traditional customs), and they´re trying to get doctors and traditional healers to coordinate their work. I´m nervous but really excited to get started. I´ve been working my butt off all week getting ready with the help of my super cool advisor- a public health MD that´s been working on this new model for the last 10 years.

I don´t think there´s internet in Torotoro, so I probably won´t write for a while, but I´ll be thinking of you and excited to tell you all about it when I get back!
Chau!
Kirsten

A Week in the Campo

I recently spent a week living with a family in the rural community of Tolapampa about 2 hours away from Cochabamba. It was a really amazing and totally different experience and I loved my host family. Here are some pictures from the week:Me and my host mom Casilda and her baby Magali (to my right), and aunt Felizia and baby Marilise (to my left) near their house.With Ariel (6) and Marilise (2). Sooo cute!! We spent hours playing with the hacky sack I brought them and hearding sheep and eating apples out of trees. Marilise was the funniest kid-she always talked to me in Quechua even though she understood Spanish when I spoke to her. She also always wanted to drink out of my water bottle because its neon yellow color made her think it was soda or something.
Marilise herding sheep- so beautiful!
Ariel playing by the river. To get to their house, I crossed the river with my host mom and dad on either arm to keep me from fallin over. It was really fun!
Adela and Marilise Casilda and Diogenes´ house
Ariel before he left for the week to stay with relatives in a nearby town to go to school. At the school in Tolopampa they only teach in Quechua, so that´s why they send him to Punata.
Casilda and Ariel by the river.

Casilda and Diogenes plowing the soil to plant potatoes. It was really cool to see the way they shared the agricultural work.
A break from hoeing potatoes!
With Casilda, Magali, and Diogenes before we said goodbye.
I´ll try to write more soon!

Love,

Kirsten