the checky-inny table
Friday, February 06, 2009
flight plans
I'm catching a plane this evening. The students and I will spend the night in the Chicago aiport tonight and meet up with the doctors. Then we'll all hop on a TACA flight in the wee small hours of the mornin', and arrive in Guatemala tomorrow.
I'm flying back to KC overnight Saturday the 14th, and I'll get here on Sunday.
I'm flying back to KC overnight Saturday the 14th, and I'll get here on Sunday.
Third Annual Big WK Trip
It's in the 60s in KC today. A taste here of what I'll get there within the next 20 hours. I will try to blog about this event whenever I get a chance. If you'd like to make a comment to let me know you're reading along, it may inspire me to write even more.
Much of this year's trip to Guatemala will be similar to last year's, which you can read about in my previous entries and on the Wuqu' Kawoq blog. Dr. Mike Hill, the pediatrician, and Dr. Melinda Dabrowski, the gynecologist/obstetrician are both returning with us this year. I will be a primary Kaqchikel/English translator again for the doctors. (I was mostly paired with Melinda last year. This year I'll be with Mike.)
The locations are the same as last year too. We spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday working in Comalapa at the ACOTCHI clinic with the midwives. We do the same thing at Tecpan's midwife center on Thursday and Friday.
A few notable differences this year:
--We add Dr. Melvin to the team, also from Illinois, and his daughter.
--My friend Ana who lives in Lawrence, KS joins the team as a primary Kaqchikel/English translator. I first met her husband Pedro Mateo in the linguistics dept at KU. Ana is from Patzun. That's not far from Tecpan and Comalapa (the two main sites of our clinics), so she'll be able to go home at night and visit with her family and friends. It is common to find people in our circles who can do either Spanish/English or Kaqchikel/Spanish translating. It is extremely rare for us to find people to do Kaqchikel/English work. So we are so grateful that Ana is donating a week of her time and hard work this year to do that with Wuqu' Kawoq.
--Speaking of primary Kaqchikel/English translators, WK board member Robert Henderson will also be one. I'm so excited about this. Last year I was more or less on my own. This year I hope to learn a lot from Robert and Ana about better ways to express medical concepts. Prepare to have your brains picked every evening, you two.
--Because we have three translators for the doctors, A. we got to add another doctor to the team (Dr. Melvin), and B. Peter gets freed up to float between the exam rooms to give advice on available medicines, common local diseases, and to arrange followup care and further diagnostics. He was completely swamped last year, having to do everything I just mentioned plus straight-up translating for one doctor for 9 hours a day.
--This year I am taking two of my KU Kaqchikel students with me: Jenny and Miranda. Miranda is in my level 2 class, and Jenny is in level 3. Neither has been to Guatemala before; I'm excited for them to get to practice their Kaqchikel with lots of people who speak it natively. They'll be helping out greatly with some of the logistics flow of the clinic, along with triage duties (checking people in, weighing kids and mapping their growth charts, taking temps, running the pharmacy.)
--Lastly, Cat (photo-journalist) and Hannah Rohloff will not be returning this year. Hannah had open-heart surgery yesterday. It seems she is recovering well. We all look forward to the return of her stellar labwork and nightly pirate jokes in the 2010 trip.
Much of this year's trip to Guatemala will be similar to last year's, which you can read about in my previous entries and on the Wuqu' Kawoq blog. Dr. Mike Hill, the pediatrician, and Dr. Melinda Dabrowski, the gynecologist/obstetrician are both returning with us this year. I will be a primary Kaqchikel/English translator again for the doctors. (I was mostly paired with Melinda last year. This year I'll be with Mike.)
The locations are the same as last year too. We spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday working in Comalapa at the ACOTCHI clinic with the midwives. We do the same thing at Tecpan's midwife center on Thursday and Friday.
A few notable differences this year:
--We add Dr. Melvin to the team, also from Illinois, and his daughter.
--My friend Ana who lives in Lawrence, KS joins the team as a primary Kaqchikel/English translator. I first met her husband Pedro Mateo in the linguistics dept at KU. Ana is from Patzun. That's not far from Tecpan and Comalapa (the two main sites of our clinics), so she'll be able to go home at night and visit with her family and friends. It is common to find people in our circles who can do either Spanish/English or Kaqchikel/Spanish translating. It is extremely rare for us to find people to do Kaqchikel/English work. So we are so grateful that Ana is donating a week of her time and hard work this year to do that with Wuqu' Kawoq.
--Speaking of primary Kaqchikel/English translators, WK board member Robert Henderson will also be one. I'm so excited about this. Last year I was more or less on my own. This year I hope to learn a lot from Robert and Ana about better ways to express medical concepts. Prepare to have your brains picked every evening, you two.
--Because we have three translators for the doctors, A. we got to add another doctor to the team (Dr. Melvin), and B. Peter gets freed up to float between the exam rooms to give advice on available medicines, common local diseases, and to arrange followup care and further diagnostics. He was completely swamped last year, having to do everything I just mentioned plus straight-up translating for one doctor for 9 hours a day.
--This year I am taking two of my KU Kaqchikel students with me: Jenny and Miranda. Miranda is in my level 2 class, and Jenny is in level 3. Neither has been to Guatemala before; I'm excited for them to get to practice their Kaqchikel with lots of people who speak it natively. They'll be helping out greatly with some of the logistics flow of the clinic, along with triage duties (checking people in, weighing kids and mapping their growth charts, taking temps, running the pharmacy.)
--Lastly, Cat (photo-journalist) and Hannah Rohloff will not be returning this year. Hannah had open-heart surgery yesterday. It seems she is recovering well. We all look forward to the return of her stellar labwork and nightly pirate jokes in the 2010 trip.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Brief Update
Hi everybody,
I had hoped to have more internet access and time, but the days are packed from early in the morning til late at night. Sunday we did house calls all day in Santiago Sacatepequez. That wasn't nearly as challenging though as our major project for the week, which is the clinics.
Sunday night we grabbed a bite to eat at the Bagel Barn and hopped on the shuttle to Comalapa, a little over an hour away. That night Hannah and Peter and I got to stay with Magda (Ixkamey) and her family. It was wonderful to see her and her siblings, and her folks. You might remember all the stories of the time Peter and I lived there over a year ago. The girls were wearing the stocking hats I made them.
Yesterday and today I worked for about 18 hours total as a translator for the two doctors we brought to a clinic in Comalapa. The clinic is housed in the ACOTCHI building. (ACOTCHI is the midwife cooperative we work with.)
Tomorrow morning we'll get up at 6 and start in again. Then as soon as the clinic is finished we will get on a bus to Tecpan, where we will do a clinic at another ACOTCHI location Thursday and Friday.
The work is invigorating and exciting, and a bit of a mental marathon.
Peter works as the translator for the pediatrician, Mike.
I work as the translator for the OBGYN, Melinda.
They are both amazing doctors from Illinois. I am learning a ton about women's health issues.
Most of the patients over 30 or so years old do not know much of any Spanish, so it's necessary to conduct the entire consultation in Kaqchikel. (Some of the younger women are better at Spanish than Kaqchikel, so I do everything in Spanish for them.)
Melinda does not know any Spanish or Kaqchikel, just English. All the patient notes have to be written in Spanish (for subsequent doctors'use). This is why it's a mental marathon.
An example of a consultation is a 44yrold women coming in for her first prenatal visit of this pregnancy. I introduce myself in Kaqchikel as only the translator, not the doctor, and introduce Melinda. I ask her what the problem is. I listen to her talk quite a bit in Kaqchikel, write it down in Spanish, ask more questions in Kaqchikel, tell Melinda everything in English, ask more questions, etc. And my mind does a lot of swirling.
But mostly I have stayed on top of everything, and I can't understand how I'm saying all the things I'm saying. Things I did´n't know I knew how to say. I talk nearly constantly for hours. I am using more words in one day than I've used this whole past month. Maybe that's partly why I'm tired.
Got to go, but I'll try to update tomorrow. I got to work with Mike for a couple of hours today too and got to see a few children with scabies.
I had hoped to have more internet access and time, but the days are packed from early in the morning til late at night. Sunday we did house calls all day in Santiago Sacatepequez. That wasn't nearly as challenging though as our major project for the week, which is the clinics.
Sunday night we grabbed a bite to eat at the Bagel Barn and hopped on the shuttle to Comalapa, a little over an hour away. That night Hannah and Peter and I got to stay with Magda (Ixkamey) and her family. It was wonderful to see her and her siblings, and her folks. You might remember all the stories of the time Peter and I lived there over a year ago. The girls were wearing the stocking hats I made them.
Yesterday and today I worked for about 18 hours total as a translator for the two doctors we brought to a clinic in Comalapa. The clinic is housed in the ACOTCHI building. (ACOTCHI is the midwife cooperative we work with.)
Tomorrow morning we'll get up at 6 and start in again. Then as soon as the clinic is finished we will get on a bus to Tecpan, where we will do a clinic at another ACOTCHI location Thursday and Friday.
The work is invigorating and exciting, and a bit of a mental marathon.
Peter works as the translator for the pediatrician, Mike.
I work as the translator for the OBGYN, Melinda.
They are both amazing doctors from Illinois. I am learning a ton about women's health issues.
Most of the patients over 30 or so years old do not know much of any Spanish, so it's necessary to conduct the entire consultation in Kaqchikel. (Some of the younger women are better at Spanish than Kaqchikel, so I do everything in Spanish for them.)
Melinda does not know any Spanish or Kaqchikel, just English. All the patient notes have to be written in Spanish (for subsequent doctors'use). This is why it's a mental marathon.
An example of a consultation is a 44yrold women coming in for her first prenatal visit of this pregnancy. I introduce myself in Kaqchikel as only the translator, not the doctor, and introduce Melinda. I ask her what the problem is. I listen to her talk quite a bit in Kaqchikel, write it down in Spanish, ask more questions in Kaqchikel, tell Melinda everything in English, ask more questions, etc. And my mind does a lot of swirling.
But mostly I have stayed on top of everything, and I can't understand how I'm saying all the things I'm saying. Things I did´n't know I knew how to say. I talk nearly constantly for hours. I am using more words in one day than I've used this whole past month. Maybe that's partly why I'm tired.
Got to go, but I'll try to update tomorrow. I got to work with Mike for a couple of hours today too and got to see a few children with scabies.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Hannah and I stayed with Brian Longfellow and Sarah Castelletto last night in Chicago. Thanks guys for letting us crash at your place! We got up at 4, returned the rental car, and caught the plane to Guate. At the airport we met up with Cat, my friend who is studying photojournalism and will be documenting our trip, and Peter.
Then we grabbed a shuttle to Antigua, joined the group of folks who have all gathered at A Place to Stay hotel in the last 24 hours.
Russell Rohloff (Peter and Hannah's Dad. He will be supervising the Engineers without Borders group that is here to do the water project near Socorro.)
The Engineers without Borders group here from UIUC
Pat and Olga, representatives from The Rotary Club
Three doctors from Illinois, including an obstetrician and a pediatrician
We zipped over to the market before closing time and trapsed all over buying up medicinal plants for the week (rue, chamomile, eucalyptus, etc) and supplies for the Mayan blessing ceremony we're taking part in tonight.
In a minute we're collecting ourselves at some great eating establishment that serves avocadobased food items so we can have our planning meeting. Then it's off to Santiago Sacatepequez for the ceremony.
I will try to update here as often as possible this week.
Then we grabbed a shuttle to Antigua, joined the group of folks who have all gathered at A Place to Stay hotel in the last 24 hours.
Russell Rohloff (Peter and Hannah's Dad. He will be supervising the Engineers without Borders group that is here to do the water project near Socorro.)
The Engineers without Borders group here from UIUC
Pat and Olga, representatives from The Rotary Club
Three doctors from Illinois, including an obstetrician and a pediatrician
We zipped over to the market before closing time and trapsed all over buying up medicinal plants for the week (rue, chamomile, eucalyptus, etc) and supplies for the Mayan blessing ceremony we're taking part in tonight.
In a minute we're collecting ourselves at some great eating establishment that serves avocadobased food items so we can have our planning meeting. Then it's off to Santiago Sacatepequez for the ceremony.
I will try to update here as often as possible this week.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Great News!
Here's a recent message from Peter. You can stay up to date on all the Wuqu' Kawoq happenings by visiting our website. We frequently write new blog posts, like the following:
Wuqu' Kawoq has just received word that its grant application entitled Training of indigenous Kaqchikel-speaking midwives in Guatemala has just been funded at a level of nearly $10,000 by the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation. This grant will provides support for our training programs in San Juan Comalapa and Tecpán working with the Associación de Comadronas Tradicionales de Chimaltenango. This training program is unique in two ways: First, all training is conducted in the native language, Kaqchikel, of the participants themselves. Second, an integrated and sophisticated data collection and evaluative component is built into the program. We thank the CFH foundation for its support, which will go a long way toward developing culturally appropriate, community-based health education efforts in the region.
Wuqu' Kawoq has just received word that its grant application entitled Training of indigenous Kaqchikel-speaking midwives in Guatemala has just been funded at a level of nearly $10,000 by the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation. This grant will provides support for our training programs in San Juan Comalapa and Tecpán working with the Associación de Comadronas Tradicionales de Chimaltenango. This training program is unique in two ways: First, all training is conducted in the native language, Kaqchikel, of the participants themselves. Second, an integrated and sophisticated data collection and evaluative component is built into the program. We thank the CFH foundation for its support, which will go a long way toward developing culturally appropriate, community-based health education efforts in the region.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Letter from Peter about the new website
Dear friends,
As most of you know, I have been involved for some time in indigenous rights and medical aid work in the Kaqchikel-speaking regions of Guatemala.
I am just writing to let you know that our organization has a brand-new website which details much of the work we are doing. Much content still needs to be added, but you can still read about some of our projects, view photographs, download a brochure, and the like. Please take a moment to visit the website here:
www.wuqukawoq.org
We are a small organization, and we are always looking for help! Ways you can help:
(1) Click on this link once a day for several weeks, or post the link to your blog, facebook, or myspace page. This will help us to increase our Google visibility.
(2) Pass this link or other information along to friends and acquaintances.
(3) Invite us to come give a talk to a group you are involved with.
(4) Donate time or expertise. We have opportunities for physicians, midwives and medical students to provide medical care and midwife training classes. We also are in need of engineers to become involved in some of our water development projects. Linguists, activists, and persons with experience in publishing or fundraising are also needed.
(5) Donate money. There is a link on our website which has information about how to donate. You can make a general contribution, and there are also specific giving opportunities.
Specifically, we are soliciting for donations in the following areas: (1) funds to purchase training manuals for midwives and other indigenous providers; (2) funds to purchase basic medical equipment for an indigenous medical cooperative (for example, machines to check blood sugar and hemoglobin levels in pregnant women); (3) funds for publishing projects (we are publishing Kaqchikel- and Spanish-language medical self-help books); (4) and funds to purchase lands and water rights for community and water development projects.
Please contact me at rohloff@uiuc.edu or wuqu.kawoq@gmail.com for more information or to ask questions.
---------------------------------
Peter Rohloff, RN PhD
Executive Director, Wuqu' Kawoq S.A.
Fellow, Medical Scholars Program, UIUC
cel (Guatemala) 52435550/58291985
raxqij.blogspot.com
"strengthening Mayan language and medicine"
As most of you know, I have been involved for some time in indigenous rights and medical aid work in the Kaqchikel-speaking regions of Guatemala.
I am just writing to let you know that our organization has a brand-new website which details much of the work we are doing. Much content still needs to be added, but you can still read about some of our projects, view photographs, download a brochure, and the like. Please take a moment to visit the website here:
www.wuqukawoq.org
We are a small organization, and we are always looking for help! Ways you can help:
(1) Click on this link once a day for several weeks, or post the link to your blog, facebook, or myspace page. This will help us to increase our Google visibility.
(2) Pass this link or other information along to friends and acquaintances.
(3) Invite us to come give a talk to a group you are involved with.
(4) Donate time or expertise. We have opportunities for physicians, midwives and medical students to provide medical care and midwife training classes. We also are in need of engineers to become involved in some of our water development projects. Linguists, activists, and persons with experience in publishing or fundraising are also needed.
(5) Donate money. There is a link on our website which has information about how to donate. You can make a general contribution, and there are also specific giving opportunities.
Specifically, we are soliciting for donations in the following areas: (1) funds to purchase training manuals for midwives and other indigenous providers; (2) funds to purchase basic medical equipment for an indigenous medical cooperative (for example, machines to check blood sugar and hemoglobin levels in pregnant women); (3) funds for publishing projects (we are publishing Kaqchikel- and Spanish-language medical self-help books); (4) and funds to purchase lands and water rights for community and water development projects.
Please contact me at rohloff@uiuc.edu or wuqu.kawoq@gmail.com for more information or to ask questions.
---------------------------------
Peter Rohloff, RN PhD
Executive Director, Wuqu' Kawoq S.A.
Fellow, Medical Scholars Program, UIUC
cel (Guatemala) 52435550/58291985
raxqij.blogspot.com
"strengthening Mayan language and medicine"
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
report from the benefit event
On Sunday, June 17th, Vicki and I hosted a house concert in her home--our first of many fundraisers for the nonprofit organization I work with, Wuqu' Kawoq. We had advertised on KKFI, Kansas City's community radio station, and had passed out fliers all over the neighborhood and hung posters in Westport (posters like the rad one in the previous post.) About 40 people came. It was a magical evening.
I gathered together a band to open and close the night. It has become affectionately known as The Emily Tummons Peace Love and Harmony Band. We don't have any plans to perform outside of this summer house concert series. But who knows.
Brian Longfellow: guitar, harmonica, singing
Beth Tummons: ukulele, singing
Bobette Goetz: fiddle, singing
Nick Baker: percussion, singing
Michaela Meckel: banjo, fiddle
Emily Tummons: mandolin, singing
We played If I Needed You, I Told Them All About You, and Yellow Is the Color of My True Love's Hair to start the night off. Then we invited Desmond Poirier up. He is the lead singer of the Rivercity Revelators. It was a rare treat to get to hear him perform a handful of his songs acoustically. My favorite was Nothing's Ever Easy in Rhode Island.
We came to the halfway point of the evening, so I went up to talk about Wuqu' Kawoq. I pointed out the brochures we had printed up (which are AWESOME--thank you Anne, Rachel, and Peter), and directed people's attention to the donation station.
At that table were about 50 copies of a recording Nick Baker and I made especially for the event--the song, This Is My Maker's World. We had made it available for free to anyone who made a donation of any amount. Thanks to Mike and Jeremy for helping make the CD sleeves with the WK logo and info, and duplicating it.
I taught everyone how to say Thank You in Kaqchikel (matyox), and the sound of 40 people saying "matyox" enthusiastically back to me almost brought tears to my eyes. Then I talked for about 10 minutes about my experience in the highlands of Guatemala, how I met Peter and got to help out in the medical clinics he had started up. I explained why we started Wuqu' Kawoq (a little background on the awfulness of Guatemalan government health care and history of oppression of indigenous people) and described a few of the projects we are involved with.
Then I sang the song Angel Band with my sister Beth, and sang part of the song in Kaqchikel, so everyone could hear how the language sounded in music.
Then we invited Joel Kraft up to the front, our next local musician donating his time for the evening. He sang 4 or 5 songs, and I got to sing harmony with him.
Last on the bill was the ET PLH Band reprise. To close the night we sang Little Boxes, Puff the Magic Dragon, Day Is Done, and I'll Fly Away.
Thanks to everyone who helped make the night a success. We raised $104. I'm looking forward to the next one.
New Blog
I want to devote this blog's content to my Guatemala/linguistics experiences. So I'm starting a new blog (under the same profile) where I can make posts about everything else.
That's here: http://www.calamitybird.blogspot.com/
So I removed a bunch of superfluous posts, leaving just the ones regarding my Guatemalan cohorts.
That's here: http://www.calamitybird.blogspot.com/
So I removed a bunch of superfluous posts, leaving just the ones regarding my Guatemalan cohorts.
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