My favorite thing about this whole experience has been the interaction with the women we interview. The women are always so gracious as they set up the few chairs that they have for us and welcome us into their homes. They are generally very open with us, which makes our work easier, and they are patient when we get tongue-tied in Spanish. We bring crayons and jumpropes with us to each house and sometimes we get to play with (i.e. distract) the kids while interviews are being conducted. Most of the houses we visit have 2 or 3 rooms, corrugated metal or ceramic tile roofs, dirt floors and many children. Some villages have houses close together, while others are more remote with houses a significant walk/hike away. Many are set in beautiful surroundings with cloud-topped mountains and vibrant green fields. As is to be expected during the rainy season, there is a TON of mud. We are well-equipped with tall rubber boots, quick-dry pants and the understanding that we will return home muddy almost every day.

On Friday we went to Montoya, a small village of about 20 houses, set in the lush green hills about 45 minutes outside of El Sauce. We split up in groups and spent the day walking far and wide to reach each house in the area. My group met back up with another group that was accompanied by a woman who was leading them around to the remote houses. The woman told me that she was a ´brigadista´ and that she was passing out flyers at each of the houses for a local health promotion initiative. Brigadistas recieve technical training in order to provide basic health care and medicine to mothers and children remote communities. The main function of brigadistas is to find and treat the most common infectious diseases in their communities, with the broader goal of saving the lives of children under 5. This program allows mothers and children to access basic services such as vaccination, treatment for diarrhea, and family planning methods without having to make the difficult trek to the nearest health post. Brigadistas mainly work from a ´Casa Base´ where locals can go to benefit from their services, but they also do some outreach and educational work in the communities. One of our teams had passed by the brigadista´s house earlier in the day and was told that the eligible woman was not at home. Luckily for us, she was happy to do the interview with me while walking us back the truck at the end of the day - a true field survey. It was a great ending to a long day, and we looked forward to our well-deserved weekend trip to Matagalpa.