Lake Atitlan

I found out recently that Bryan Bennett, a BYU student, went to Lake Atitlan and gathered research for a project Jason Fairbourne was conducting. Jason Fairbourne is the founder of the Microfranchise Initiative and does extensive microfranchise work. Bryan told me about Lake Atitlan after I watched the Pueblo a Pueblo documentary and posted what I learned last week. His research, combined with those who went with him, will be invaluable as I continue to study the recent history of health care in Maya Guatemala. I will keep you all posted as to what he shares with me. Thanks.

My website!

Although I haven't thought a whole lot about my website, I'm excited to make it. I want it to represent the Mayans well and their history. The podcast will go on it, more pictures to illustrate Mayans living in Guatemala. I will let you know more.

As far as learning about Guatemala's health care history, I watched a short documentary on what is called the "Hospitalito", or the hospital that Pueblo a Pueblo put up some years ago by Lake Atitlan. It offered surgical procedures, immunizations, and many other essential services. Unfortunately, this hospital was destroyed in 2005 due to a mudslide that destroyed many homes as well. It has in the more recent past made plans to move into a permanent location again. If you're interested in what they do, their website is http://puebloapueblo.org.

Many Mayans live next to Lake Atitlan, and there are many dialects there. I watched a short video in one of the Maya dialects that showed how to use an inhaler. I thought this was a neat thing, because it allowed the patients to know what to do outside of the clinic--it made them more self-reliant. I will continue to research this.

Planned sources of additional data for this blog

Currently I am working on finding more information for this blog. Some of the planned resources include:
1. The first floor of the BYU Harold B. Lee Library in the Social Science section where the Maya Guatemala books are.
2. A nurse in Momostenango, Guatemala that could give me so more perspective and information.
3. Professor Christianson, who teaches at BYU.
4. Adriana Smith, a BYU alumnus who knows about Antigua, Guatemala.
5. Choice Humanitarian, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah that works directly with certain Maya groups and is planning on building a hospital in Guatemala.
6. More dialogue with Doug Wendt, who has been to Guatemala multiple times.
Etc.

My quest to find Guatemalan historical information

For my Excel assignment, I really struggled to find great measurable statistics for infant mortality or other health related information in censuses and in other primary records. Eventually I found a great study comparing infant mortality rates from the 1940s and the 1980s. Guatemala's rate was also listed in comparison to a handful of other nations. The link is http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/529000. Click the pdf version at the top, and scroll down to page 55. Only one person can view this article at a time. I hope you find this interesting.
--Travis

Advice from Sister Crandell about the Excel/Access Assignments

For all those in Sister Crandell's class and for personal reference, I wanted to include her advice to me yesterday as to how to go about gathering statistical data. My topic requires extra research, but fortunately Sister Crandell and I found provincial records in Guatemala in the 1800's, so I will for the purposes of this assignment look at age as a determinant of health. I am going to compare rural cities adjoining each other to have a good sample to work from, which requires a map. Also, I will put additional demographic information such as occupation, marriage, and location (city) into access so I can query across these different demographic factors.

I hope this helps those struggling with these assignments. Go talk to her like I did; she was very helpful.

Check out my new podcast!

I added this podcast to my blog. It will help anyone understand how to research a topic. The material was taken from an interview with my aunt, Suzie Roper, who teaches a Research Methods class at BYU Provo. Enjoy!

Discussions with Elisabeth, Professor Botto, and Doug Wendt

I wanted to post some of the things some amazing people have told me about health in and background about Maya Guatemala.
The first involves an interview with Elisabeth Hess, a BYU student who went to Guatemala and took excursions to the Maya villages of K'iche descent. She told me the biggest problems they have faced are job security and food security; in other words, it is quite difficult to save anything for the family.
She said that diarrhea was a huge problem because the water is not sanitary in certain areas. Also, the teeth of even the children are rotting. The men work in the cities, leaving the women in rural areas behind for periods of time. There are twenty three national languages there, and there are many market days. Unfortunately, during rainy season the roads become really muddy, making travel to governmental clinics very difficult.
Lastly, she said that despite their struggles, they are incredibly hard-working.
Next, I talked with Malcolm Botto, a head professor over the Kennedy Center at BYU. He has been to Guatemala among the Mayans and told me he did know of a nurse that works there who can tell me more about Maya health care history. He told me the health care situation in Momostenango is not good and should be investigated.
Finally, I chatted with Doug Wendt, the winner of BYU's 2009 Social Venture Competition called the Tipping Bucket. He also has been to Guatemala among the Mayans and loved the idea of health clinics where they are needed and pointed me to organizations who can help me research more.

This was a long post, but it is well worth the time to research this. I am excited to present more research coming very shortly. Thanks.