Solstice and Pesticide Safety Course

Hello everyone!

Monday after the football game began with a drive out to Zona Gran Poder in La Paz. On a previous visit the week before, pesticide sellers had requested us to return to take some blood samples and to do interviews with them. They had agreed to get together the sellers on their street, so we showed up at 8:00am, before they opened their stores, to set up our heater (so the equipment would work) and interviewed 9 people. They were very concerned about their pesticide exposure levels and it was clear from their interview responses that they were not very knowledgeable about the dangers (i.e. “yes I do believe pesticides can harm me” but “no I do not know how.” Most of them never wear any protective equipment. We told them about our pesticide safety course the following week.

Daniela taking sample from a seller

I spent the rest of my week preparing for the course for pesticide sellers. I made hundreds of copies of various forms (survey for sellers, informed consent for sellers, photo consent for sellers, results form, survey for controls, informed consent for controls, you get the idea….). What may not be conveyed in the former sentence is what was involved to achieve this.

Making some of these copies entailed paying for computer access to print, only to find out that the main such place was running out of toner so that best copy I could get involved having stripes down my paper. Not very professional. Then, after I informed them I needed 8 copies, they let me know that they only had 2 sheets of paper left. WHAT? You are the print place, where is your paper??? So I had to pay for the time I had used on the computer, lug my new heater (yes my other one had broken already), my huge-heavy-metal-fortified backpack, and my 25 pounds (I really don’t think I am exaggerating) of fruit and veggies I had just gotten from the market (OK so I got a good deal on a huge bag of carrots) across the street (major feat in and of itself) to another print place, lug it all up a spiral staircase without railings to get to a computer because apparently none was available downstairs, and get flashed by porn on the public computer just to have the guy in charge tell me “oh you have a flash drive, you can print downstairs!” Argh, I had asked if I could print downstairs and he told me no. So I lugged all my stuff back down the treacherous steps but at least this place had toner and paper. Not bad for a print shop after all. Lest you think printing and making copies were an easy task.

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I just came back from the course and it was a great success! We offered a free training for pesticide sellers in pesticide safety while, at the same time, offering them the option to participate in the study. This was totally voluntary (obviously) and most people chose to participate. I haven’t tallied up the surveys yet but I believe we got close to 30 people! This means I have almost met my goal of 40 exposed samples! ☺ The day started at 8:30 am and ended with lunch at 1:00pm. Plagbol did a great job leading the training in a very participatory fashion and one man even requested we visit his store later in the week to interview his wife.

Participants in a group discussion

Me processing samples

Full house!

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SOLSTICE
On June 21 we celebrated the Aymara New Year and the winter (winter here at least) solstice. It was an incredible experience but I am too tired to give all the fun details. Here are some photos to give you an idea:
Me putting on my new leg warmers. It got down to 15 degrees. We left La Paz at 10:00pm and got worried when everyone was getting on to the bus with sleeping bags and blankets.

Marco and me (after donning all my warm layers plus a new blanket). Ready for the cold (or so we thought). We were outside from 12:30am until 11:00am the next morning and it was freezing!

At 4:00am we lined up to enter the Tiwanaku ruins, where people have been celebrating the new year for centuries. There is an old ruin, la puerta del sol, through which the sun shines on June 21. The path leading us to the spot was lined with small pots of fire. We knew we were about to witness something cool.

President Evo Morales made a surprise visit! When we were all huddled up waiting for the sun to rise and it started to get light, all of a sudden a helicopter came flying in directly in the line of the sun. All of a sudden everyone started shouting "Evo! Evo!" It was incredible. Evo is Aymara and he was amongst strong supporters as we celebrated the new year together.

Aymara priests

When the sun finally broke over the mountain, tens of thousands of hands rose to greet the new year. Pan pipes were played and people began signing in Aymara.

Beautiful scenery as people were leaving the celebration. My first time out of La Paz!

Kim (with eyes closed, of course) and Holly in front of the Aymara flag.

All in all, it was an incredible experience and a wonderful way to celebrate the solstice. I got home at 12:30pm the next day and crashed into bed.