I Learned a Lesson in Mexico
1957; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 57; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3461264
ISSN1538-7488
Autores Tópico(s)Public Health Policies and Education
ResumoIN the first light of morning our truck rattled along the gravel road, stones as big as cantaloupes beating a tattoo against it. I craned my neck to take in every aspect of the unfamiliar landscape. A gray mist veiling the tobacco fields partially obscured the distant hills. Now and then, a blanket-wrapped figure on horseback loomed up out of the mist with only his eyes showing under a widebrimmed sombrero. This was very different from a trip to my former office with the Health Department in New York City. Scarcely a month before, I had not even heard of the state of Nayarit in Mexico, let alone a village called Paredones, which we were now approaching. But I had heard that the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, was looking for volunteers to assist in a Mexican pilot project. The program was government-sponsored and set up according to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization policies. Its aim was to give technical assistance and basic educational guidance, and public health nursing was inherent in it. Here was an educational experience not to be missed. After working in a big city health department, I thought, it would be fascinating to observe a small-scale public health program in another country. I filed applications with the American Friends Service Committee to serve for a period of four months as a public health nurse. And here I was on my way to where the project was underway.
Referência(s)