A rare day in Patzcuaro

Major news- it didn't rain today! We had clear skies all day AND all night! Which made beautiful weather for going out with Veronica, an outreach worker at the organization. We took the combi to the pueblo of Santa Anna which was about a twenty minute ride. Santa Anna is a mestizo community that is situated very close to where I live on the mountain because it is in the valley below, but it takes a while to get there by bus. When I asked Veronica what the pueblo was famous for (because many towns around the lake have a handicraft that they are famous for) she said- fiestas! Which, I guess is also very important. Veronica and I were conducting a survey about nursing practices and inviting the nurses to attend an information session about the enfermera parterra (nurse midwife) session that our organization is holding in July. Once we got to the town Veronica asked a person where all the nurses lived and we plotted our journey from there- it was very grass roots. One nurse wasn't home, so we waited outside her house for twenty minutes hoping she would return (which she didn't). This house didn't have a doorbell and there was a gate that was removed from the property, so Veronica yelled "Senora, Senora" until the neighbor yelled at us and said "La senora no esta aqui", so then we waited.
We also visited the "Imms/Opportunidades" clinic which is a health care system set up by the Mexican government to manage health care for rural areas. Theses clinics are free if you live in the area the clinic serves. While not very large or impressive it serves a population that would normally have to travel to Patzcuaro to receive primary care- which is a good thing.
After my hike back home, my housemates and I made "stir fry" which was just kind of veggies, beef, rice, and an egg because we didn't actually have any spices. It was pretty tasty and we washed it down with Mango Smoothies because are mangoes were getting a little mushy and needed to be used. We enjoyed our meal on our patio to see the non-rainy sunset.
We are all celebrating the lack of rain today. If this keeps up I may even return home with a tan (or..er.. burn)! We are crediting the sun to the new intern Jessie who flew in from Chicago yesterday and brought the heatwave with her. Jessie is a little older than us and is living with Richard and Brenda for the summer. She just graduated nursing school and is going to train to be a nurse midwife. She is really the only intern who actually has practical skills so far to work in the clinic. She is very friendly and was a Spanish major, so she is great addition to our group.

Hasta luego!